Rolando Mario Toro Araneda was born in Concepción, Chile, on April 19, 1924.
He was trained as a teacher of basic education at the Normal School “José Abelardo Núñez”, Santiago de Chile in 1943. He taught in the cities of Valparaíso, Talcahuano, Pocuro and Santiago (Chile), between the years 1944 to 1957.
In 1964 he graduated from the School of Psychology of the Pedogogical Institute of the University of Chile.
He has been in charge of the Chair of Psychology of Art and Expression, at the Aesthetics Institute of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. As a professor at the Center for Medical Anthropology, at the School of Medicine of the University of Chile, he has conducted research on the Expression of the Unconscious and on the States of Expansion of Consciousness. He has been named Professor Emeritus of the Open University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Between the years 1968 and 1973 he began his experiences with Biodanza (called in this period Psícodanza). He applied this system in the Psychiatric Hospital of Santiago and in the Aesthetic Institute of the Catholic University of Chile.
He has lived successively in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Italy.
Rolando Toro was also a poet and painter. He has published several books of poetry and psychotherapy. He has also held painting exhibitions in Brazil and Italy.
According to Rolando Toro, his most intimate profession was that of a poet.