Lillian Comas-Diaz – författare

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, ABPP

Past President, American Psychological Association

Independent Practice, Austin, Texas

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, ABPP

Past President, American Psychological Association

Independent 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.