My Professional Doctorate thesis, completed at the University of East London in 2025, is titled "Story of My Body: Lifelong Body Image Narratives Among Eastern European Females in Their 30s." It brought together my two long-standing interests as a psychologist: how women come to feel the way they do about their bodies, and how culture (the one we grow up in, and the one we move into) quietly shapes that feeling across a lifetime.
What the research explored
In plain English, the research looked at how a woman's relationship with her body evolves from adolescence into her 30s, and at what happens to that relationship when she moves between cultures with very different beauty ideals, for example from post-Soviet Eastern Europe to Western Europe.
The central insight is simple but important:
Body image is not fixed. It is a story we carry, shaped by family, culture and life transitions, and that story can be understood, questioned and rewritten.
Rather than treating body image as a symptom to be measured, the research treated it as a lived narrative that changes shape at each life stage: the messages absorbed in childhood, the intensification of appearance concerns in adolescence, the pressures of early adulthood, and the re-evaluation that so often arrives in the 30s.
What this means for my clients
1. Body image struggles in adulthood are common, and understandable, not vanity
Distress about your body in your 30s is not shallow, self-indulgent or something you should have "grown out of." It is a meaningful psychological experience that often carries decades of accumulated messages, transitions and losses. It deserves real, serious attention.
2. Culture and migration deeply shape how we see ourselves
Where you grew up, the beauty ideals of your family and community, and any move between cultures leave a real imprint on self-perception. Therapy has to be culturally sensitive, able to hold both the world you came from and the one you live in now, otherwise it misses the point.
3. Narrative approaches are a powerful tool for change
Exploring the story behind the mirror (where it began, whose voice you hear, what it protects you from) is often more transformative than trying to argue yourself into liking your reflection. When the story changes, the feeling changes with it.
Credentials
- HCPC Registered Counselling Psychologist, Registration No. PYL046133
- Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology, University of East London, 2025
- Recognised provider with Aviva, Bupa, Vitality and WPA
Beyond the therapy room
I am the Psychology & Behavioural Lead at TrialPort, a health-tech company helping people find, understand and consider clinical trials with clarity and confidence before any decision. I bring psychological and behavioural insight to how people process health information and make decisions about their care. It reflects the same belief that guides my clinical work: people make better choices when they truly understand their options.