Patient and therapist in trauma. Intertwining theory, technique, and clinical practice with traumatized children

Journal title STUDI JUNGHIANI
Author/s Wanda Grosso
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/62
Language Italian Pages 17 P. 21-37 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/jun62-2025oa22036
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The author presents a reflection on analytic work with traumatized children, integrating Jungian theory, relational psychoanalysis, and neuroscience. The paper explores how the therapeutic relationship – when grounded in empathy, containment, and mirroring – can foster psychic integration and the symbolic elaboration of trauma. The Hasidic tale The Turkey Prince serves as a metaphor for the analytic process: descending “under the table” with the patient means entering and sharing his emotional world, allowing a transformative contact between instinctual and human dimensions. Through the clinical case of Gabriele, a child marked by abandonment and violence, the author shows how the analyst, by accepting her involvement in the transference–countertransference dynamic, may transform enactment into a space of reflection and growth. Healing thus emerges as a living intersubjective process, in which the capacity to remain within crisis enables the passage from fragmentation to self-cohesion.

Keywords: childhood trauma;analytic relationship;enactment;caregiving relationship/ power relationship;intersubjectivity;psyche–body integration

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Wanda Grosso, Paziente e terapeuta dentro il trauma. Intrecci tra teoria, tecnica e clinica con bambini traumatizzati in "STUDI JUNGHIANI" 62/2025, pp 21-37, DOI: 10.3280/jun62-2025oa22036