She walks into the room.
And before you've even consciously decided to do it, your attention goes straight to her body.
Her waist.
Her legs.
Her face.
Her clothes.
Her hair.
Her confidence.
Then your attention turns back toward you.
Suddenly you are aware of your stomach.
Your thighs.
How you're standing.
Whether your clothes are flattering.
Whether somebody else in the room noticed her too.
And within seconds, a woman you know almost nothing about has somehow become evidence in a case against your own body.
You may even recognise what you're doing.
You know comparison makes you feel worse.
You know two women can both be beautiful.
You know somebody else's body does not actually take anything away from yours.
And still, the comparison happens.
So you become frustrated with yourself.
Why can't I just stop comparing?
Why do I care so much?
Why does another beautiful woman make me suddenly feel less attractive?
I think we ask women the wrong question here.
Instead of only asking:
“How do I stop comparing my body?”
I am much more interested in:
“What are you trying to determine when you compare?”
Because very often, comparison isn't simply about appearance.
It is trying to answer something much deeper.
Am I desirable enough?
Would someone choose her over me?
Do I belong here?
Am I still attractive if somebody else is more conventionally beautiful?
What does my body say about my worth?
And until we understand what appearance has come to mean, telling yourself to “stop comparing” rarely reaches the heart of the pattern.
Why do women compare their bodies to other women?
Social comparison is a very human process.
We evaluate ourselves partly by comparing ourselves with other people.
We compare:
success.
relationships.
intelligence.
money.
careers.
social status.
and, very often, appearance.
Body image research consistently finds a relationship between appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis looked specifically at the direction of that relationship over time and found evidence that appearance comparison predicts later body dissatisfaction.
In other words, comparison isn't only something that happens because you already dislike your body.
Repeated appearance comparison may also help maintain or worsen dissatisfaction.
That is important.
Because every time you compare, you are effectively asking your body to enter a competition.
And the criteria of that competition may be impossible to win.
Why do I instantly feel worse when I see a woman I think is prettier than me?
Because comparison is rarely neutral.
You usually aren't observing:
She has a different body from me.
You are evaluating:
Her body is better.
Then:
Mine is worse.
And if appearance has become connected with worth, desirability or social value, the comparison becomes emotionally significant.
She is not simply beautiful.
Her beauty becomes evidence.
Perhaps:
She would be chosen before me.
Men would prefer her.
Everyone notices her and not me.
My partner probably finds her more attractive.
I need to change something about myself.
So the distress is not necessarily coming only from seeing another woman's body.
It is coming from what her body appears to prove about yours.
Why do I know comparison is irrational but still do it?
Because knowledge doesn't automatically change an automatic emotional response.
This is a theme that appears throughout my work.
You may consciously know:
Another woman's beauty doesn't diminish mine.
You may have repeated that sentence hundreds of times.
But if another part of you has learned:
beauty determines who gets chosen
then seeing somebody you perceive as more attractive can still activate insecurity immediately.
This is the difference between:
understanding an idea
and
experiencing yourself differently when the trigger actually appears.
I often see women who are incredibly self-aware.
They understand beauty standards.
They understand feminism.
They know social media is curated.
They know bodies naturally differ.
They know appearance does not determine human worth.
And then a beautiful woman walks into a bar and suddenly every intellectual belief disappears.
That doesn't mean the intellectual understanding is fake.
It means the emotional learning underneath the comparison has not necessarily changed yet.
Why do I compare myself more to certain women?
Because comparison is usually selective.
You probably don't compare yourself equally with every woman you see.
Certain women activate something more strongly.
Perhaps she has the body you have been taught is ideal.
Perhaps she resembles the women your partner has dated before.
Perhaps she receives the kind of attention you want.
Perhaps she embodies a kind of femininity you don't feel you possess.
Perhaps she represents something you believe you need in order to be loved.
Sometimes the comparison isn't:
I want her body.
It is:
I want what I think her body gives her.
Attention.
Desirability.
Power.
Ease.
Status.
Confidence.
Sexual freedom.
Being chosen.
And this is where body-image work becomes much more interesting than simply trying to convince yourself that your stomach looks fine.
What am I actually looking for when I compare?
Usually information.
Your mind is trying to locate you inside a hierarchy.
Where do I rank?
Am I the prettiest woman here?
