BDD Coaching Sessions
What Can You Expect from BDD Coaching Sessions?
Dr. Eva will provide you with hope that recovery from BDD is possible and help so that you can overcome your BDD symptoms.
Here is a list of activities that may take place during one-on-one and small group coaching sessions. All coaching sessions are tailored to each person’s individual BDD challenges and goals for recovery.
- Your personal experiences with BDD: Dr. Eva will ask about your personal struggles with BDD, including obsessive thoughts, negative feelings, and compulsive behaviors related to your appearance.
- Getting therapy for BDD and related disorders: Do you have other mental health conditions such as OCD, depression, eating disorders, or social anxiety, in addition to BDD? Getting help from a trauma therapist or other treatment professionals for these disorders may be recommended to supplement BDD coaching.
- Social and family experiences: Dr. Eva may ask about your previous experiences with childhood bullying, teasing, abuse, your family’s focus on appearance, and societal messages about beauty and physical appearance.
- Education about possible causes for BDD symptoms: Dr. Eva will provide information about possible causes for BDD. BDD may result from a distortion in the way a person’s brain processes visual information, along with genetics, individual personality traits, and environmental factors.
- Understand how BDD has impacted your life: Clients are asked to list the ways in which your focus on appearance has negatively impacted your life. People with BDD usually have a lower quality of life than individuals with other chronic medical and psychiatric conditions.
- Visualize your life without BDD: Clients are asked to imagine life without BDD and to make a list of what would be different after overcoming BDD symptoms.
- Make a list of your long-term and short-term goals: Clients are asked to identify a major life goal and smaller goals that would help them to reach that goal. Clients can then develop plans to accomplish the smaller or reachable goals during BDD coaching sessions.
- Complete a pro/con list of getting well: Clients can develop a list of the pros and cons of getting well. What potential setbacks might you face and how could you overcome them?
- No reassurance about perceived appearance flaws: Individuals with BDD may seek reassurance from others that they look okay. You may discuss and share your appearance concerns during coaching sessions without seeking reassurance.
- Willingness to discuss cosmetic surgery: Some individuals with BDD think about or seek cosmetic and dermatological procedures frequently. Dr. Eva is open to discussing these thoughts and compulsive behaviors. Discussing your desire for cosmetic surgery does not mean she is condoning getting any procedures.
Please contact Dr. Eva with any additional questions or set up a free initial coaching call to discuss how BDD coaching can help you cope with and overcome your BDD symptoms.
I look forward to helping you defeat your BDD bully! Sincerely, Dr. Eva