This presentation will give a brief overview of the core features of compassion, how it is rooted in a particular evolved system with psychophysiological properties that are very useful for helping us with mental health difficulties. We will contrast that with the processes of harsh forms of self-criticism. A brief outline of some of the practises will be offered, and then depending upon volunteers from the audience, there will be a demonstration of how to bring compassion to one’s self-criticism. This will unfold in a series of stages. First we will begin to generate some concepts of a compassionate self. Then we will invite volunteers to explore the nature of their self critical process, and in particular how it functions for them and what would be their fear of giving it up. We then explore the critic in detail but only to the extent that people feel comfortable to do that. We see what sits behind the self critic the fear that it’s covering and then we bring compassion to that fear that sits behind or underneath the critic.
Paul Gilbert, FBPsS, PhD, OBE is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and honorary visiting Prof at the University of Queensland. Until his retirement from the NHS in 2016 he was Consultant Clinical Psychologist for over 40 years. He has researched evolutionary approaches to psychopathology with a special focus on mood, shame and self-criticism in various mental health difficulties for which Compassion Focused Therapy was developed. He was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1993, president of the BABCP 2002-2004, and was a member of the first British Governments’ NICE guidelines for depression. He has written/edited 23 books and over 300 papers and book chapters. In 2006 he established the Compassionate Mind Foundation as an international charity with the mission statement: To promote wellbeing through the scientific understanding and application of compassion (www.compassionatemind.co.uk). There are now a number of sister foundations in other countries. He was awarded an OBE by the Queen in March 2011 for services to mental health. He established and is the Director of the Centre for Compassion Research and Training at Derby University UK. His latest book is a major edited book with Prof G Simos (2022) Compassion: Clinical practice and Applications (Routledge).
A key process in maintaining the preoccupation and distress of Body Dysmorphic Disorder is that of comparing one’s perceived defect(s) against another person’ feature(s) (usually of the same age and sex). It is made worse by frequent comparing against others on social media and the internet. This sets in train the ranking of one’s feature(s) as being uglier than the other person’s. It strengthens the view of the self to be defined by one’s features and leads to constant doubts of exactly how one looks and more checking in reflective surfaces. In this session we will explore the motivation behind comparing and whether it really works in your best interests. We will consider if comparing can ever be helpful, alternatives to comparing, and strategies that will help you break out of the pattern of behaviour.
David is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, where he directs a national specialist service for people with BDD & The Nightingale Hospital London in Marylebone. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He has co-authored a self-help book on Overcoming Body Image Problems including BDD and a treatment manual for BDD for professionals. He was a member of the World Health Organization’s International Advisory group for writing the new diagnostic criteria for OCD and related disorders such as BDD. He has been researching BDD for nearly 30 years and has published about 40 scientific and teaching articles in BDD. He was motivated to improve the care of people with BDD after the suicide of one of his in-patients with BDD in 1991. David is a long standing and highly valued Trustee of the BDD Foundation.
Dr Rob Willson PhD is a CBT therapist based in North London, with a special interest in BDD, OCD and Health Anxiety. He currently divides the majority of his work time between seeing patients, conducting research, writing and teaching. He is chair of the BDD Foundation. Rob has co-authored several books, including the bestselling ‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies’ and ‘Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder’. His main clinical interests are anxiety and obsessional problems, and disseminating CBT principles through self-help. He has featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and had made several TV and radio appearances.
hosted by Alex Light joined by panellists Nicholas Mazzei, Jennifer Savin, Tilly Kaye and Prof David Veale
An explorative and insightful panel talk that will delve into the relationship between Fashion and BDD. Panellists discuss whether the way we market and sell fashion plays a role in the increasing prevalence of body dissatisfaction, with a conversation around the connections between consumerism, body image, and mental health. With insights around how clothing can sometimes become an unhelpful safety behaviour in BDD. We’ll hear from those with lived experience, to understand the reality of clothing related safety behaviours, and explore approaches which may help shift your relationship with fashion into a more empowering tool. With so much dialogue around the impact of filtered imagery in the current media, we’ll be exploring how this affects our mental health, and how filters might shape our self-perception. Crucially, we’ll be considering ways the fashion industry can be a catalyst for change, and the role of diversity and inclusion in reshaping the industry’s standards.