Is somebody thinner?
Younger?
More feminine?
More sexual?
More desirable?
The comparison attempts to answer:
Am I safe in my position?
But the hierarchy is unstable.
Even if you feel like the most attractive woman in one room, eventually you will enter another room.
There will always be someone:
younger.
older.
thinner.
curvier.
taller.
more muscular.
more conventionally attractive according to a particular standard.
If your sense of worth depends on winning the comparison, you have entered a competition with no finish line.
Why does comparison feel especially intense around men?
For some women, body comparison becomes far more activated when male attention is involved.
Another woman can look beautiful and you barely care.
Then a man you are interested in enters the room.
Suddenly you're evaluating everything.
Would he choose her over me?
This is where body comparison becomes connected with being chosen.
And women receive enormous cultural messaging about the relationship between appearance and romantic value.
We are shown again and again that beauty earns:
attention.
desire.
status.
love.
approval.
So if being desired by a man has become emotionally associated with worth, another attractive woman can begin to feel like competition.
Not because women are naturally destined to compete with one another.
But because you may have learned to experience desirability as scarce.
If he finds her beautiful, perhaps there is less beauty available for me.
That belief can create enormous suffering.
Why do I assume men will choose the thinner or prettier woman?
Because you've probably absorbed a very narrow cultural story about desirability.
Women are repeatedly presented with the idea that male attention is a kind of scoreboard.
If men want you, you are succeeding.
If they prefer somebody else, you have lost.
And body size often becomes one of the most visible ways women try to understand that outcome.
If I were thinner, maybe I'd be chosen.
But attraction is not an objective competition decided by measurements.
Human attraction is influenced by countless factors:
personality.
chemistry.
attachment.
values.
energy.
sexual preference.
timing.
relationship compatibility.
and yes, appearance.
But appearance itself is subjective.
The idea that there is one body that universally “wins” romantic attention simply isn't how human desire works.
And even if becoming thinner did increase somebody's attention, that still would not answer the deeper question:
Why does their attention need to determine whether you feel worthy?
Why do I compare myself to my partner's exes?
Because an ex can become evidence.
You look at her and think:
That's his type.
Then you evaluate yourself against her.
Is she thinner?
More feminine?
More beautiful?
More sexual?
And if she possesses something you believe you lack, your mind may decide:
He must prefer that.
But relationships are not beauty competitions between women.
Your partner's previous relationship ended for reasons far more complex than whether one woman had better legs.
Yet comparison simplifies the situation into something you can measure.
Appearance offers a seemingly controllable explanation for uncertainty.
If I know what his ideal woman looks like, I can make sure I don't lose.
But again, the deeper problem is the belief that you need to become impossible to replace.
No body can give you that guarantee.
Why do I compare myself with women on Instagram?
Because social media provides an almost infinite supply of comparison targets.
And those targets are often highly curated.
You can scroll through hundreds of bodies in minutes.
Filtered.
Posed.
Professionally lit.
Carefully selected.
Sometimes surgically altered.
Often presented at their most flattering.
Meanwhile you are comparing those images to your ordinary body:
sitting on the couch.
bloated after dinner.
under bathroom lighting.
in the middle of a completely normal day.
Research increasingly supports the link between social-media comparison and body-image concerns.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis found social comparison on social media was associated with both body-image concerns and eating-disorder symptoms.
The problem is not simply screen time.
It is how you use the screen.
Are you observing?
Or constantly locating yourself beneath somebody else?
Why can I feel confident one minute and hate my body the next?
Because body image is not a fixed objective assessment of your appearance.
Australian health guidance defines body image as the thoughts and feelings you have about your body, and notes that it can fluctuate over time.
That means your body can remain virtually identical while your experience of it changes dramatically.
You wake up feeling good.
Then see an unflattering photograph.
Nothing about your body changed.
But your perception changed.
You go to dinner feeling attractive.
A woman arrives who you perceive as more beautiful.
Again, your body did not transform in those five seconds.
What changed was the comparison context.
This is why I am cautious when women say:
“I'll finally feel confident when my body looks better.”
Perhaps.
But if comparison remains the mechanism through which you evaluate your worth, there may always be another reason to feel inadequate.
Why doesn't reassurance make me feel better for long?
Someone says:
But you're gorgeous.
You feel better.
For ten minutes.
