Alejandro Juroczko speaks with the Ethics Committee of the Argentine Civil Association of Focusing.
On May 13, 2023, the first Ethical Code Swearing-In Ceremony was carried out in Argentina, deepening the commitment of the Argentine Civil Association of Focusing (ACAF) to Focusing, in front of the national and international community.
In this article we would like to share with you all that happened backstage and the “aliveness” of the swear-in process.
Below are the words of the Ethics Committee (formed in 2023 by Elena Frezza, Cristina Collia, Mónica Perez Iturraspe and Josefina Castronuovo):
An event that is a tradition in Argentina is the Annual Focusing Conference, where certified Trainers and advanced students, together with their teachers, can offer workshops based on Focusing.
The swearing-in event took place at the end of the Conference.
A workshop on ethics, carried out by the Ethics Committee of ACAF (Argentine Civil Association of Focusing), during this Conference was considered essential as the swear-in ceremony would take place after the workshops.
The first step was to write the code. This took a long time due to reading a variety of codes from related professions, especially one from Counselors in Argentina. This task was carried out during meetings of the Ethics Committee.
In the next phase, the Committee worked together with the ACAF Board of Directors as well as the Focusing Coordinators in Argentina to revise it until reaching a final version.
Next, the focus was on the design of a workshop on ethics so as to include it in the Annual Conference, creating something as important and complex as “Ethics in the performance of our profession of accompanying in Focusing.”
The workshop was as a sample of something unapproachable and about which we thought, discussed, and reviewed with the Board of Directors, with a lot of back and forth, which favored the great learning of listening to each other, agreeing, not agreeing, thinking, rethinking.
Alejandro: What is the reason for an Ethical Code?
Ethics Committee:
The Focusing community is a community in constant growth, professionals and schools help it reach more and more people.
With a special feature in the approach towards the ethics, an approach already important in itself, which is to move from an ethics of established principles to being the individual themself who proposes and freely displays their own “ethical self”, in a process of experiential opening that brings knowledge connected to their experience, and brings that something more one brings to the relationship with themselves and with others.
An ethics based on a philosophy, on the legacy that Eugene Gendlin transmitted for persons, and for a freer society, with more justice and humanity.
It is important for everyone to ensure:
The guidelines which differentiate us: respect, the dignity of each person, a professional and human relationship which promotes responsible freedom and in which rights and obligations are present, belonging and feeling supported in a common agreement that respects differences and shares this vibrant, vital, living body, always in process.
The idea of committing to this code is to continue spreading what we, as a Committee, feel in each meeting: enthusiasm, desire to meet and share, to transmit this legacy always with the idea of being faithful to it with an increasingly deeper understanding, and to form a body of unity in differences, addressing the complexity of life itself, the reason for ethics.
In the words of Elena Frezza:
Focusing itself is a process of pure ethics. Our body, listened to and accompanied from within, with the attitude of respectful, compassionate, non-intrusive, non-interpretive listening, knows the path towards goodness and health in our lives.
No unethical process would allow such an unfolding.
It is such a delicate and deep process, a manifestation of pure, raw love, that ethics - implicit in each step - are essential for this transformation process to take place.
From this point, we create an ethical code, in coherence with those of us who practice this privileged profession.
Alejandro: What steps did the group take to design the swearing-in ceremony? What challenges arose during the design?
Analia Zaccai, secretary of the ACAF in 2023, responds:
Once the Code of Ethics was approved, the ACAF Board of Directors felt that the best time to hold the public swearing-in ceremony would be following the workshops at the Annual Conference, via Zoom.
An online event is inexpensive and at the same time makes it easier for the activity to reach many more people, which is why the online scenario was chosen.
To achieve this, announcements and invitations were sent out to the entire Argentine Focusing Community, to interested parties and friends of Focusing, sharing on social media, email and WhatsApp, inviting them to present workshops at the Conference, and also to be part of the swearing-in ceremony.
An important point to consider was: Who would administer the oath to Elena Frezza, who brought Focusing to our country decades ago? Eugene Gendlin had appointed Elena as Focusing Representative and Coordinator. Who could represent Gendlin?
We tossed around a few names and there was total consensus when we mentioned Ann Weiser.
Ann is not only a pioneering and brilliant teacher and author of Focusing books, who worked with Gendlin up until his last days, but she is also well known in the international community, and above all, a close friend of Elena Frezza.
Catherine Torpey, the Executive Director of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI.), was also present.
Regarding the dynamics of the event, Ann administered the oath to Elena Frezza, and Elena in turn administered the oath to Florentina Sassoli, president of the first administration of ACAF.
Then Florentina did the same with each of the oath-takers present, organized in groups of 4 or 5 people at a time.
Alejandro: How was the event experienced?
Analia Zaccai continues:
We were surprised to experience such moments of deep connection and promise. Not only was a multi-team event achieved from the ACAF Board of Directors, the Ethics Committee, the team who organized the event, Coordinators, teachers, students, and witnesses who were present, but also the event flowed with a special harmony, weaving its way through all kinds of work and weather, through all kinds of effort and hustle-bustle.
The resonances of all the intensity of commitment and dedication of every person taking the oath - whether novice or veteran on the Focusing path - are summed up in this phrase: "Overflowing emotion and Heartfelt Communion, wrapped us all in a mantle of energy from every heart, to the point of tears."
And for all of us there was a vivid feeling of having received a personal hug from Gene Gendlin.
Alejandro: If you want to listen to the opening words of the swearing-in, you can visit www.acafocusing.org.ar.
We would like to thank Caroline Copestake for the English translation of this article and Mariana Pisula for editing the original Spanish article.
Alejandro Juroczko is certified as Focusing Oriented Therapy and Focusing Trainer. He is currently a Coordinator-in-Training (CiT). He is co-director of “Focusing Para Todos,” where he offers training. He develops programs aimed at transforming insecurity into personal confidence, from the perspective of Focusing. He is the founder and director of “Pyme Saludable,” a business consulting firm, where he develops and directs programs for organizational well-being, from the perspective of conscious leadership and Focusing.