Lillian Comas-Diaz – författare

As a path of meaning seeking, healing, and transformation, spirituality is becoming more prominent in our society. Historically, women have been the custodians of their families' spiritual domain. This book advances the concept of Woman Soul, a gender-specific way of embracing spirituality. WomanSoul discusses the personal and professional impact of spirituality in the lives of women from a variety of ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. It examines the psychological, multicultural, and personal expressions of female spirituality. More specifically, the essays collected here look at the impact of women's spirituality on identity, healing, and transformation across the lifecourse. WomanSoul focuses on how females express spirituality from their diverse backgrounds and situated realities. It cuts across ethnic identities, culture, and a multitude of spiritual experiences, such as Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, Goddess, Native American, and Agnosticism.As women tend to experience sacredness in a gender-specific manner, they frequently place more emphasis on spirituality than on religiousness. Seen as a freeing force by most women, spirituality is most often perceived to be more gender-fair, culturally liberating, and less restrictive than many religious denominations. Both informative and inspirational, WomanSoul is written by psychologists who understand the implications of spirituality on the lives of women and the people around them.

This work serves to celebrate the strengths of women of color, identify unique opportunities, and examine the specific challenges and issues of this group.Psychological Health of Women of Color: Intersections, Challenges, and Opportunities is an anthology that examines core issues of women of color's emotional health and well-being. Organized by subject, the work comprises contributions from noted experts on the psychological health of women of color.The book analyzes the life stages of women of color: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. It serves to address the challenges women of color face in the forms of physical health, violence, substance abuse, psychopharmacology, and legal/forensic issues as well as to highlight diverse identity intersections and opportunities for women of color. The section on intersections of identity discusses the psychological health of lesbians of color, multiracial women, female immigrants of color, women with disabilities, and working mid-career women, while high achievers, leaders, mentors, athletes, artists, and spiritual individuals among women of color are addressed in the section on opportunities.

Psychologists, as well as the general public, have recognized the importance of female friendships. Scientists call this bond the tending instinct- a kind of female relaxation response that has salutary effects. Such special attachment shields women from isolation and provides an enhanced sense of wellbeing. Intimate friends can therefore act as sisters of the heart to promote connection, solace, wholeness, and longevity. Moreover, women friends frequently provide emotional, social, physical, and spiritual benefits. Indeed, sisters of the heart constitute an unparalleled bond that encourages women to connect with themselves, with others, and with the world at large. In this book, twelve women therapists, who are diverse in age-- young, middle, and older women; as well as in ethnicity--White, African American, Latina, Asian American, Native American, and multiracial women---examine the psychological and physical aspects of this unique female bonding. Through their narratives we hear their distinctive voices as women and as healers. In this fashion, they reflect on both the functional and dysfunctional dynamics occurring between intimate female friends. Finally, these women therapists examine how their experience with a sister of the heart informed their development as healers, and discuss how they use this special bond in psychotherapy with women. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women & Therapy.'This enlightening, iconic book is for anyone who wants to understand more about the powerful roles of friendships—including challenges--among women that facilitate their ability to survive and thrive. It is special in that the chapter authors are psychotherapists who describe the impact of female bonding, from scientific as well as personal bases. The descriptions are rooted in theory, research, extensive clinical experience and personal lives. Refreshing and much needed, this book will prove useful to professionals as well as any women or men who want to understand the value and salience of female relationships.' Melba Vasquez, PhD, ABPPPast President, American Psychological AssociationIndependent Practice, Austin, Texas

This book describes the real-life journeys of women psychotherapists: why each woman chose this profession and what she learned about others—and most importantly, about herself—in this choice. Most critically, these women now share how they have integrated this wisdom into their everyday lives. While psychotherapists may also be authors, few write books about their journeys in the profession. Women Psychotherapists: Journeys in Healing is one of those rare books. Each contributor invites her readers onto the road traveled by the woman who listens to others needing her help and guides them into living a more joyous, successful life, even as she moves towards greater fulfillment in her own life.