Then you look in the mirror again.
Or see another woman.
Or take an unflattering photo.
Or your partner doesn't initiate sex.
And the insecurity returns.
This is because reassurance can temporarily soothe the symptom without necessarily changing the underlying rule.
Perhaps the rule is:
I need to be attractive to be worthy.
Or:
I need to be one of the most attractive women in the room to feel safe.
Or:
If somebody finds another woman attractive, I become less valuable.
If those rules remain intact, reassurance has to be repeatedly renewed.
You don't only need to feel beautiful once.
You need to keep proving it.
And that is exhausting.
Why do compliments sometimes make body image worse?
Because compliments can reinforce the very system you're trying to escape.
Someone says:
You've lost weight—you look amazing.
You feel good.
But what did your nervous system just learn?
Perhaps:
smaller = more valuable.
Someone says:
You look so skinny in that dress.
Relief.
Then your body changes slightly.
Now the compliment has an opposite side:
If thinner made me better, what does gaining weight make me?
This does not mean compliments are harmful.
It means appearance-based self-worth becomes fragile when your value depends on maintaining the appearance being praised.
Bodies change.
Across menstrual cycles.
Ageing.
Pregnancy.
Illness.
Stress.
Hormones.
Life.
A self-worth system that requires a body to remain static is eventually going to collide with the reality of being human.
Why do I check my body constantly?
Body checking may look like:
looking repeatedly in mirrors
checking your stomach from the side
pinching parts of your body
weighing yourself frequently
taking photos to inspect yourself
checking whether clothes feel tighter
comparing old and new photos
monitoring your appearance in reflective surfaces
asking others whether you look different
Healthdirect identifies excessive checking and appearance comparison among signs of poor body image.
Checking often promises certainty.
How do I look today?
But bodies don't remain visually identical throughout the day.
Lighting changes.
Posture changes.
Digestion changes.
Hormones change.
Your perception changes.
So checking rarely produces a final answer.
Instead, it can keep attention permanently oriented toward appearance.
Why do I look at photos of myself and only notice what is wrong?
Because attention becomes trained.
If you have repeatedly inspected your body for flaws, you become extremely efficient at finding them.
You don't see:
a photograph of me laughing with my friends.
You see:
my arm looks big.
The emotional meaning of the entire moment becomes compressed into one physical detail.
This is one of the saddest ways body dissatisfaction can shrink a woman's life.
You were there.
You were laughing.
Travelling.
Celebrating.
Living.
But when you revisit the memory, instead of remembering the experience, you evaluate whether your stomach looked flat enough while it happened.
Why do I avoid photos when I hate my body?
Because being photographed can feel like permanent evidence.
The mirror moves.
A photo freezes.
You cannot adjust your angle after the moment.
You can't control which image someone uploads.
So avoiding photographs can feel protective.
But over time, body-image avoidance can begin removing you from your own memories.
You aren't in the family picture.
The holiday album.
The photograph with your friends.
You think:
I'll take photos again when I feel better about my body.
But years can pass.
The goal of body-image work isn't necessarily making you love every photograph.
It is reducing the extent to which one imperfect image determines whether you were allowed to exist visibly in your own life.
Why do I avoid clothes, swimming or social events because of my body?
Because body dissatisfaction can move from thought into behaviour.
Healthdirect notes that poor body image can lead people to avoid situations such as swimming and can interfere with social activities and wellbeing.
Maybe you stop wearing certain clothes.
Avoid beaches.
Cancel events.
Delay dating.
Avoid sex.
Refuse photographs.
Tell yourself:
When I lose weight, I'll do it.
Then your body becomes the entry requirement for your own life.
You are technically alive now.
But emotionally, life is always scheduled for the future body.
And this is one of the biggest things I want to challenge in my work.
Your body should not have to pass an appearance test before you are allowed to participate.
Why do I compare myself more before my period?
Body image can fluctuate.
For some women, physical changes across the menstrual cycle—such as bloating, fluid retention, breast changes and altered energy—may make body awareness more prominent.
Mood changes can also affect how you interpret your appearance.
You may look at essentially the same body on two different days and experience it entirely differently.
This is worth remembering.
A negative body-image day is not necessarily a newly discovered truth about your appearance.
Sometimes it is a state.
And states change.
Why do I feel threatened by beautiful women?
