(February 22, 2019) Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. First part In our daily therapeutic practice, we often ask ourselves about how to put the being of the therapist (or the person who provides care) at the service of the process of meaningful reflection and responsible transformation of the consultant. We work from a social-constructionist position (and, in that context, this sequence is an invitation to reflect with our readers; we trust that it contributes, that it is useful and serves as people will take it freely; it is not a step-by-step guide or a recipe book to follow; it is an invitation to a possible path,…

(September 2021) RELATIONAL INTELLIGENCE WITH CHILDREN (Systematization: Quito, 2002-2021) Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. What is emotional-relational intelligence? Emotional-relational intelligence translates into the ability to be with others, to connect in meaningful ways, not to be dominated and oppressed by adversity; to take responsibility for one’s life, and to build relationships based on relational ethics with others. It is not enough to enhance the IQ of the child; we must commit ourselves to contribute in creative and loving ways with their relational being, and even more, if we consider that numerous intellectual and school difficulties have their origin in emotional blocks and in the culture of…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. y Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. December 14, 2018 To dialogue is to allow ourselves to be touched and to connect with the words of others; to find within us the intelligent words of others, reflected with sensitivity in the produced resonance once we open ourselves (welcome) to be interwoven relationally by those transformative words. It is to answer dialogues to generate new dialogues. We dialogue with the question because we can put everything in question -about the meaning- to tell us that everything can be different. The other is an interlocutor (an equal) not a victim or an enemy; it is an interlocutor with co-responsibilities in…

December 28, 2018 When we walk through the concepts, we find complex relationships and connections; even better if they come from literature, philosophy, and psychotherapy. To think and reflect differently is to invite each time to dialogue as if it were the first time; to ask and critically question established truths, conventional meanings, stereotypes, platitudes, and prejudices. It is approaching aesthetics, art, a theme of creativity, imagination. For example: to understand intellectual integrity, it seems relevant to mention the Ecuadorian writer Leonardo Valencia, who quotes Giorgio Manganelli (1976): “The didactic language, aimed at people who want to learn notions that they ignore, tends to limit the range of meanings and…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. y Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M. A. October 5, 2018 (NOTE: For the complete table check: https://iryse.org/procesos-relacionales-con-preguntas-generadoras-distintos-para-terapeutas-que-buscan-salir-de-sus-certezas-rutinarias-parte-i /) The training or training meetings with psychotherapy professionals in certain contexts of Ecuadorian society show complex, contradictory and paradoxical situations, which we propose to discuss (in this first part) to find alternatives that favor the people with whom they work.  For example: a) They are professionals, who, although they tend to consider that other people “should” go to therapy, they do not do it; they do not show interest in doing constant therapeutic processes, as a necessary form of self-care and professional ethics. b) They do not seek spaces…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M. September 21, 2018 Dialogue means that two people are interconnected. It is looking at the relational field that is organized when one is linked to the other -because as we connect- new aspects for comprehension are generated, links are produced to develop new forms of collaboration. It is in this space and relational context -with a reflective level- where the words of one of the interlocutors make sense due to the relationship connection that they establish with the words of the other interlocutor. Language is what allows us to be and builds us; it is in living dialogue that life speaks.…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M. May 4, 2018 Many professionals from different fields: psychotherapy, education, organizations., tend to assume their roles as something that “should” be -if not perfect- at least the best without failing or making mistakes. They are often tyrannized by this social and personal duty; they tend to take competitive positions (be experts, accumulate prestige, money, power, and privilege) and engage in power struggles, fatuousness, and social careerism to demonstrate that they are essential. Between their own, exaggerated, expectations of perfection and the complex demands of those who seek their work or depend in some way on what they do, professionals in these…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M. A. April 6, 2018 As John Shotter recounted it, quoting Tom Andersen, in the meeting ISI-Mexico, 2015 (testimony collected in the field newspaper) -in our adaptation-: “Words are like hands with which we touch people’s faces. And at the same time, you can see people being touched by their own words”. The different uses of the words imply a posture that implies an ethical relationship; for this reason, our ways of relating to people are ethical (in life and also in therapy). There are no permanent ways of understanding experiences. We live in streams of activities, which are constantly turbulent. We…