Phil Diaz, M.S.W., is the director of community development and education for Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches in Palm Beach, Florida, and has a private practice specializing in the treatment of addiction and trauma at Lifescape Solutions in Delray Beach, Florida. He is the former executive director of the Harrigan Foundation, where he specialized in Gestalt family therapy, and the former CEO of Gateway Community Services, a 300-bed drug treatment facility for adolescents and adults in Jacksonville, Florida, where he pioneered PTSD treatment using EMDR and motivational therapy. He was the founding director of Project Rainbow, the first center for young children of alcoholics, and was the deputy director for substance abuse at the largest community mental health center in New York State, where he pioneered work with the dually diagnosed, drug-addicted person. He is also the former assistant deputy director for prevention in the Office of Demand Reduction with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; in this capacity, Diaz was the lead federal official in the development of national and international drug prevention policy.

Diaz is a social worker with more than thirty-five years of experience in the addiction field, child abuse, and trauma. He is also a founding board member of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, the National Association for Native American Children of Alcoholics, and the founding chairperson of the National Drug Prevention League. His work has appeared in Women's Day, USA Today, and Focus on the Family. Diaz is the coauthor of The Lowdown on Families Who Get High, 12 Steps to Self-Parenting, 12 Steps to Self-Parenting Workbook, and Breaking the Cycle of Addiction as well as numerous articles in magazines, including Parents, Addiction Today, Counselor, and Recovery. He has received numerous awards for his work including an honorary doctorate in law from Mercy College in New York.