Because beauty may have become associated with social power.
If you believe beauty determines:
who is noticed.
who is desired.
who is chosen.
who is valued.
then somebody who appears to have “more” beauty may feel as though she has more access to those things.
The emotional reaction can show up as:
jealousy.
intimidation.
withdrawal.
criticism.
competition.
Or suddenly feeling much worse about yourself.
I don't think the goal is judging yourself for that response.
The more interesting question is:
What have you learned another woman's beauty can take away from you?
Your desirability?
Your partner?
Attention?
Status?
Belonging?
That question often reveals the real wound.
Why do I criticise other women's bodies when I feel insecure?
Sometimes criticism creates temporary distance from comparison.
You think:
She's too thin anyway.
Her face is fake.
She's trying too hard.
For a moment, you move yourself back up the hierarchy.
But the same system remains intact.
Women are still being ranked according to appearance.
You have simply changed your position in the ranking.
The goal isn't becoming better at winning the competition.
It is questioning why you were required to compete in the first place.
Why does body comparison affect my relationship?
Because comparison doesn't stay contained inside the mirror.
It can become:
Do you think she's attractive?
Is she prettier than me?
Would you rather I looked like that?
You monitor who your partner follows.
Where they look.
Who they used to date.
What pornography they consume.
What celebrities they find attractive.
And sometimes the real question isn't:
Is she attractive?
It is:
If she is attractive, am I still enough?
Your partner can reassure you.
But if your sense of worth depends on being the most desirable option available, the world will always contain threats.
The goal cannot realistically be eliminating every beautiful woman.
The work has to happen somewhere else.
Why does body image affect intimacy?
Because sex can become something you watch yourself doing rather than something you experience.
You are thinking:
How does my stomach look in this position?
Can they see my cellulite?
Are my breasts sagging?
Do I look sexy enough?
Your attention leaves sensation.
Pleasure.
Desire.
Breath.
Touch.
And moves into an imagined observer's perspective.
Instead of asking:
What am I feeling?
you are asking:
How do I look?
This is one reason my body-image work overlaps so strongly with intimacy work.
Sexuality becomes very different when your body stops being an object you monitor and begins becoming somewhere you actually live.
Why do I need to feel sexually desirable to feel confident?
Because desirability can become one way of accessing worth.
You receive attention.
Someone wants you.
You feel powerful.
Alive.
Beautiful.
Then the attention disappears.
Suddenly the confidence goes with it.
This creates a fragile arrangement.
Your sexuality is being experienced through somebody else's desire rather than your own aliveness.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying being desired.
It can feel wonderful.
The question is whether being desired is one pleasurable experience among many—or whether it has become the primary evidence that you have value.
Why does rejection suddenly make me want to change my body?
Because rejection creates a question:
Why wasn't I chosen?
Appearance offers a seemingly clear answer.
Maybe I need to lose weight.
Get hotter.
Change my hair.
Join the gym.
Become more sexual.
It is psychologically appealing because it makes rejection feel controllable.
If you can fix your body, perhaps you can prevent this ever happening again.
But relationships end for countless reasons.
Compatibility.
Values.
Timing.
Emotional availability.
Life goals.
Attachment.
Chemistry.
Circumstance.
Another person's choice is not a scientifically valid rating of your physical worth.
Yet emotionally, rejection can still feel like:
I wasn't attractive enough to keep them.
That is exactly where relationship work and body-image work intersect.
Why isn't “body positivity” working for me?
Because trying to feel beautiful all the time can become another demand.
Now instead of:
My body isn't good enough
you have:
I'm also failing at loving it.
I don't think the goal of body-image work has to be looking in the mirror every morning and thinking:
I am stunning.
Some days you might.
Some days you won't.
A more stable goal may be body neutrality, respect or flexibility.
Can your body be allowed to exist without constantly being graded?
Can you feed it even when you dislike how it looks?
Dress it.
Move it.
Rest it.
Experience pleasure inside it.
Take it to the beach.
Let it appear in photographs.
Allow it to change.
Your quality of life should not depend on winning a daily attractiveness referendum.
I don't want you to spend your whole life trying to convince yourself that you're beautiful.
This is central to my approach.
Because even if I could hypnotise you into thinking:
I am the most beautiful woman in every room
we would still be operating inside the same system.