This book unearths ancestral wisdom to address the needs of oppressed women in both the Global South and Global North. Focusing on Latinx womxn, it empowers through decoloniality, liberation, mujerismo, and nepantlismo. As such, Latinx womxn compose their testimonios, engage in critical consciousness, and commit to global liberation. Mujerismo--a dissident daughter of liberation theology--is a Latinx womanism with anti-patriarchal, anticolonial, anti-neocolonial, and antiracial-gendered colonial orientations. Mujeristas appropriate cultural/religious/spiritual symbols to construct empowering new meanings for decolonization and liberation. Feminist liberation practices assist in this process. When Latinx womxn’s immigration accentuates inhabiting the cultural borderlands, they enter Nepantla--a place in between—to reclaim themselves and to heal soul wounds and trauma. Rooted in the Nahuatl concept of collective transformation, Nepantla encourages the development of psychospiritual abilities. As Latinx womxn engage in nepantlismo, they awaken their spiritual faculties to become instruments of courage, resistance, revolution, love, and hope. This book will be valuable to researchers, therapists, and educators interested in the practice of feminist therapy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Women & Therapy.

This book unearths ancestral wisdom to address the needs of oppressed women in both the Global South and Global North. Focusing on Latinx womxn, it empowers through decoloniality, liberation, mujerismo, and nepantlismo. As such, Latinx womxn compose their testimonios, engage in critical consciousness, and commit to global liberation. Mujerismo--a dissident daughter of liberation theology--is a Latinx womanism with anti-patriarchal, anticolonial, anti-neocolonial, and antiracial-gendered colonial orientations. Mujeristas appropriate cultural/religious/spiritual symbols to construct empowering new meanings for decolonization and liberation. Feminist liberation practices assist in this process. When Latinx womxn’s immigration accentuates inhabiting the cultural borderlands, they enter Nepantla--a place in between—to reclaim themselves and to heal soul wounds and trauma. Rooted in the Nahuatl concept of collective transformation, Nepantla encourages the development of psychospiritual abilities. As Latinx womxn engage in nepantlismo, they awaken their spiritual faculties to become instruments of courage, resistance, revolution, love, and hope. This book will be valuable to researchers, therapists, and educators interested in the practice of feminist therapy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Women & Therapy.

Psychologists, as well as the general public, have recognized the importance of female friendships. Scientists call this bond the tending instinct- a kind of female relaxation response that has salutary effects. Such special attachment shields women from isolation and provides an enhanced sense of wellbeing. Intimate friends can therefore act as sisters of the heart to promote connection, solace, wholeness, and longevity. Moreover, women friends frequently provide emotional, social, physical, and spiritual benefits. Indeed, sisters of the heart constitute an unparalleled bond that encourages women to connect with themselves, with others, and with the world at large. In this book, twelve women therapists, who are diverse in age-- young, middle, and older women; as well as in ethnicity--White, African American, Latina, Asian American, Native American, and multiracial women---examine the psychological and physical aspects of this unique female bonding. Through their narratives we hear their distinctive voices as women and as healers. In this fashion, they reflect on both the functional and dysfunctional dynamics occurring between intimate female friends. Finally, these women therapists examine how their experience with a sister of the heart informed their development as healers, and discuss how they use this special bond in psychotherapy with women. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women & Therapy.'This enlightening, iconic book is for anyone who wants to understand more about the powerful roles of friendships—including challenges--among women that facilitate their ability to survive and thrive. It is special in that the chapter authors are psychotherapists who describe the impact of female bonding, from scientific as well as personal bases. The descriptions are rooted in theory, research, extensive clinical experience and personal lives. Refreshing and much needed, this book will prove useful to professionals as well as any women or men who want to understand the value and salience of female relationships.' Melba Vasquez, PhD, ABPPPast President, American Psychological AssociationIndependent Practice, Austin, Texas

In this book, twelve eminent Latina Psychologists illustrate how they practice gender- and culture-sensitive psychotherapy, counseling, research, pedagogy, social justice, and mentoring. They share how they create their own path in the midst of oppression – by becoming aware of the connection between their lives and their gendered, cultural, social, and political circumstances – and how they liberate themselves and those who seek their psychological services. Based on lived experiences, they reveal how they integrate a borderlands theory, a testimonio method, and an embodiment analysis into a Latina Feminist Psychology. More importantly, these Latina Psychologists offer easy-to-follow advice to help readers thrive while living in the cultural borderlands.

