(October 14, 2022) Diego Tapia Figueroa Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, MA. “… It is not about solving what is stable, but also about generating a discourse of dreams, a discourse that creates the image of a coming future, of a future full of hope, stimulating and captivating”. (Kenneth Gergen) Reflections -contingent- on a fragment of Mony Elkaïm’s interview with Kenneth Gergen (from the book Building reality. The future of psychotherapy.  Editorial Paidós, 2011, Barcelona, pp. 32-33). “The ideas I propose are resources that fuel our conversation, as they allow us to move forward together.  But, at the end of the day, the degree of truth they may have matters…

 (January 25, 2019) Diego Tapia Figueroa Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, MA. “Everything I do, I do with joy” Michel de Montaigne (trans. 2007, p.588) These are times of death for women in Ecuadorian society and other societies around the world. In Ecuador, every three days there is a femicide, where the murderer is a partner or former partner. According to the United Nations, 87,000 women were killed in 2018. In 58% of cases, the killers were their partners or close relatives. Without a gender focus in public policies, without education for men and boys -with the whole society- based on human rights, gender violence is legitimized, normalized, and naturalized…

With the kind permission of Arlene M. Katz and Sheila McNamee Arlene M. Katz and Kathleen Clark, with Elizabeth Jameson  “Join me in trying to create spaces for conversation; How can we all create spaces that allow for conversation?” (EJ) “Listening to the afflicted is not merely moral praxis, although it is that.  It affords us rich insights.” (Farmer and Gastineau, 2004) Sacred spaces As EJ sought to find her community, ‘her tribe’, her loneliness was transformed into sharing ‘sacred spaces’ with others—a sense of the ‘silence of a cathedral’; of being open, touched, noticed, moved. In her words, “it served as an invitation for others to see that I accepted…

With the kind permission of Arlene M. Katz and Sheila McNamee Arlene M. Katz and Kathleen Clark, with Elizabeth Jameson  “Join me in trying to create spaces for conversation; How can we all create spaces that allow for conversation?” (EJ) “Listening to the afflicted is not merely moral praxis, although it is that.  It affords us rich insights.” (Farmer and Gastineau, 2004) In this chapter we invite the reader to enact a form of participatory dialog with one of the au-thors (EJ) as she reflects on her illness experience with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and her life as lawyer and artist, while navigating healthcare. Using methods of social poetics (Katz and…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and MaritzaCrespo Balderrama, M.A. “Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently.” (Rosa Luxemburg) November 26, 2021 A history of barbarism 23 years ago, a young 27-year-old woman and her 5-year-old daughter arrive for therapy. DTF Therapist: Welcome. The look on the girl´s face is of discomfort. Because of this feeling, instead of giving the mother to read the Informed Consent about confidentiality and the context of the therapeutic process, I choose to read it aloud for both of them. The lady is then asked to sign it. Including her data, address, and telephone. DTF Therapist: What do you expect to happen in this…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A “The child is a person, a subject, a human being… The free and responsible word liberates… The problem is what has not been said… You have to respect what is engendered… It takes great maturity to be able to be a father [mother] because it is about being aware that this is not a position of power, but a position of being to give, and we have no right to expect anything in return… Our role is not to wish something for someone but to accompany them so that they can achieve their desire… The worst thing for a child is…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. “If we want to protect life on this Earth, we can do so by questioning the current dangerous blindness wherever it is, first and foremost, in ourselves… Everywhere I look I find the commandment to respect parents and nowhere a commandment that compels respect for children.” (Alice Miller) October 29, 2021 If there is an experience of opprobrium and violation of the human rights of children and adolescents, it is sexual abuse; where the abused person is treated as an inanimate object, as an unclean thing, as something disposable. To begin, each time, to reflect on sexual abuse is to invite…

Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. «Praxis gives meaning to words.» (Ludwig Wittgenstein) Michael White – Narrative Therapy (February 5, 2021) We continue with Michael White, social worker and family therapist. (29 December 1948, Adelaide, South Australia. 4 April 2008, San Diego, California).    •       I work with stories of hope, love, and collaboration. I start from the premise that after each meeting with a consultant, I am becoming more than I was in the beginning. •          Priority is given to stories, narratives, as well as relational processes that influence the creation of meaning. •          “Every time we ask a question, we are generating a possible version…