Be Body Positive Facilitator Training
Give students in middle school, high school, and college the lifelong gifts of self-compassion and a trusting relationship with their bodies.
Get trained to teach The 5 Competencies of the
Be Body Positive Model through in-person or virtual groups.
$450
Access for four months
Schools can be fertile breeding grounds for insecurity, competition, bullying, and isolation.
- 65% of teens are afraid of gaining weight
- 44% of teens skip meals as a tactic to losing or controlling weight
- A 2011 study found eating disorders had increased on college campuses from 7.9 percent to 25 percent for men, and from 23.4 percent to 32.6 percent for women.
- By age 6, girls especially start to express concerns about their own weight or shape. 40-60% of elementary school girls (ages 6-12) are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat. This concern endures through life.1
When young people are preoccupied with their bodies, it hinders their self-esteem, relationships with others, performance in school, and overall life quality. During this difficult time of heightened anxiety, fear, and social isolation, students may be experiencing a more disrupted relationship with their bodies.
This time of sheltering in place presents an opportunity to upgrade your skills and training to address a pervasive, often-overlooked, and serious issue: negative body image.
Your community needs you. Get on track to becoming a Be Body Positive Facilitator now.
Sign up for our experiential, online leadership training for initiating powerful Be Body Positive programs in middle schools, high schools, colleges, and youth organizations. Our compelling training and educational materials will prepare you to establish a comfortable virtual or in-person environment for students to bravely explore their health, beauty, and identity, and understand and overcome the societal conditions that can lead to disruptions in embodiment.
Course Features
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Videos: The 26 videos in the training feature The Body Positive staff as well as twenty licensed Be Body Positive Facilitators who are running successful programs in their communities. You will hear from middle school, high school, and college students, and professionals who work with all of those age groups. You’ll see the Be Body Positive Curriculum in action, being taught by high school students and adults alike, for groups of six to eight student participants. All videos have closed captions.
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Handouts: Some information is best accessed in written form. Our seventeen handouts are downloadable PDFs and yours to keep forever. The more substantial ones also have an audio recording to go with them for those who learn better by listening.
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Webinars: Our six webinars feature lots of practical tips for running a program, and important logistical information you’ll need to know.
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Worksheets and Assignments: This is where you get the chance to apply what you’re learning. With these assignments, you’ll get a chance to dive into the curriculum and get firsthand experience facilitating the material.
About the Training
The Be Body Positive Facilitator Training was designed with both student leaders and educators in mind. The training is for high school and college students, and staff who work at middle schools, high schools, colleges, and community organizations. You will have access to the training contents for four months from the date of registration. If you are a professional in another capacity, you can still take the training to become licensed to use our curriculum. Learn more on the Fundamentals for Treatment Providers page. Please contact us at [email protected] if you have questions.
As a trained facilitator, you will become licensed to teach our Be Body Positive curriculum to address the self-destructive, isolating struggles many students experience with their body image, eating, and exercise. We will support you in creating a Body Positive program that is tailored to meet the specific needs of the population you serve.
Through our online Be Body Positive Facilitator Training, you will:
- Receive a lifetime license to use our comprehensive Facilitator Manual and Group Curriculum with step-by-step instructions for teaching our powerful Competencies in person and online.
Download a sample of the curriculum. - Gain confidence and invaluable skills to work with young people who struggle with eating and body image problems.
- Learn about the impact of intersecting identities on body image and self-care.
- Experience the power of our Be Body Positive Model to enhance your relationship with your own body, improve your self-care, and prevent burnout.
- Join our private Facebook group and monthly cohort calls, and get access to the resource bank for licensed facilitators.
If you’re interested in bringing the co-founders of The Body Positive to your school, write to us at [email protected].
Meet Your Instructors
Connie Sobczak, Founder, Executive Director, The Body Positive
Connie’s experience with an eating disorder in her teen years and the death of her sister Stephanie inspired her life’s work to help people live with more appreciation and love for their precious bodies. She founded The Body Positive in honor of Stephanie, and to ensure that her daughter Carmen and other children would grow up in a new world—one where people are free to focus on the things in life that really matter. Connie is the author of Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!), her book in which she reconnects readers to their essence, authentic beauty, and life force. She uses her creative skills to produce The Body Positive’s curricula, videos, digital courses, and facilitator trainings. Connie’s passion is watching the light that emerges when people recognize and embrace their magnificent, authentic selves.
Elizabeth Scott, LSCW, CEDS-S, Founder, Director of Training, The Body Positive
Elizabeth is an educator and psychotherapist whose work focuses on the intersection of embodiment, social justice and mindfulness. As Co-Founder and Director of Training for The Body Positive, Elizabeth has taught treatment professionals, educators and students to use the Be Body Positive prevention model to promote joyful embodiment and excellent self-care since 1997. She studies Insight Meditation and has a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Naomi Finkelstein
Naomi Finkelstein is the Director of Programs and Communications at The Body Positive and has been involved with the organization since 2014. With a background in theater and education, Naomi has been honored to bring her skills as an educator, actress, writer, and artist to her work at The Body Positive. She’s also a weight-inclusive wellness coach with a passion for helping people of all sizes, but especially those in large bodies, to pursue wellness outside of the diet and weight loss paradigm. You can learn more about her at www.naomifinkelstein.com.
Cristal Dolan
Cristal is a voice for her community and an advocate for all human beings. In her current role at Girls Inc., she wears many hats but enjoys the role of teaching everyone in her organization to always love and advocate for themselves and others the most. She is passionate about advocating for the rights of women and girls, while also advocating for more male allies through the awesome power of education. Cristal has a BA in Education with a Social Science Concentration, and affectionately calls herself, “the child’s advocate”. She is now and always will be proudest of being a mother and caregiver to those who know her as such.
Athena Nair
Athena is a rising freshman at Tufts who spent her last seven years at Castilleja School. She has been involved with The Body Positive since September 2018, and has been educating herself on body positivity, fatphobia, and radical self-love. She is passionate about bettering the world through her activism, music, dance, and theatre. Find her @_colourful_beauty
Bella Vandenberg
Bella is a rising senior at Castilleja. She became involved with The Body Positive in order to learn how to appreciate our own beauty and be a safe ally for the people around her. In her free time, she enjoys singing, playing volleyball, and listening to live music. Feel free to reach out @bellamvan.
Michal Goldstein
I'm Michal, and one of the activities I do at my school is peer counseling. Initially, I attended the Be Body Positive training because I wanted to get better at counseling, but it ended up being so much more than that. The training changed my life and has given me the confidence to start working on my relationship with my body and with food. I am forever grateful for the amazing Body Positive community, and I want to offer myself as a resource for any trainees—you can reach out to me at [email protected]!
Thank you to our
generous sponsors!
1 Smolak, L. (2011). Body image development in childhood. In T. Cash & L. Smolak (Eds.), Body Image: A Handbook of Science, Practice, and Prevention (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.