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I'm Whitney
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I’m not your typical “tell me how that makes you feel” clinician, I’m more of a “show me” gal (extra points if you caught the Missouri pun).
I understand that sometimes we don’t always have the right or perfect words to describe how we feel. Sometimes we need to scream in full tantrum mode, face down on the floor with fists beating the carpet. Sometimes we need to scribble down all the things we feel like we can’t say, rip it up and burn every word. Or sometimes we just need to cry it out. Or laugh it out. Or sit in silence and feel the calm. I’m here for it, all of it. I'm on the floor with you, or lighting the match, or passing the tissues or giggling with you or holding the quiet.
I don’t take humans’ emotional experiences lightly, and I’m grateful for any experience you allow yourself to share with me.
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I stay out of the box.
Within the expressive arts framework, unlike the traditional art process, I challenge perfectionism and the process of creation is emphasized over the final product. I believe that the use of creative expression can allow us to tap into our often suppressed right brains and examine connection to feelings, emotions and the body that words often fall short in attempting to describe. I believe it’s important to focus on the internal experience of body image versus external appearance, as the problem with negative body image is not the body itself but the beliefs we project onto our bodies. Together, we will work to find your narrative, your body’s story and work towards learning to honor those associated emotional experiences while unbending from the body terrorism we have participated in throughout our lives.
I don’t think therapeutic work should be a stale, boring or uptight experience. I once had a client lovingly describe the work I do as “woo-woo shit”. I feel this is quite an apt description of my eclectic, "out of the box" approach.
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Scroll below to learn more about areas of focus and why I am passionate about body image work:
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I am an Elder Millennial. I was a kid in the 90s and a teen in the 00’s—meaning I was shaped on the emergence of social media, Marissa Cooper body ideals, low rise jeans and the word “fat” being the worst possible characteristic a human could hold.
Later, I learned it wasn’t so much that I wanted to look like Marissa Cooper, it was more that I interpreted her body type as being a ticket to the things I wanted, and a way to fulfill my unmet needs for acceptance, belonging, touch, connection, being seen and heard. I was being guided and conditioned by the sociocultural ideal of what a body is ‘meant to be’ – a painful ideal that could never fit the whole of who I am. In doing my own body image work, I gained incredible insight into the vulnerability, courage and commitment required to unpack, do deep work, and sometimes even show up.
I am a body image activist and a body sovereignty activist. I have had the experience of both privilege and disadvantage, and strive to continue learning and growing. I do this work because I know for many there is liberation from compressed, narrow body ideals and the prison of body-hatred despite the culture we live in. This work drives me, as every person who reclaims their power and autonomy, has influence in their community, has the wisdom and power to make social change and most of all grow into the person they know themselves to be.
Why I do this work
Whitney Taylor Bennett, is a Certified Spiritual Life Coach [CSLC], Certified Therapeutic Art Life Coach [CTALC], Certified Eating Disorder Recovery Coach and Body Trust Practitioner and a Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist in Sex Trafficking & Sex Industry Exploitation (CCTS-S). She earned a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Webster University and is a National Certified Counselor, a Registered Expressive Art Therapist-In Training [REAT-IT] and is preparing to work towards a PhD in Expressive Arts Therapy. She is EMDR trained, has 300 hours of psychodrama training and holds a Level One Trauma Informed Expressive Arts Certification.