Your worth would still depend on beauty.
We would simply be trying to move you to the top of the hierarchy.
I am much more interested in dismantling the hierarchy's control over your worth.
The question isn't:
How do I convince myself I'm prettier than her?
It becomes:
Why would her being prettier have to mean anything about me?
That is freedom.
What has appearance come to mean to you?
This is the question underneath body-image work.
Perhaps being thin means:
disciplined.
Being beautiful means:
lovable.
Being desirable means:
worthy.
Being youthful means:
valuable.
Being chosen means:
enough.
And gaining weight means:
losing control.
Ageing means:
becoming invisible.
Another woman being beautiful means:
becoming less valuable.
These associations usually developed across years.
Family comments.
Peers.
Advertising.
Social media.
Relationships.
Men.
Women.
School.
Diet culture.
Beauty culture.
Experiences of being praised when your body looked one way and criticised when it looked another.
This is why body-image work cannot always be reduced to:
think nicer thoughts about yourself.
We may need to explore the entire meaning system underneath appearance.
Can Clinical Hypnotherapy help body comparison and body image?
Clinical Hypnotherapy may be used as part of support for body-image concerns, particularly around automatic thoughts, emotional associations, self-worth, anxiety and how attention becomes organised around appearance.
But I want to be precise about the evidence.
Research specifically examining hypnosis for general body dissatisfaction is still limited.
A randomised phase II trial involving women following breast or gynaecological cancer compared hypnosis with progressive muscle relaxation and found promising body-image outcomes, with subsequent qualitative work suggesting both approaches may support body image and mind-body connection.
That does not mean hypnosis is established as a universal treatment for body-image difficulties.
And where somebody has an eating disorder, body dysmorphic disorder or severe body-image disturbance, specialist evidence-based treatment is important.
My use of Clinical Hypnotherapy is therefore not:
I will hypnotise you into believing you look perfect.
Instead, I am interested in the learned emotional rules underneath the body-image pattern.
Perhaps:
thin = worthy.
desired = safe.
beautiful = chosen.
weight gain = failure.
another woman's attractiveness = threat.
Hypnosis gives us one way of working experientially with these beliefs and associations through focused attention, imagery, suggestion and rehearsal.
What might Clinical Hypnotherapy for body image involve?
My sessions are 90 minutes.
We begin with conversation.
I want to understand the pattern.
Who do you compare yourself with?
What happens in your body when you see someone you perceive as more attractive?
What do you immediately think it means?
Do you body-check?
Avoid mirrors?
Overuse mirrors?
Avoid photographs?
Compare yourself with your partner's ex?
Feel threatened by other women?
Need compliments?
Feel confident only after weight loss?
Struggle during intimacy because you're monitoring your appearance?
And then the deeper question:
What do you believe looking different would finally allow you to feel?
Loved?
Chosen?
Desirable?
Safe?
Confident?
Good enough?
From there, the hypnotic component of the session is commonly around 30–45 minutes, depending on the work.
We may explore:
automatic comparison
appearance-based self-worth
body-related imagery
emotional associations with weight or shape
being seen
receiving compliments
relationship insecurity
sexual self-consciousness
experiences of embodiment
self-compassion
body neutrality
reducing the urgency of appearance-related thoughts
The goal is not to force yourself to love every inch of your body.
It is to give appearance less authority over your right to belong to yourself.
How do I stop comparing my body to other women?
I don't begin by telling women:
Just stop comparing.
Comparison often happens quickly.
The work is learning what happens after the comparison and changing the rules that give it so much power.
Start noticing:
1. Who triggers comparison?
Are there specific bodies, ages, social situations or relationship contexts?
2. What is the conclusion?
Not simply:
She is prettier.
What follows?
Therefore I am less desirable.
Therefore my partner may prefer her.
Therefore I am not enough.
That is the belief we care about.
3. What do you do next?
Body-check?
Restrict food?
Seek reassurance?
Criticise yourself?
Compare photographs?
Exercise compulsively?
Withdraw socially?
The behaviour can maintain the cycle.
4. Ask what you're actually afraid of losing
Attention?
Love?
Status?
Desirability?
Belonging?
Your partner?
When you know the feared outcome, the comparison becomes much easier to understand.
5. Reduce unnecessary comparison inputs
You do not need to follow social-media accounts that leave you feeling as though your body is permanently failing.