In this book, twelve eminent Latina Psychologists illustrate how they practice gender- and culture-sensitive psychotherapy, counseling, research, pedagogy, social justice, and mentoring. They share how they create their own path in the midst of oppression – by becoming aware of the connection between their lives and their gendered, cultural, social, and political circumstances – and how they liberate themselves and those who seek their psychological services. Based on lived experiences, they reveal how they integrate a borderlands theory, a testimonio method, and an embodiment analysis into a Latina Feminist Psychology. More importantly, these Latina Psychologists offer easy-to-follow advice to help readers thrive while living in the cultural borderlands.

This inspiring book introduces the psychologies of womanists and mujeristas-African American women and Latinas, respectively, who have a broad and inclusive approach to feminism and liberation. Womanist and mujerista values and worldviews emphasize resiliency, strength, activism, self-expression, creativity, spirituality/connection, self-definition, and liberation of all oppressed people. As opposed to much general psychology literature that pathologizes or marginalizes the experiences of African American women and Latinas, this book centralizes their experiences and unpacks the underexplored areas of their historical and contemporary ways of knowing and approaches to living. The chapters integrate findings from multiple disciplines to explore psychology, spirituality, creativity, activism, counseling, healing, research, and leadership from a womanist and mujerista perspective.

This book guides readers through the origins, development, and key concepts of liberation psychology its methods, including participatory action research its manifestation in clinical practice its potential future applications and its relation to social activism and social justice movements.Liberation psychology challenges traditional Western‑based psychology by offering an emancipatory approach to understanding and addressing oppression among individuals and groups. This book provides an understanding of liberation psychology that enhances the work of all students, researchers, and practitioners in psychology by raising awareness of discrimination, inequality, and issues related to intersectionality affirming cultural identities fighting oppression and promoting social change to help alleviate human suffering and support fairness, equality, and justice.The insights provided into liberation psychology's concepts of critical consciousness, empowerment, and social justice action can enhance the well‑being of individuals and improve lives.

This book offers an expert synthesis of the scholarly literature on approaches to decolonial psychology, its historical foundations, education and training, and psychological practice. From its inception, psychological science and practice in the United States has been framed predominantly by Eurocentric epistemologies. As a result, oppressed people have internalized the belief that their culture and values are inferior to those of dominant groups. Infusing a decolonial lens into psychology is one way for the field to become more inclusive and relevant to the numerical majority worldwide. Decolonial psychology creates space and methods for oppressed and impoverished communities to radically imagine their existence outside of the superimposed borders of coloniality, neoliberalism, racism, and other systems of oppression. It emphasizes how people's subjectivity and connections to diverse social groups are influenced by history, context, and oppression how these populations actively resist and survive attacks on their humanity and how knowledge production is shaped not only by how data is interpreted but also by the questions asked.The chapters in this book provide an opportunity for readers to deepen their understanding of how colonization and coloniality impacted knowledge creation in society and the field of psychology, including thought-provoking resources that explore the subject matter. The book also underscores how coloniality continues to reverberate in many aspects of psychology today. Collectively, the authors invite readers to resist engaging in psycolonization by generating ideas and pathways to help reclaim, honor, and celebrate Indigenous ways of knowing and being. The volume offers guidance on methods to disrupt psycolonization and its epistemic violence, helping to provide a roadmap to decolonial psychology and anticolonial futures.   It is time to confront the limitations of mainstream psychology. This book will help psychologists at all levels anchor their research, teaching, and practice in decolonial methods and practices.