Dr. Melisa Arias-Valenzuela, CPsych, 130 Albert Street, Suite 1204, Ottawa, ON (2025)

She is also the founder and director of Uprise Psychology & Wellness.

11/14/2025

Let’s talk about Botox, cosmetic procedures, and body image from the perspective of someone who studies and treats body-image distress every day.

Here’s the truth: cosmetic procedures can change your appearance. And yes, that can feel good. But research shows that changing appearance rarely solves the underlying body-image distress.

Studies consistently find that while people may feel immediate, short-term satisfaction with the area they’ve altered, long-term self-esteem, overall body image, anxiety, or depression often don’t improve significantly. In other words, the insecurity doesn’t disappear — it often migrates to a new spot or manifests in other ways.

There’s also a subtle social dimension: facial procedures like Botox can limit micro-expressions that support empathy and connection. Our faces are wired for social communication and inhibiting movement can reduce emotional attunement, meaning we may feel or appear less connected to others without realizing it.

From a psychological perspective, body-image struggles aren’t rooted in the physical body itself. They live in internalized shame, perfectionism, and nervous-system hypervigilance. No procedure can directly “repair” these patterns. Healing requires safety, self-compassion, somatic awareness, and cognitive work — the tools that teach your brain and body that you are worthy as you are.

That’s not to say you can’t get Botox or other enhancements if you want to ; autonomy over your body is real, and choosing to do so can be valid. But it’s important to do so with awareness: understand why you’re doing it, what it will and won’t change, and make sure you’re also doing the internal work that truly supports lasting body-image health.

The biggest takeaway? External change can’t substitute for internal healing. If your goal is to feel at home in your body, the work that lasts happens inside you, not just in the mirror.

You landed on my post for a reason. For more support on your body image resilience journey, follow 🙋🏻‍♀️
Disclaimer: My social media accounts are for educational purposes only and should not be considered psychotherapy or medical care.

11/12/2025

For years, the behaviors that made me miserable were the same ones I believed were healthy.
Obsessing over food, dissecting my body in the mirror, forcing myself into uncomfortable clothes, apologizing for eating: all of it felt “normal.”
And of course it did. Diet culture conditions us to confuse suffering with self-discipline.

As a psychologist, I see this every day:
people internalize shame so deeply that self-punishment becomes routine.
The nervous system learns to live in threat mode.
The mind learns to equate worthiness with control.
And the body becomes an object to manage, not a home to live in.

But healing begins the moment you recognize you no longer need to participate in these patterns.
You don’t have to earn permission to eat.
You don’t have to negotiate your comfort.
You don’t have to collapse your self-esteem into a number on a scale.

The truth is, the things I used to cling to?
You couldn’t pay me to go back.

Not because I’ve achieved perfect body love,
but because I now understand the psychological cost of those behaviors: chronic stress, shame activation, emotional disconnection, and loss of self-trust.

Body image healing is less about loving your reflection
and more about unlearning self-harm disguised as “wellness.”

Once you start protecting your peace
you realize that freedom is the only thing worth keeping.

For support on your body image resilience journey, follow 🙋🏻‍♀️
Also follow my practice for everyday mental wellness 🏡

Disclaimer: My social media accounts are for educational purposes only and should not be considered psychotherapy or medical care.

11/07/2025

You don’t need to lose weight to improve your body image.
You need to heal the relationship you have with your body and that has very little to do with the number on a scale.

We live in a culture that tells us body image is about how we look.
But in therapy, we see every day that it’s really about how we feel; in our own skin, in our relationships, and in our nervous systems.

Diet culture taught us to equate safety with control.
“If I can just manage my body, I’ll finally feel okay.”
But real body image healing isn’t about control; it’s about trust.

Trusting hunger.
Trusting rest.
Trusting that your worth doesn’t fluctuate with your body’s shape or size.

You don’t heal by punishing your body into submission.
You heal by listening to it by learning to interpret sensations without fear or judgment.
You heal when you start treating your body as a home rather than a problem to fix.

And yes, that work is uncomfortable. Because it asks you to unlearn everything the world told you about your body and to choose connection over control, compassion over comparison.

So no, you don’t need to lose weight to feel better about your body.

You need to:

* Learn what safety feels like inside your body.
* Set boundaries with the systems and people that harm that safety.
* Practice self-compassion until it starts to feel less foreign.

Because the real goal isn’t “body love”; it’s body trust.
And that starts when you decide your body is worthy of care right now, not when it changes.

For support on your body image resilience journey, follow 🙋🏻‍♀️
Also follow my practice for everyday mental wellness 🏡

Disclaimer: My social media accounts are for educational purposes only and should not be considered psychotherapy or medical care.

11/05/2025

A big part of body image healing isn’t just about changing how you see your body : it’s about becoming the person your younger self needed.

The one who speaks kindly, moves freely, eats without guilt, and rests without shame.
The one who shows up, even when the inner critic is loud.
The one who takes chances, who is brave enough to exist fully in her body, even when it feels uncomfortable, unfamiliar, or “not perfect.”

Healing the relationship with your body is rarely linear. There are moments of grief, shame, and frustration and that’s okay.
Because true healing isn’t about perfection. It’s about safety. Safety in your body, safety in your choices, safety in your presence in the world.

Being brave doesn’t mean the fear disappears.
It means you move anyway : saying yes to joy, movement, connection, and even the little things that used to feel risky: wearing what you want, taking up space, eating without apology.

Every small act of courage rewrites the story your body learned to tell about itself.
It teaches your nervous system that you’re allowed to exist fully just as you are.

So if you’re working toward body peace, remember:
You don’t need to wait until you “feel ready.”
You become ready by showing up again and again, with kindness, curiosity, and courage.

Bravery isn’t perfection.
It’s presence.
It’s trust.
It’s finally making space for yourself: in your body, in your life, and in the world.

10/23/2025

There’s something so sacred about breaking a cycle you never chose but somehow inherited.
Something powerful about realizing that your healing isn’t just about you — it’s about every small moment of safety and freedom you create for the people who come after you.
When I think about my daughter, I notice how many things I once thought were “normal” — the offhand comments about food, the sighs in front of mirrors, the quiet guilt after dessert — were actually lessons I didn’t mean to teach myself. Lessons about how to earn love, approval, and belonging through control, thinness, or self-denial.

Because this is why we do the work.

For support on your body image resilience journey, follow 🙋🏻‍♀️
Also follow my practice for everyday mental wellness 🏡

Disclaimer: My social media accounts are for educational purposes only and should not be considered psychotherapy or medical care.

Address

130 Albert Street, Suite 1204
Ottawa, ON
K1P5G4

Telephone

+16136957133

Website

http://uprisepsychology.com/

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