Curating what you consume is not weakness.
It is attention hygiene.
6. Practise experiencing your body from the inside
What does your body feel like?
Not:
How does it look from outside?
Movement.
Temperature.
Breath.
Pleasure.
Strength.
Rest.
Sensuality.
This shift—from observing your body to inhabiting it—is central to my perspective on body reconnection.
What does healthier body image actually look like?
Perhaps you still notice another woman's body.
But the noticing doesn't become self-destruction.
You can think:
She's beautiful.
without immediately needing:
therefore I'm not.
You see a photograph you don't particularly like and still keep it because the memory matters more than whether your stomach looked perfect.
You go swimming.
Wear the dress.
Have sex without spending the entire experience watching yourself.
Eat dinner without mentally calculating how attractive you deserve to feel afterwards.
Your body changes and the change does not automatically alter your sense of human value.
You become less interested in:
How do I look right now?
and more able to ask:
What am I experiencing right now?
That is a very different relationship with your body.
My perspective on body image:
I don't think women's bodies exist primarily to be visually successful.
And I don't think healing body image means becoming convinced that you are beautiful enough to finally deserve your life.
Because even that still leaves beauty sitting at the centre.
I am much more interested in the possibility that your body becomes yours again.
Not an advertisement.
Not a competition.
Not something permanently viewed through somebody else's eyes.
Not evidence for whether you are lovable.
Not a project that needs finishing before life can begin.
Your body is where you experience:
pleasure.
hunger.
movement.
grief.
sex.
rest.
rage.
joy.
desire.
touch.
life.
And somewhere along the way, many women learn to leave the inside of their bodies and begin watching themselves from the outside.
How do I look?
What do they think?
Would he choose me?
Is she better?
Then the body stops being somewhere you live.
It becomes something you manage.
I want to reverse that direction.
From:
How am I being seen?
toward:
How am I experiencing myself?
From:
Am I desirable?
toward:
What do I desire?
From:
Would he choose her?
toward:
What am I choosing?
From:
Is my body good enough?
toward:
Can I actually be present inside my own life?
That is much deeper than body positivity.
Maybe comparison isn't asking whether she is prettier.
Maybe it is asking:
If she is prettier, am I still enough?
And that question cannot be solved by becoming the prettiest woman in every room.
Because there will always be another room.
Another body.
Another trend.
Another standard.
Another photograph.
Another person receiving attention.
Freedom doesn't come from finally winning comparison.
It comes when comparison stops determining your worth.
You can see another woman and recognise:
She is beautiful.
And remain yourself.
You can be desired without needing to be the only desirable woman alive.
You can experience somebody else's beauty without treating it as your own disappearance.
And perhaps most importantly:
You can begin living in your body rather than spending your entire life looking at it.
Frequently asked questions about body comparison
Why do I constantly compare my body to other women?
Social comparison is a normal psychological process, but repeated appearance comparison is strongly associated with body dissatisfaction. Comparison can become particularly distressing when appearance is tied to worth, desirability, belonging or being chosen.
Why do I feel ugly when I see a pretty woman?
You may be turning another woman's attractiveness into a relative judgement about yourself. Her appearance can become a comparison standard, especially if beauty feels closely linked with your own value.
Why do I compare myself even when I know it makes me unhappy?
Comparison can be automatic and may function as a way of assessing social status, desirability or possible threat. Intellectual awareness alone does not always change an established emotional habit.
Does social media make body comparison worse?
Research consistently links appearance-focused social-media comparison with greater body-image concerns, and a recent meta-analysis also found associations with eating-disorder symptoms.
Why do I compare myself with my partner's ex?
An ex may become a comparison target because you are trying to determine your partner's preferences or reassure yourself that you are desirable enough. The comparison may say more about relationship security than objective appearance.
Why am I threatened by attractive women?
If attractiveness has become associated with being chosen, valued or socially powerful, another woman's beauty may feel like a threat to your own position.
Why does rejection make me want to lose weight or become hotter?
Changing your appearance can create a sense of control after rejection. It can feel easier to believe you were not chosen because of something you can change than to accept the uncertainty and complexity of another person's decision.
Why do I body-check constantly?
Body checking can be an attempt to obtain certainty about your appearance. However, repeated checking can keep attention highly focused on perceived flaws and may maintain body-image distress.
