An Inside-Out Journey to Body Peace
My path to Body Image coaching
Full moon 02. April 2026 in Libra
I am at peace with my body now. Sometimes I can even say I love my body.
And it has taken me 20 years to get here.
I went from feeling self conscious about myself as a very young child to trying to “fix myself” to fit in in my tweens, the spiral from there was quick.
At first it was a diet, then it quickly turned into an eating disorder.
Until I found myself in hospital at age 18 with Anorexia hanging on for my life.
And even then I was still feeling like something was wrong with me.
Sitting in that hospital, I realized that to finally feel better about myself I had to stop trying to change what I looked like and start to heal the relationship I had created with myself, with food and with exercise.
This journey was a long one and one that required many moments where I had to choose to fight instead of falling back into old habits.
It took years and years of therapy, a couple of years living in a facility for girls with eating disorders (I firmly believe I would not be here today without this institution), a lot of self reflection and a healing relationship with my husband, but most of all a lot of healing from within myself.
In actual fact though my intention to heal started earlier.
I saw my first therapist for disordered eating when I was 12 or 13. But in an attempt to help me “like myself more” this therapist taught me how to count calories and gave me a scale.
Growing up in the early 2000’s the messages were: being in a bigger body is unhealthy and not beautiful, bigger bodies represent that you are not disciplined and not worthy.
Which left so many of us trying to do everything under the sun to be skinny, just to fit in.
The price we paid was too steep, I know that now, but how would you identify something that big, dressed in a societal moral code and ‘healthy eating habits’?
Looking back I can now see that a lot of times I looked for help, I was helped in creating more of a distorted view of myself and a disconnection from my body.
BODY IMAGE HEALING IS NOT ABOUT CHANGING YOUR BODY, IT IS ABOUT BREAKING THE PATTERNS THAT KEEP YOU STUCK IN THE LOOP OF NEVER FEELING ENOUGH.
Body Image work however is not about the body. It is about finally breaking down the things that keep you in the body image loop.
I understand first hand how lonely it feels when you think “I need to do this to fit in, to finally like myself” and then slowly unraveling an understanding that this external change does not change anything about how you feel inside.
I was privileged enough to receive excellent therapy in the end, but I often left a therapy session thinking - OK I get it now, but what do I do to move on?
I started creating tools for myself - tools that a coach would use, except I didn’t know this was a profession until a lot later.
I believe in divine timing though….
Years later - on a different career path but finally at a place where I felt comfortable in my body I realized those tools have been the thing that moved me forward the most.
And the desire to help other people move out from darkness into a life they can fall in love with, pushed me on the path to find coaching as a career.
I have since gained a qualification, an accreditation and have furthered myself in the field of coaching in the past 5 years as much as possible.
My approach to healing body image issues is an inside out job, combining my lived experience, personal understanding and the tools that helped me the most with professional training.
I truly believe everyone deserves to feel at peace in their body and I know with the right help it is possible to get there and progress can be a lot faster than one might think.
For a long time I thought I just needed more information, more discipline, or more control. But what I actually needed was a different way of working with what was happening underneath it all.
This is the work I now guide people through.
So many of the women I work with state they are still looking for the “thing” that fixes their body, that helps them stay on track with their diet, that eases the fear about not fitting in — when really, the “fix” is an inside job.
I have been there, and I am passionate about helping you move out of the body image loop and back into a relationship with yourself that feels real and accepting — one that could even become the biggest love of your life.
If this resonates with you and you’re unsure where to begin, this free Body Image Meditation is a first step into the inside-out healing process.
Much love Marisa x
© 2026 Kokon Coaching | Created by Marisa Gundermann-Lunai.
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