About
I’m Agnis J Pena-Toro, M.A.
I’m a trained psychotherapist and Body and Food Liberation coach and consultant.
I’ve worked in mental health community settings for more than 10 years including family therapy centers, community mental health clinics, public schools and nonprofits.
My specialty is to help women heal the trauma, hurts and difficult memories from the past that have impacted their relationship with their bodies and food.
My passion to support women liberating themselves from body image, food, weight and size limiting internal and external beliefs is not only professional but also personal.
I was raised in Venezuela believing that it was normal to force my body to be a certain size, restrict foods, and exercise with the main goal of looking good and being better than others (because of my small size…sad truth!). Messages from culture, the media, Miss Venezuela/Miss Universe contests, and people around me confirmed all of these beliefs.
For years and years, living in both Venezuela and the US, my weight went up and down. The restrictions led to binge eating as a biological and psychological reaction to “starvation” AKA as dieting. I probably tried all the diets and exercise programs out there and felt very proud of it.
After I had a moment of reckoning, I decided to divorce myself from dieting ( and diet culture), and the belief that I need to force my body to become thin or skinny to be healthy, worthy of love and attention, to look good, to be attractive, to be better than others, and be a better person. No more. Basta!
Due to this deep personal connection, I want to help women discover that there are other ways of living different from restricting their food choices and forcing their bodies to look in a certain way, which, as a consequence, have also restricted the rest of their lives.
Because I’ve been myself in this journey since I was a little girl, and have been able to wake up from this nightmare of diet culture and women’s body objectification, have done my HW (and keep doing it as this is a life-long commitment), as a psychotherapist and coach, I decided to help other women out there who are alone in their own journey of liberating themselves from diet culture and mainstream views of beauty.
I cannot wait to support you in your own journey towards Body and Food Liberation and healing your relationship with your body and food!
Check out my blog for useful information on escaping the diet culture!
I am here to support you, guide you and share with you all of my knowledge, expertise, and skills to start your journey towards Body and Food Liberation!
Credentials
- Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology
- Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy – Lesley University
- IFS (Internal Family Systems) Level 1 trained
- Whole Health Medicine Institute Certified Practitioner
- Intuitive Eating Certified Counselor
- Various training and frameworks: Body Trust, Polyvagal Theory, Health at Every Size, Body and Shame, trauma-informed.
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER
Receive empowering content, be the first get informed about my offerings, individual/group coaching, events and retreats.
You’ll also get my free guide - 12 Tips to Cultivate Body Image & Food Freedom without Apologies!