Alex Light is a body acceptance advocate, journalist, chart-topping podcast host and founder of Light LDN. After battling with eating disorders in her earlier life, Alex has successfully created a platform that encourages body acceptance and champions women’s unfiltered bodies. Her Sunday Times Bestseller ‘You Are Not A Before Picture’ has empowered women across the globe to talk about their struggles with body image whilst also encouraging self-love. Brands such as Gillette Venus, Dove and Ann Summers have joined Alex in her quest to tackle weight stigma and body acceptance. Alex’s journalism background and online profile have enabled her to raise awareness of body image’s impact on physical and mental health; in March 2022, she gave evidence at the House of Commons to improve NHS services for eating disorders. More recently, Alex co-hosts chart-topping podcast Should I Delete That, inviting experts to explore social media’s polarising daily conversations.
Nicholas Mazzei is an experienced social responsibility and sustainability leader, having worked in senior roles at BT, Rothschild and Co, Zalando and ASOS. Nicholas lives in East London, and focuses on helping make companies more responsible and purposeful actors, ensuring they develop policies and strategies which help them improve the communities and environments they operate in. Nicholas has a passion for physical wellbeing which is deeply connected to mental and emotional wellbeing. He’s worked with young offenders in London, helping them rebuild their lives and develop exciting careers.
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK’s multiple award-winning Features Editor, who specialises in writing about issues most important to young women and investigative reports. She also heads up the Body content on the Cosmopolitan UK website, which includes mental health, body image, nutrition, fitness, pregnancy and more. Jennifer is an author, women’s rights campaigner and documentary consultant, most recently working on – and appearing in – BBC Three’s ‘Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?’.
Tilly Kaye is an East London based clothes maker for her own fledgling brand Fine Tilth, she has many years lived experience of BDD. Having dreamt of being a ‘fashion designer’ since she was a child, she started out her career in the mainstream fashion sector but was quickly disillusioned with the realities of the industry. After a few years she stepped back to explore an alternative route less at odds with her environmental concerns and worsening BDD. Alongside developing her own brand she works freelance with ethically driven organisations such as Fibreshed, Dirt, Katherine Hamnet, One Essentials and many others. She’s worked closely with All Walks Beyond the Catwalk during its time campaigning for more diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry, having grown up feeling extremely underrepresented in her own dream industry as a bi-racial child. Tilly recalls feelings of disgust and shame about her appearance as far back as her early teens. Diagnosed age 27 she has since worked hard to loosen its grip on her life, including a 16 week course of CBT for BDD, the 20 week Overcoming BDD programme with the BDDF as well as facilitating the most recent cycle of that programme. She has spoken in depth about her experiences on the BBC podcast Room 5 and more recently on the BDDF podcast Beating BDD.
Professor David Veale is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, where he directs a national specialist service for people with BDD & The Nightingale Hospital London in Marylebone. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He has co-authored a self-help book on Overcoming Body Image Problems including BDD and a treatment manual for BDD for professionals. He was a member of the World Health Organisation’s International Advisory group for writing the new diagnostic criteria for OCD and related disorders such as BDD. He has been researching BDD for nearly 30 years and has published about 40 scientific and teaching articles in BDD. He was motivated to improve the care of people with BDD after the suicide of one of his in-patients with BDD in 1991.
PLEASE NOTE THIS RECORDING WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE FOR 6 MONTHS (until end of June 2024).
