Thea O’Connor

Over the last 20 years her work has spanned nutrition, body image, workplace health and sleep science, in the forms of 1-1 consultations, prevention and early intervention initiatives in schools and workplaces, conference presentations and writing for national media outlets.

In all of these arenas she considers herself a long-standing Advocate of the Body in an increasingly disembodied culture that drives us to:

• over-write our natural physical diversity with photo-shopping or cosmetic surgery, then aspire to cruel body ideals that leave us feeling less-than.
• over-ride our natural rhythms, then over-rely on artificial stimulation to get us through the day.

At the heart of all her work is the vision of creating body-honouring cultures at work, at school and at home, so we can all flourish.

Current work

Today Thea offers specialist body image services to schools communities, including her recently piloted program for girls ‘Inner Cosmetics – how to give your self-image a makeover without changing your body.’

Previous experience

History: Thea is the former Director of Body image and Health Inc, has consulted to Victorian government on body image issues, and as Associate Investigator for a childhood obesity prevention program conducted by the University of Melbourne, developed a body-image sensitivity training program to help protect children against fat phobia while promoting healthy weight.