The Body Project club hosted a two-day training session this past weekend. The student-run club trained potential new peer leaders to run workshops throughout the term, with oversight from Professor Catherine Walker from the Psychology Department and Professor Lorraine Cox of the Visual Arts Department.

The first day of training, which took place on Saturday, September 27, consisted of basic voluntary commitment overviews, discussions around appearance ideal, explorations of “Fat Talk,” as well as at-home exercises to teach new members.

According to the guide that was handed to trainees, “The focus of session one is to provide an overview and introduce participants to the rules and expectations of the group. The session is largely interactive with discussions of the definition and origins of appearance ideal, and costs associated with pursuing the appearance ideal.”

Jojo Sosa ’21 completed the training to be a peer leader this weekend.

“I wanted to be a leader in this club, because I think that body image is an important issue that needs to be addressed, especially with the rise of social media and all its fake portrayals of girls of all ages.”

On Sunday, the training got more in depth with these issues as the trainees had to role-play to “electit verbal statements against the appearance ideal.”

Madyson Whitney has been a workshop leader of the Body Project since last year.

“I like it because I want to do counseling or therapy with young girls in the realm of body image and eating disorders … I’d like to do group counseling this is good practice for that.”

She added that she enjoyed hearing different perspectives on body image from each session she has done two sessions are the same.

Zelda Clegg ’21 is also a leader in this club.

“I like being able to be a leader and get involved because even though my major isn’t Psychology, it allows me to do something I am passionate about: body positivity and awareness.”

The Body Project is also trying to implement it’s sessions as new member education for sosoirites because “it helps to build confidence and empowers women,” Whiteney stated.

With new added members to orchestrate the workshops, the club hopes to keep up with its goals of promoting self acceptance and challenging unrealistic body ideals. Each workshop is about two hours long, run by one to two leaders, followed by assingments that participants can do at home and discuss the next time the club meets.

Workshops begin next week and will run throughout the term. Emails are sent out every week to the campus to promote workshops, events and fundraisers.