Many people with BDD would consider themselves highly perfectionist. The need for symmetry and exactness, accompanied by ‘Not Just Right’ experiences can characterise both BDD and perfectionism. However, there are also important differences. BDD is characterised by an intense preoccupation with one or more nonexistent or slight defects or flaws in physical appearance whereas this is not a fundamental part of perfectionism. Similarly, negative appraisals of the internal body image and processing the self as an aesthetic object are central to understanding and treating BDD but are less important when addressing perfectionism. This presentation will define and describe perfectionism. It will discuss similarities and differences between perfectionism and BDD, including with respect to checking and repetitive behaviour. The treatment of perfectionism and BDD will be discussed so that participants can see key areas of overlap but also areas that are distinctive.
Subject to copyright @BDDFoundation 2023 not to be recorded or shared without consent.
Roz Shafran is Professor of Translational Psychology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. She is an honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist, a member of the Health Professions Council and Fellow of the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. She jointly leads the ICH GOS MentalHealth Strategic Initiative. She founded the Charlie Waller Institute of Evidenced Based Psychological Treatment in 2007 at the University of Reading and was its director until 2012. She is an advisor for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, Patron of ‘No Panic’ and recipient of prizes such as the BMJ Mental Health Team of the Year, Positive Practice ‘Making a Difference’ Award, British Psychological Society Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in Practice and Marsh Award for Mental Health for research that has made a difference to clinical practice. In addition to academic clinical research publications, she has co-authored and co-edited four self-help books, the most recent is ‘How to Cope When Your Child Can’t: Comfort, help and hope for parents’.
Danny is founder of Warpaint for Men, a men’s make up brand he founded due to his own experience of Body Dysmorphic Disorder and to help men with their self-confidence and mental health. BDD has been a part of Danny’s life since he was 12 after being bullied in school. Although this has shaped his life and still affects him to this day he wants to try and help others when it comes to the illness and spread awareness. Speaking about the BDD Foundation, Danny says, “The Foundation and the vital work they do sit very close to my heart, I understand the daily struggle of living with BDD. There’s isn’t enough awareness out there about BDD, so I’m eager to help and thankful to be a part of the Foundation’s important work”. He is the founder of JAAQ (just ask a question), an idea he had in response to the hundreds of people he gets contacting him looking for quality, accessible help on mental health. Danny is a passionate mental health advocate speaking to thousands of people every year.
Kim Booker, a yoga teacher from the South coast, has passionately combined her love for yoga & her mental health journey via her Instagram account. On this platform, she discovered the BDD Foundation. She became a passionate media volunteer for the charity. Her willingness to share her experience has led to national news stories, providing a form of exposure therapy whilst empowering her path to recovery.
In 2022, Kim gave evidence to the Health & Social Care Committee at the House of Commons. Her testimony focused on the vulnerability associated with aesthetic procedures and the profound impact of body image on both physical & mental health. Her suggestions directly influenced proposed legislation aimed at raising safety standards within the aesthetics industry. Kim’s advocacy efforts extended beyond that as she collaborated with MP Dr. Luke Evans to campaign for transparency regarding filtered images.
In 2023, she participated in the ‘More Than My Reflection’ campaign for the fashion brand Monki, elevating discussions & awareness about BDD on a global scale. Kim is dedicated to sharing her story and promoting a holistic approach to healing from BDD. Her experience as a mother has fortified her resolve to shield her daughter from the harmful effects of toxic beauty culture, dismantle the cycle of perfectionism, and work towards a safer and more inclusive online environment for people of all ages and body types.
Over a century ago, early accounts of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) described it as “an obsession with shame of the body”. This talk will discuss the nature of shame, positioning it as a powerful emotion that is intimately linked with an individual’s self-concept. The presentation will outline contemporary research, highlighting evidence for a connection between BDD and not just body shame but also a broader, more generalized sense of shame. We will explore the important question of whether shame serves as a risk factor for the development of BDD and/or arises as a consequence of living with BDD. The talk will also discuss the impact of shame within the lives of those experiencing BDD, demonstrating its clinical significance. Lastly, we will address the crucial question of whether shame has implications for BDD treatment, highlighting gaps in knowledge and future research directions.
