Getting Into The Body Is Not An Apology Workbook Without Burning Out
This is the companion workbook to Imani Barbarin's book The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love. It was designed to give people who are already doing the hard work of body liberation and anti-racism a structured way to sit with their own discomfort. You get exercises, prompts, and worksheets rather than just theory. It works best when you actually do the pages instead of collecting them. It covers themes like dismantling the idea that your body needs to earn space, unlearning shame around how you take up room, and connecting personal body image struggles to systemic oppression. The workbook format means each chapter typically has reflection prompts, writing exercises, and actionable steps. There are sections dedicated to self-care as resistance, community accountability, and the kind of honest emotional labor that doesn't have a quick fix. The exercises build on Barbarin's framework but are dense. I'd estimate roughly 120 to 160 pages depending on the edition. Some people finish it in a few weeks. Most people who actually sit with it properly take a couple months. It's not a speed read.
The Practical Side of Using It
Most workbooks fail because people treat them like checklists. This one requires you to be uncomfortable in a sustained way rather than having a single cathartic moment. The writing prompts aren't designed to be finished in ten minutes. You need to carve out at least an hour per section if you want it to land. I ran into a specific problem when I worked through the section on internalized fatphobia and self-worth. The prompt asked me to write a letter to my body that acknowledged harm without demanding forgiveness. I got stuck because every draft kept sliding into either pure gratitude or pure self-pity. I found that the workaround was to step away and write a short factual timeline first — when I first started hating my appearance, what triggered each phase, and which conversations or environments reinforced it. Once I had those facts on paper, the letter came out cleaner and didn't need to be performative about healing. Another thing I noticed: the workbook assumes you already understand basic concepts from the main book. If you haven't read The Body Is Not An Apology first, some of the framing will feel disjointed. The workbook references specific ideas like the hierarchy of bodies and bodily autonomy as political acts without always restating them. You can probably guess what's going on, but you'll fill in gaps yourself and that slows you down considerably.
Where It Falls Short
The workbook is genuinely strong for individual reflection. It struggles when applied in group settings or facilitated workshops. The exercises assume a private, uninterrupted environment. A few of the prompts also lean heavily on the author's voice and perspective, which works if you're aligned with that worldview but can feel preachy if you're coming at body liberation from a different angle. There's not much room for people who see body image issues primarily through a clinical or trauma-informed lens rather than a systemic one. Also, the cost sits around $16 to $20 USD depending on where you buy it, and the paperback isn't lay-flat. That sounds minor until you're writing in it for an hour. I just bought a separate notebook and transcribed the prompts I wanted to work through. It took about thirty minutes and made the whole process way more usable. A lot of people who run book clubs with this title end up doing the same thing. If you want something similar but more structured with daily micro-exercises, there are other body-neutrality workbooks out there. The Body Is Not An Apology Workbook is less about daily habits and more about deep reflective disruption. They serve different purposes.
Get the Full Details
Where to Find It
The workbook is available through Square One Publishers, which is the independent press Barbarin founded. You can order directly from their website, which tends to be the fastest route. It's also stocked on Amazon, Bookshop.org, and in some independent bookstores. The digital edition exists but a lot of users report that typing or scrolling through reflective prompts is worse than working on paper. I'd recommend the physical copy unless you specifically prefer digital note-taking. There are also bundle editions that include both the main book and the workbook together, which makes sense if you're committed to doing both. Buying them separately works too and gives you the option to start with whichever format you find first.
How to Actually Get Value From It
Set a realistic pace. The temptation is to rush through because the subject matter feels urgent and you want to prove you've done the work. That backfires. I found the sweet spot to be one or two exercises per week, written out longhand. The slowness is part of the point. Don't skip the prompts that make you angry. The workbook includes sections that deliberately challenge your assumptions about consent, intimacy, and what you owe other people in terms of appearance. Those are the pages worth staying on. People naturally gravitate toward the easier reflections and avoid the friction points. Pair it with actual conversation. Reading and writing through this alone is fine. Reading and writing through it in a small group or with a friend who's also willing to be honest multiplies the effect. The workbook works best when you're not treating self-love as a solo project.
