Lillian Comas-Díaz

Lillian Comas-Díaz (born July 18, 1950) is an American psychologist and researcher of multiethnic and multicultural communities. She was the 2019 winner of American Psychological Association (APA) Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology. In 2000, she received the APA Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contribution to the Public Interest.

Biography Lillian Comas-Díaz was born in Chicago, Illinois, though at the age of six she moved to Puerto Rico, where both her parents are from. They relocated to Yabucoa, which had been recently devastated by a hurricane. In consoling her classmates, she discovered an interest in psychology and healing. She continued to live in Puerto Rico until she was in her twenties. She cites these times of her upbringing as formative to her decision to become a psychologist. After earning her MA she moved to Connecticut, where she did work with local schools and underserved communities.

Education and academic work Comas-Díaz earned her BA and MA from the University of Puerto Rico in 1970 and 1973 respectively.

She was previously a member of the Yale University Psychiatry department from 1979 to 1984. As of 2021, she also serves at the Transcultural Mental Health Institute, which she founded so she could work with clients across cultures.

Research Comas-Díaz has dedicated her work and research to serving people, women especially, across cultures and ethnicities. Much of her work has been to help guide representation and services, and she does so having recognized the limitations of psychology in serving such communities and as being ethnocentric. Her book Multicultural Care: A Clinician’s Guide To Cultural Competence was written as a guide to clinicians to help them navigate and practice her multicultural approach to therapy, while also fostering more cultural awareness to better serve clients. Multicultural Care in Practice is another APA training video in which she discusses the importance of cultural competency in informing therapeutic relationships and demonstrates this approach.

Many of her academic articles also explore ethnocultural and sociocultural approaches to therapy, Latinx identity and healing, and feminism.

Selected publications Comas-Diaz, L. (1981). Effects of cognitive and behavioural group treatment in the depressive symptomatology of Puerto Rican women. Journal Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 49, 627-632. Comas-Diaz, L. (1987). Feminist therapy with Hispanic/Latina women: Myth or reality? Women and Therapy, 6(4), 39-61. Comas-Diaz, L., & Greene, B. (eds). (1988). Clinical guidelines in cross cultural mental health. New York: Wiley. Comas-Diaz, L. (Eds). (1994). Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy. New York: Guilford Press. Comas-Diaz, L., & Lykes, B., & Alarcon, R. (1998). Ethnic conflict and the psychology of liberation in Guatemala, Peru and Puerto Rico. American Psychologist, 53, 778-792. Rayburn, C. & Comas-Diaz, L. (eds.). (2008). WomanSoul: The inner life of women's spirituality. Westport, CT: Praeger. Comas-Díaz, L., Hall, G. N., & Neville, H. A. (2019). Racial trauma: Theory, research, and healing: Introduction to the special issue. American Psychologist, 74(1), 1–5.