Georgina is an Associate Professor at University College London (UCL), where she co-leads a research group called the Anxiety, self-Image and Mood (AIM) Lab. Much of her research is focused on body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), with the goal of better understanding the phenomenology, mechanisms and treatment of this condition in young people in particular. She has published around 90 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, many of which have focused on BDD. Georgina is also an Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist. She co-leads the Anxiety, self-Image and Mood (AIM) Clinic, which is a specialist NHS service for young people and young adults with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and related problems. Prior to working at AIM, she trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London (KCL). After this she worked for over 15 years in a National and Specialist Clinic for Young People with Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. Alongside her clinical work, she undertook a range of research including leading clinical trials of cognitive behaviour therapy.
Given the significance placed on physical appearance during the teen and young adult years, it only makes sense that BDD would be thought of as just a young person’s problem. While much of the related literature does in fact concentrate on that demographic, BDD doesn’t somehow weaken as people age. If left untreated, it will in all likelihood just continue to worsen. This presentation will address the many difficulties associated with living with BDD across the lifespan, from childhood to old age. The presenter will also draw upon his own personal experience of living with this disorder for 5 decades and discuss how each stage of life brings with it unique challenges.
Scott Granet, LCSW specialises in the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder, OCD, and anxiety disorders. He has taught continuing education classes at universities and other institutions throughout the U.S, and presented on BDD at conferences worldwide, including those in Manchester and Glasgow. In 2008, he opened the OCD-BDD Clinic of Northern California. Mr. Granet is the author of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Mine and Yours: A Personal and Clinical Perspective and The Complete OCD Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Free Yourself from Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsive Behaviors. In addition to his clinical work, Mr. Granet is a founding member of the board of directors for the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation of the San Francisco Bay Area. He also has lived experience with BDD, having first developed symptoms of it when he was a college student, more than a decade before it was formally recognised as a psychiatric condition.
Lauren and Katie will be facilitating a session for individuals and their carers, as well as professionals, which sets out what we know about what makes CBT for BDD effective. This will include a summary of what we have learned by studying the measurable outcomes of therapy, in research and everyday therapy sessions, as well as information directly from those who have made use of CBT for BDD. We hope that this session will be helpful for those wishing to access CBT for BDD or to advocate for themselves or their loved ones when navigating services. We anticipate that the session will also provide a space for both individuals with BDD and professionals supporting them, to discuss and reflect on how to get the most out of CBT when this is offered.
Dr Lauren Peile is a Principal Clinical Psychologist at the National & Specialist OCD, BDD and Related Disorders Service for Children & Young People (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust). She has worked at the service since 2012 and provided assessment & treatment to young people diagnosed with BDD or experiencing appearance-based distress for around 10 years. Prior to this she worked in a number of other Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and also at the NSPCC. Within the team she takes a lead in developing work with inpatient services and other enhanced treatment and overseeing the delivery of the NHS England Highly Specialist Services pathway for children and young people. She is involved in leading multi-disciplinary specialist assessments, and delivering weekly, intensive, home-based and inpatient treatment approaches, as well as consultation and joint work with other clinicians.
Dr Katie Lang is a Clinical Psychologist at the National and Specialist OCD, BDD and Related Disorders Service for Children and Young People (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust). Katie has worked at the service since 2020 and provides assessment and evidence-based treatment to young people diagnosed with BDD or appearance anxiety. Katie completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), and prior to this completed a PhD in Psychological Medicine also at the IoPPN. Much of her research has focused on improving existing or developing new psychological treatments
‘Therapist-guided, internet-delivered CBT for adolescent BDD: A feasibility trial with long term follow-up’with Dr Daniel Rautio, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