Is body comparison a sign of an eating disorder?
Not necessarily. Many people compare their bodies without having an eating disorder. However, severe body dissatisfaction, restrictive eating, bingeing, purging, compulsive exercise or significant distress around food and weight should be discussed with an appropriately qualified health professional.
Is this body dysmorphic disorder?
Body dysmorphic disorder is a specific mental-health condition involving significant preoccupation with perceived flaws and repetitive behaviours or avoidance. If you think this describes your experience, seek assessment from a GP or qualified mental-health professional.
Can Clinical Hypnotherapy help body image?
Clinical Hypnotherapy may support some women with the automatic thoughts, emotional associations and self-worth patterns underlying body dissatisfaction, but the evidence specific to general body-image concerns is still limited. It should not replace specialist eating-disorder or body-dysmorphic-disorder treatment where those are present.
Do I need to love my body?
No. A healthier body relationship does not require feeling beautiful every day. Respect, neutrality, flexibility and being able to participate in life regardless of appearance can all be meaningful goals.
Where can I see a Clinical Hypnotherapist for body image in Brisbane?
I offer Clinical Hypnotherapy for women experiencing body dissatisfaction, comparison, appearance-based worth and related relationship or intimacy patterns from The Work Well in Paddington, Brisbane, as well as online throughout Australia.
When body-image concerns need specialist support:
Body dissatisfaction exists on a spectrum.
But if body-image concerns are leading to:
significant food restriction
bingeing or purging
compulsive exercise
major weight or nutritional changes
severe distress
obsessive preoccupation with perceived flaws
avoiding substantial parts of your life
thoughts of harming yourself
please seek appropriate professional support.
Eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder are mental-health conditions requiring specialised assessment and treatment.
In Australia, you can speak with your GP or contact the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 33 4673 for free, confidential support around eating disorders and body-image concerns.
Clinical Hypnotherapy for Body Image & Self-Worth in Brisbane
If you found this article because you're exhausted from constantly comparing yourself with other women, I don't think you need another person telling you:
“You're beautiful just the way you are.”
Perhaps you are.
But that may not be the question your emotional system is actually asking.
The deeper question may be:
“If I'm not the most beautiful, am I still worthy?”
I'm Prue Walmsley, a Clinical Hypnotherapist specialising in women's health and emotional wellbeing.
I hold a Bachelor of Psychological Science from the University of Queensland and a Diploma of Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapy, and I am a member of the Australian Hypnotherapists Association.
I work with women across body image, self-worth, comparison, relationships, intimacy, anxiety and the automatic emotional patterns that can continue even when you understand them intellectually.
I offer 90-minute Clinical Hypnotherapy appointments at The Work Well in Paddington, Brisbane, as well as online appointments throughout Australia.
My goal is not to make you believe you are prettier than every other woman.
It is to make another woman's beauty increasingly irrelevant to whether you believe you deserve love, pleasure, visibility and participation in your own life.
Because perhaps body confidence isn't:
“I know I'm the hottest woman in the room.”
Perhaps it is:
“Another woman's beauty does not require my disappearance.”
Explore Clinical Hypnotherapy for Body Image & Self-Worth →
Read: Why Am I So Afraid of Being Abandoned in Relationships? →
Explore Relationships & Attachment Patterns →
Explore Intimacy & Body Reconnection →
Read: Why Can't I Stop Overthinking Even When I Know I'm Being Irrational? →
Read: What Is Clinical Hypnotherapy — And Does It Actually Work? →
Learn more about Prue Walmsley →
References & further reading
Ooi WL, Nasser H, Simmons J, Krug I. A systematic review and meta-analysis on the temporal relationship between appearance comparisons and body dissatisfaction. Body Image. 2025.
Bonfanti RC, et al. The association between social comparison in social media, body image concerns and eating disorder symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Body Image. 2025.
Social Comparison and Its Association With Disordered Eating Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2026.
Healthdirect Australia. Body image.
Healthdirect Australia. Body dysmorphic disorder.
Barton DL, et al. Phase II randomized controlled trial of hypnosis versus progressive muscle relaxation for body image after breast or gynecologic cancer. 2019.
The experience of women in a phase II trial of hypnosis and progressive muscle relaxation for body image: informing future research questions. 2023.
