Episode 33: Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm | Somatic Healing, Body Image and Eating Disorder Recovery With Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti
What if the body you've been at war with has actually been trying to protect you this whole time?
That's the question at the heart of this conversation with Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti, transpersonal psychologist, somatic psychotherapist, and author of Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm. Ann has spent over 35 years working in the space of eating disorders and trauma recovery, and this episode is one of those conversations that stays with you long after it ends.
Where It Begins: The Belief That Your Body Has Failed You
One of the most common and most painful things Ann encounters in her work is the belief that a woman's struggles with food and her body are somehow her fault. A personal failing. A lack of willpower or discipline or self-control.
Ann is clear: that belief didn't come from nowhere. It came from deep sociocultural conditioning, messages so embedded and so consistent that most women have never stopped to question them. The first chapter of her new book is dedicated entirely to unpacking how we got here, because before any healing can happen, we have to understand the world that shaped us.
Her book title, she shares, was intentional. She insisted on it because she knew it would land differently for every woman who read it. Some would feel relief. Some would feel grief. Some would want to put it down and walk away. And she says, pay attention to that response, because there's a reason it's happening inside you.
The Body as Protector, Not Enemy
One of the most powerful reframes in this conversation is the idea that the body has always been working in your service, even when it hasn't felt that way.
Ann draws on her background in yoga therapy and anatomy to help clients understand what the body is actually doing at any given moment. When cortisol creates a protective layer of weight around the midsection, that's not the body failing. That's the body finding a way to create safety when a woman didn't feel she could use her voice. When food becomes a source of soothing or control, that's not weakness. That's an intelligent system doing what it knows how to do.
This is something that resonates deeply with IFS work too. When we look at the parts of us that are driving these behaviours around food and the body, they all have the same intention underneath. To keep us safe. To protect us. And when two parts that seem to be working against each other finally get to speak to one another, they almost always discover they're protecting the exact same thing, just in opposite ways. The softening that happens in that moment is profound.
Ann puts it beautifully: what would happen if we got on the same team?
Body Forgiveness Is Not About Doing Something Wrong
Ann's research has centred on body forgiveness, and her definition of it is one I want every woman to hear.
Body forgiveness is not about exonerating yourself for something you did wrong. It's not about shame or blame or fixing. It's about understanding, deeply, that you couldn't have done anything differently with what you knew at the time. And neither could your body.
What she describes is more like a relational repair. A grief, even. An acknowledgment that you and your body have both been trying to get to the same place, safety, belonging, peace, and somewhere along the way you ended up feeling like you were on opposite sides.
That grief, she says, is part of the path back.
You Don't Have to Like Your Body to Take Care of It
This is one of the most grounding things Ann shares in the whole conversation, and I think a lot of women need to hear it.
You don't have to be at peace with your body every day. You don't have to love it or feel grateful for it or feel good inside it. There will be days that feel hard. That's not a sign that you're doing it wrong. That's just the reality of being in a relationship, with your body, with other people, with yourself.
Ann uses the example of her three teenagers. Were there days she liked them? No. Did she still make their lunches and send them off to school? Yes. The relationship continues even when the feeling isn't there. And it's the same with our bodies.
The work isn't about arriving somewhere perfect. It's about the constant return.
Pleasure, Comfort, and Why We've Made Both So Complicated
We spend some time in this conversation talking about pleasure, and specifically how fraught that word has become for women.
Ann points out that when she went to research the word pleasure in relation to women's bodies, everything that came up was sexual. And while that's a whole other conversation, what she really wants women to understand is that pleasure starts much smaller than that. It starts with comfort. With knowing what it feels like when your body is comfortable versus uncomfortable. With a warm cup of tea in the sun. With clothes that feel good against your skin. With a moment of stillness.
These tiny sensory experiences of comfort are actually acts of internal kindness, whether we call them that or not. And they are the foundation that everything else gets built on.
How to Start Listening to Your Body When You Feel Completely Disconnected
For anyone who feels like their body is speaking a language they don't understand, Ann offers a simple starting point.
Ask yourself: what is this like inside?
Not what is this like. What is this like inside. Those two words change everything. They redirect the mind inward rather than outward. You can ask it while you're holding your coffee, walking the dog, sitting in traffic. What is this like inside right now?
And then get as descriptive as possible. Build a language for what you notice. This is what Ann calls body literacy, and it is the foundation of interoception, our ability to sense and understand what's happening inside our bodies.
She's careful with her words too. She doesn't ask people what it feels like in their body, because for someone who has been disconnected for years, the body can feel like a foreign or threatening place. Inside is softer. More accessible. Less loaded.
The goal in the beginning isn't to get it right. It's just to get curious. To start asking: is this my mind, or is this actually a sensation? Is this a thought, or is this something my body is telling me?
And what she finds, over and over, is that once people start to touch this, something feels familiar. Like a language they once knew. Like coming home.
If Her Body Could Speak Uninterrupted
At the end of every episode I ask my guests the same question. If a woman's body could speak to her uninterrupted, what would it most want her to hear?
Ann's answer was the same place we began.
I never meant you any harm.
About Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti
Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti is a transpersonal psychologist, somatic psychotherapist, mindfulness and self-compassion teacher, and certified yoga therapist with over 35 years of experience in eating disorder and trauma recovery. She is the creator of the Befriending Your Body program and the author of Befriending Your Body and the upcoming Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm, releasing July 21st 2026. She trains clinicians internationally and maintains a private practice in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Find Ann: Website: www.anembodiedlife.com Befriending Your Body Program: www.befriendingyourbodyprogram.com Instagram: @anembodiedlife | https://www.instagram.com/anembodiedlife/
Get her book - Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm: https://amzn.to/4njxbhp
Also available via Shambhala Publications: https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/ann-saffi-biasetti/your-body-never-meant-you-any-harm-9781645474418.html
The waitlist for Breaking the Emotional Eating Cycle is now open. Women who join before launch receive founding member pricing.
Disclaimer: This episode and article contain discussions around emotional eating, binge eating, body image, shame, compulsive eating behaviours, and disordered relationships with food. Please engage with this content gently and use your own discretion if these topics feel activating for you. This content is educational in nature and reflects personal experience and therapeutic perspectives. It is not intended to replace medical, psychological, nutritional, or mental health support. If you are struggling with an eating disorder or severe distress around food or your body, please seek support from a qualified healthcare professional.
