In March, the Child, Adolescent & Parent Psychotherapy Committee organized a webinar for IARPP members entitled “Out of the Playroom and Into the Zoom Room: 3 Stories Inspire Questions about the Challenges of Working with Children & Families During a Pandemic,” moderated by Fabia E. Banella (Italy).
It was an exciting program. We spent three weeks with a stunning team of psychoanalytic writers and thinkers: Susi Federici (Italy), Jacqueline Gotthold (US), Amy Joelson (US), Macarena Lopez (Chile) and Sara Biondi (Italy). The team put together an intense paper in which they shared thoughts, reflections, questions, concerns and clinical vignettes about clinical work with children and families since the pandemic started – one year ago. We developed an ongoing and enriching dialogue; we shared thoughts, ideas, advice, doubts and hopes.
We had great participation, with 75 participants from all around the globe.
In the paper Susi reminded us of the great journey of Ulysses: the turbulence of the journey; how much resistance and perseverance are necessary to continue living; the illusion of returning to ‘normality.’ Jackie helped us reflect and wonder about co-creative, bidirectional, emergent psychotherapeutic process. She opened up many interesting developmental and theoretical questions about what the treatment of children and adolescents looks like after a year in the Zoom room. Amy illustrated her fascinating work with the 8 year-old “Chloe” – how the dyad adapted to the forced transition to Zoom, with the consequent constrictions, changes and opportunities that followed. Macarena wrote about her challenging and rewarding experience with a group of families with preschool children during quarantine, and the needs, emotions and discussions that emerged in this process. Sara passionately described the development on Zoom of the analytic relationship with “Marianna,” and how it became a way to observe the creativity and transformation of the young patient.
The webinar was an excellent and passionate dialogue in which we all were able to share different experiences and grow from them.
We share our deep gratitude to the people whose contributions made this webinar possible: Jackie, Amy, Sara, Macarena and Susi for their remarkable contributions to the conversation; Elisa Zazzera, who did all the work behind the scenes; the members of the Child, Adolescent and Parents Committee; and all those who signed up and participated.
Fabia E. Banella (Italy) and Susanna Federici (Italy),
on behalf of the Child, Adolescent and Parents Committee
