Nina Ross, PhD

Speaking with a client today, she talked about her painful experiences as a child.

When she was 8 years old, her body had matured to the body of a 13 year old. "it was not my body," she assertively states. "Whose body was it?" i ask her. "i don’t know, " she states.

What a disconnect. But what interested me was how adamant she was that her body did not belong to her. Did the culture own her body? Did people’s projections own

it?She could not claim it as hers. She had been shamed. People hurt her feelings by commenting on her large body. She wanted to be like the other girls, she wanted to fit

in.She did not express her sadness, her anger and upset. She learned to hold it in, and to turn it in against herself, thinking that something was wrong with her.She

developed disordered eating, mostly, it seems, to not become the girl who felt akward, shamed, and commented on. Now, as a young woman, she has become obsessed

with looking good, looking "perfect, " and therefore, being constantly vigilant and unsatisfied within herself and about herself.

How many women are walking around with shame?  How man women are walking around avoiding their feelings, disconnected from their hearts?

i’m afraid to say that there are many who are cut off from themselves, their life force, their needs and desires.