The experiences of African American women and Latinas are rich and complex. These women simultaneously bring healing, wholeness, and restoration to themselves and their communities. While they live with risk economically, psychologically, socially, and politically, they have also attained noteworthy ways of coping and thriving. Thus, the growing literature on their experiences highlights narratives of survival, struggle, and soaring. 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 emphasise resiliency, strength, activism, self-expression, creativity, spirituality/connection, self-definition, and liberation of all oppressed people. As opposed to much general psychology literature that pathologises or marginalises the experiences of African American women and Latinas, this book centralises their psyches and unpacks the underexplored areas of their historical and contemporary ways of knowing and approaches to living. The value of cultural and gender identity is viewed not from a deficit perspective, but instead as an asset and contributor to meaning, identity, and strengths. The authors of this volume are all womanists and mujeristas who are leading psychologists and scholars. They integrate findings from multiple disciplines to explore psychology, spirituality, creativity, activism, counselling, healing, research, and leadership from a womanist and mujerista perspective.

A sequel to the popular Mujerista Theology that addresses themes relevant at the beginning of the 21st century.Mujerista theology begins with personal experience and moves toward a theology that advances the dignity and liberation of all Hispanic/Latino women. This collection of essays combining personal narratives and theological discourse brings together important insights into the concerns of Hispanic women, the ways in which they can help shape theology, and the roles they can take on in the church.Divided into two sections, Part 1, The Personal Is Political, presents three essays on the author?s religious-theological experiences, showing how they help form her theology. The eight essays in Part 2, In God?s Image--Latinas and Our Struggles, focus on theological understandings essential for justice.

Liberation Psychology: Theory, Method, Practice, and Social Justice guides readers through the history, theory, methods, and clinical practice of liberation psychology and its relation to social justice activism and movements.

Overcome with mental anguish, Monica A. Coleman's great-grandfather had his two young sons pull the chair out from beneath him when he hanged himself. That noose remained tied to a rafter in the shed, where it hung above the heads of his eight children who played there for years to come. As it had for generations before her, a heaviness hung over Monica throughout her young life. As an adult, this rising star in the academy saw career successes often fueled by the modulated highs of undiagnosed Bipolar II Disorder, as she hid deep depression that even her doctors skimmed past in disbelief. Serendipitous encounters with Black intellectuals like Henry Louis Gates Jr., Angela Davis, and Renita Weems were countered by long nights of stark loneliness. Only as Coleman began to face her illness was she able to live honestly and faithfully in the world. And in the process, she discovered a new and liberating vision of God. Written in crackling prose, Monica's spiritual autobiography examines her long dance with trauma, depression, and the threat of death in light of the legacies of slavery, war, sharecropping, poverty, and alcoholism that masked her family history of mental illness for generations.

Examines the everday struggles, insights, attitudes, and lives of Hispanic women from the perspective of Hispanic identity in North American society, with summaries of the sources, aims, goals, and tenets of mujerista theology.

Using various psychological theories, this book examines women's complex relations with their bodies and how attitudes toward the body affect women's sense of self. It also suggests ways to achieve a positive embodied self

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.

A long-awaited addition to the literature, this important new volume comprehensively addresses mental health issues relevant to women of color and presents guidelines for state-of-the-art treatment. Chapters illustrate the interaction of gender and ethnicity in mental health theory and practice, and discuss how cultural relevance and gender sensitivity can and must be incorporated into clinical work. The contributors are experts with extensive clinical experience with the specific groups of women they discuss, and many are themselves members of these groups, adding a unique and valuable dimension to their work. Inclusive in its approach and rich with illustrative case examples, WOMEN OF COLOR covers issues that affect both familiar and frequently overlooked groups of women. Emphasizing the heterogeneity of women of color, the book begins with in-depth discussions of cultural imperatives relevant to the mental health treatment of African American, American Indian, Asian American, Latina/Hispanic, and East and West Indian women. The second section provides a thorough review of the major theoretical orientations to psychotherapy and their applicability to women of color. The contributors critically assess the utilization of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, family systems, feminist, and integrative approaches, and provide clinical guidelines for the application of each. Focusing on clinical management that incorporates a sensitivity to ethnicity, culture and gender, chapters also discuss the psychopharmacologic treatment of women of color. The diversity that exists among women of color is reflected in the final section's thoughtful examination of the mental health needs of such special populations as professional women, lesbians, mixed-race women, battered women, and refugee women. The stressors endured by women who are culturally stigmatized and/or institutionally disadvantaged are explored, and clear guidelines for working with these women are presented. Filling a significant gap in the literature, WOMEN OF COLOR is a major new resource for all mental health professionals, from students to seasoned practitioners. Accessibly written, it also serves as an excellent classroom text for courses in the psychology of women, women's studies, and gender studies.

Women in the Hebrew Bible presents the first one-volume overview covering the interpretation of women's place in man's world within the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Written by the major scholars in the field of biblical studies and literary theory, these essays examine attitudes toward women and their status in ancient Near Eastern societies, focusing on the Israelite society portrayed by the Hebrew Bible.