Lillian comas diaz psychotherapy

Unfortunately, research shows that for people of color, racism is not healthy.

Lillian comas diaz psychotherapy: Comas- Díaz believes she was

It creates a lot of mental health problems and physical problems. In other words, the children of people of color tend to have more susceptibility to physiological trauma triggered by racism. Racial trauma is unique because racial trauma is the result of sociopolitical trauma. In other words, there is an insidious type of distress that many people of color and other marginalized individuals experience.

The other reason racial trauma is unique is that it relates to the community attacks that minority people particularly people of color receive, even though the perpetrators may not intend to attack people. They can be intended or not intended, but they are in the form of microaggressions. These experiences include attacks, but also any threats of harm or injury.

Also, when people are witnessing attacks when the attacks are being perpetrated on other people of color, we call that vicarious racial trauma. We cannot medicalize racial trauma because, again, it is different from a medical situation like PTSD. Because the origins, or the roots, of racial trauma, have to do with history, with oppression, and with sociopolitical issues.

Those are the lillians comas diaz psychotherapy that we need to address on a more collective level. They are being transmitted individually, but also in communities. The person who is the victim of a microaggression receives a negative and hostile message, sometimes derogatory, toward a marginalized group, in this case, people of color.

Many microaggressions happen on an ongoing basis. It is the insidious and persistent microaggressions that people of color are subjected to that result in racial trauma — or when it is toward their loved ones, or to anybody else, that results in vicarious racial trauma. Trying to deal with that while trying to negotiate with the person who commits a microaggression, at times, can backfire.

Because of that, inthe US general surgeon indicated that the leading cause of the health disparities between communities of color and white Americans has to do with the effect of racism. It is apparent that it is happening via microaggressions or systemic issues or historical issues and that many people of color are being exposed to racism and particularly to microaggressions.

In terms of being susceptible or talking about microaggressions, whether that affects people or not, what the research has shown is that even kids of color, when they are subjected to a microaggression, or they experience a vicarious microaggression, that tends to affect the development of their cultural and racial identity. This means, Native Americans, and African Americans, and Latinx, they have been historically attacked, and that continues to be transmitted to people now.

There is an issue with medicalizing a condition that, even though it has physical and mental symptoms like anxiety, hypervigilance, some symptoms from PTSD, of course, it is unique in the sense that it is ongoing. There is not a response to a systemic issue on how to curtail or how to cope with racism. We also have to remember that in the concept of trauma right now, it is centered on Western and Eastern European values.

The medicalized concept of trauma is not addressing those things. We need systems of treatment that are rooted in history, in the context, and this sociopolitical situation. Many of these medicalized approaches tend to be ahistorical, and they are decontextualized. They try to deal with trauma without understanding the broader sociopolitical and even geopolitical context.

Lillian comas diaz psychotherapy: Lillian Comas-Díaz is an American

It takes a particular lens to identify that and give the person permission — yes, we can talk about racism here if this is something that happened to you, or your loved ones, or your community. That is a difference from the mainstream psychotherapy approach. The victim many times feels like he or she caused the trauma. Critical consciousness means developing an awareness of why this is happening, who benefits, against whom this is being done, and what is the effect on society of this micro-aggression, racism.

One effect is the preservation of the status quo. Monday, January 27, Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Current Supporters Log-In Username. Remember Me. All I can say is getting fed up with academic pomposity at times has its advantages… Report comment. MIA Reports. January 4, Research News. January 25, The Note January 24, Site Map.

She felt driven her whole life to be psychologist and after earning her BA and MA from the University of Puerto Rico, she went on to earn her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in After graduating, working at the APA in the Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, she quickly recognized that the field of psychology was not adequately addressing the needs of underserved populations and decided to become an advocate for those communities.

She later became Div. Then they have to commit to an ongoing process of examining the realities of how culturally imbedded we are, we all are, patients and also clinicians. She learned the language and the rules necessary to live in these worlds. She also saw that all issues, such as gay and lesbian issues, public interest issues, and minority issues are all interrelated.

She worked hard to gather support - and enough signatures - to start the Division. She became 45's first treasurer, and was the first editor-in-chief of its new journal, Cultural Diversity and Mental Health. To get this journal published under the auspices of the newly founded society, she played the role of a "broker" with the publishers of the journal and it is still running beautifully.

This journal became a way for her to share the division's rich oral history and to write about culture and diversity issues.

Lillian comas diaz psychotherapy: Feeling destined to be

Psychologists of colour are playing a leading role in this transition towards a more inclusive and less ethnocentric psychology, but it has not been an easy journey. As she puts it, "when there is birth, there is pain". Liberation psychology: Theory, method, practice, and social justice. Latina psychologists: Thriving in the cultural borderlands.

New York, N. Y: Routledge.