LOVE
YOUR TREE
Sheppard Pratt Campaign
Focuses on Body Image
BY ADRANISHA STEPHENS
“Love Your Tree,” in its 12th year, is an annual
campaign organized by the center as a way to
reach students across the Maryland. It asserts
that there are as many body types as there are
trees in the forest, and all are beautiful. And it
taps all age groups, from elementary, middle
school, high school and even college students,
encouraging them to consider their thoughts
on self-image.

The program is run by Brianna Garrold, an
art therapist at the center. “I stepped in to
help about six years ago, and I got to shadow
a couple of workshops with Julia Anderson,
creator of the campaign,” Garrold says. “For
the last three years, I have been traveling all
over Maryland to meet students and provide
poster workshops for them. It’s been a great
and fun part of my job.”
The theme was inspired by writer and
activist Eve Ensler, who used the image of a
tree as a metaphor in her one-woman show,
“The Good Body,” which disputes societal
definitions of beauty.

Anderson, an expressive art therapist
with the Center for Eating Disorders since
1994, liked the imagery and developed
“Love Your Tree” in 2006 to inspire cre-
ative expression through art as well as pro-
mote self-acceptance. And the program has
inspired many, Garrold says, adding that
art therapy is an integral part of the heal-
ing process because it can enable people
14 WashingtonFAMILY FEBRUARY 2019
to express emotions and examine complex
inner conflicts.

“Art, music and self-expression are things
that kids feel really good about and usually like,
especially at younger ages, before that kind of
self-critical piece takes over,” she says. “Cre-
ating art can also help give students positive
self-esteem. It’s about getting that snowball
of positivity rolling instead of that negativity.”
This year, the center received more than 270
entries for the poster contest, which is a well-
timed event: Posters selected to be used by
the center will be announced in early March,
and the last week of February is designated by
the National Eating Disorder Association as
National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

ARTWORK COURTESY OF SHEPPARD PRATT
The catch phrase is clever: “Love Your Tree.” It’s the name of the annual poster
campaign at the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt. Maybe you weren’t
thinking about proactive body-image messaging before you read it, but now you are.