David Bedrick - You Cant Judge a Body by Its Cover: 17 Womens Stories of Hunger, Body Shame, and Redemption

We should be taught from the beginning that we are housed in the most beautiful technology on earth, regardless of skin hue. This necessary, crucial book helps women notice what they truly want, which is key in the body and weight journey.

Dr. Alauna Curry, Trauma Psychiatrist, creator of Empathy Skills Practice for Traumatized Humans and founder of the Dr. Alauna Trauma Recovery Institute, U.S.

Chronic shame and self-disgust is a nightmare. This books perspective helps me to wake up from that nightmare into the new, gentler, deeply compassionate, honoring world Bedrick is cultivating. I wish for everyone to have a taste of this world.

Esther Dee, U.S.

Bedrick is a process-oriented psychotherapist with a profound respect for the deep intelligence embedded in womens body experiences. His understanding of the impact of sexism, female socialization, and internalized oppression on the emotional and physical health and wellness of women is palpable on every page and woven through every story.

Jan Dworkin, PhD, psychologist and author of Make Love Better: How to Own Your Story, Connect with Your Partner, and Deepen Your Relationship Practice, U.S.

With deep compassion, precise awareness, and great skills, Bedrick elicits what is truly behind womens failure around dieting. These stories show that women are actually attempting to free themselves from the cage made by the cultural hypnosis and live their own power, beauty, and wisdom.

I see my friends, my clients, and myself in these stories. I wish this book had been available in my teens and twenties, when I felt ashamed of my body and made a number of attempts to lose weight. Nevertheless, this book has brought deep healing to the ashamed part in me and given me new awareness of how better I could help and empower others in their journey to become who they really are.

Ayako Aya Fujisaki, PhD, LPC, U.S.

What ties all these stories together is the quiet violence perpetuated on our bodies and psyches due to cultural bias and conditioning, however insidious, and the visible and invisible marks these leave on us. You will be left with a feeling of connectednessof I am not alone in thisand an overwhelming sense of love.

Ernestine Kontogianni, South Africa

The authors compassionate gaze shines through every page, as this book takes me beyond what is deemed the appropriate health-and-body-weight conversation to where the deepest desires and self-knowing inside our bodies is wanting us truly to go: into the long-ignored, inconvenient, non-commodifiable but ultimately transcendent conversation.

Jill Hileman, U.S.

I never saw an overweight woman in any of these stories. I saw again and again a wonderful and beautiful soul. In every single story, these shared insights that touched me, made me reflect. I felt a lot of sympathy (tears flowed!) and happiness for these women.

Gertrud Kessler, coach, facilitator, and organizational developer, Switzerland

I am one and all of these women in varying degrees and I, through reading this important work, have embraced Bedricks witness to my and other womens struggle for the freedom to feel validated and live authentically.

Wanda Garcia, M.Ed., U.S.

Bedrick brings a combination of objective witnessing and conscious compassion in his assessments of the womens experiences by reframing their perceptions of inherent weakness to notice strengths in how they coped with some daunting challenges. Many women uncovered examples of shame, misplaced blame and abuses that had resulted in symptoms related to depression and anxiety due to extremely critical views about how they look.

You Cant Judge a Body by Its Cover offers details of Bedricks empathic interventions and broad perspectives by taking into account that while body weight is a shallow indicator, realistic options for empowerment can be honed when individuals see themselves more holistically by recognizing political, cultural, and social factors that affect human lives across diverse groups.

Fannie LeFlore, M.S., psychotherapist and developer of Healing from Racism Programs, U.S.

This book is killing me softly with these womens songs, but I figure one has to die over and over, to be born again and again.

This book has all the properties and potency of long rushing waters, most distinctively its ability to wear away at the mineralized patriarchal constructs of thinness as the perfect female body, the focus on which insidiously leaches the life force out of so many women, sometimes for their whole lives!

Leonora Lorenzo, LCSW, psychotherapist, U.S.

While reading the stories of these women and their struggles to find the deeper truths about why their bodies had grown bigger as they felt powerless in so many other areas of their lives, I began to quickly sense these same truths for myself. Its an arrow into consciousness. This book is saving my life.

Andrea Morris MSW, LCSW, psychotherapist, U.S.

In this book, we learn that shame, despite its proclivity for destruction, has hidden secrets. Wisdom can be found in its shadows.

Bedrick masterfully allows the women to relax into a safe space and get in touch with long-forgotten parts of themselves that lived in the shadow of shame. He follows signals that lead women towards creating an authentic and congruent self. He also allows these women to inform, educate, and transform him. The privilege of witnessing this process through the narratives is the brilliance of this book.

Rita Mesch, psychologist, Australia Centre for Psychotherapy, Australia

When I read this book, it was as if Bedrick were talking directly to me, making such powerful and real material not only accessible and engaging, but safe to reflect upon. I found myself asking questions of my own journey with my body, weight, and food. Ive come away from each chapter with either an affirmation of a place where I stand now, or encouragement to shine light in areas Ive been unwilling to illuminate in the past.

Carolyn MacLaury, M.Div., End of Life Doula, U.S.

David Bedricks new book, You Cant Judge a Body by Its Cover, is one of the most exciting, insightful books Ive read in a long time. After working one-on-one with many women who struggle not only with their weight but with internalized assaults, criticism, and the viewpoint that something is wrong with them, he has written a masterpiece that dismantles the shame fortress and helps us connect with our deeper body intelligence.

Crystal Andrus Morissette, author of The Emotional Edge, CEO of SWAT (Simply Woman Accredited Trainer) Institute, Canada

This book is like a series of detective stories! Some stories touched me deeply and brought tears to my eyes, but the more I read, the more an overwhelming sense of calmness appeared. While my mind was busy discovering exciting stories, little by little, effortlessly, a deeper part of myself was undergoing transformation.

Aleksandra Raczyska, psychotherapist and business owner, Poland

In a world of quick fixes, You Cant Judge a Body by Its Cover is a breath of fresh air that invites true self-mastery, authenticity, and an opportunity to occupy oneself.

Bedricks true lack of judgement is a rare gem. In this book, he teases out the authentic process of each individual, and discovers the meaning behind each individuals process. His curiosity, commitment, and passion to discover what wants to reveal itself in each case study is fascinating, while helping me to reflect on my own process. Not only will this book help me have compassion for my students and in my work, it will help me have compassion for myself, my body, and my judgement about my own life process.