Relational and Social Constructionist Consortium of Ecuador (IRYSE) Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. “Leave life in life, revive, greet life, “let live”, in the most poetic sense. Knowing how to “leave”, and what it means to “leave” is one of the most beautiful, riskiest, most necessary things.  Very close to abandonment, gift, and forgiveness. The experience of a ‘deconstruction’ never happens without it, without love.”  (Jacques Derrida, 2003, p. 13) We base ourselves for this series, on this thesis, from which we extract -adapting them- the proposals and invitations to a different relational position for the construction of the process of transformative therapeutic dialogue. How are…

(November 26, 2022) Relational and Social Constructionist Consortium of Ecuador (IRYSE) Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A.  “”Yes, because, what is ethics but the practice of freedom, the reflective practice of freedom?… Freedom is the ontological condition of ethics. But ethics is the reflective form that freedom takes.” (Foucault, 2010, p. 1030) We base ourselves for this series, on this thesis from which we extract -adapting them- the proposals and invitations to a different relational position for the construction of the process of transformative therapeutic dialogue. How are social constructionism and collaborative and dialogic practices useful for the relational co-construction of space for therapeutic training and supervision? Tapia…

(November 11, 2022) Relational and Social Constructionist Consortium of Ecuador (IRYSE) Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, M.A. “Every conversation that opens up to new spaces of meaning inevitably stimulates the imagination. But the imaginary still has another dimension: it is not about solving what is stable, but also about generating a discourse of dreams, a discourse that creates the image of a future, of a future full of hope, stimulating and captivating”. Kenneth Gergen, (2011 p.181) “We live, organize and give meaning to our lives through socially constructed narratives. Our stories are not formed in isolation but are relational. The meanings and interpretations we ascribe to the…

 (October 28, 2022) Diego Tapia Figueroa Ph.D. and Maritza Crespo Balderrama, MA. “The fundamental idea of social construction seems quite simple, but it is at the same time profound: everything we consider real has been socially constructed. Or more radically, nothing is real until people agree that it is.” Kenneth Gergen, (2011, p.13) “Social constructionism is a form of social inquiry… I find it helpful to recall Gergen’s assertion that any action and its description are subject to infinite revision.” Harlene Anderson, (1999, p. 77 and p. 114) “Relational ethics, from the perspective of social constructionism, includes dialogue, collaboration, and a whole range of relational practices.  I need other people…

 (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…