How IFS Can Help Heal the Trauma of Diet Culture, with Agnis Pena-Toro

The Emotional Eating (and Everything Else) Podcast

On this week's episode, I'm talking with Agnis Pena-Toro, a Psychotherapist and Body and Food Liberation coach and consultant. Her specialty is helping women heal the trauma, hurts and difficult memories from the past that have impacted their relationship with their bodies and food. She is passionate about supporting women in liberating themselves from body image, food, weight- and size-limiting internal and external beliefs.

This is not only professional to Agnis but is personal also. On the podcast, Agnis talks about her own history with diet culture, and the extreme emphasis on physical appearance in Venezuela, where she was born and raised. She shares her story of the messages she received from her culture as well as her family, and how she finally "hit rock bottom" and stopped dieting.

Agnis refers to dieting as "Intergenerational Trauma," and I couldn't agree with her more.

Indeed, dieting can be traumatic both physically and emotionally. We're literally starving out bodies when we're dieting, which is obviously physically traumatic. And we tend to diet because we're constantly told our bodies aren't good enough, which is emotionally traumatic.

Agnis and I are both IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapists, and we discuss how IFS can bring healing to those struggling with food and body difficulties. We both truly believe that IFS has something to offer that nothing else does. Take a listen!

Where to find Agnis:

Website

Instagram

Where to find me:

Website

Instagram

Facebook page

TikTok