March 2024 was a lively month for the Child, Adolescent and Parent Committee members. We held the first online webinar, via Zoom, for IARPP members. As regular IARPP members recall, our annual webinar usually happens through email exchanges, but this year we experimented with a new format, a half-day face-to-face Zoom event.

The webinar, “Affect Regulation in Times of Anger in the Clinical Exchange: Relational Encounters with Children, Adolescents and Families,” was moderated by Sara Biondi (Italy) and Macarena Lopez (Chile), also members of the Committee. It addressed the themes of affect regulation, vulnerability and anger in the clinical exchange, and the important role of the therapeutic work as guardian of hope. The webinar’s program was rich, with two clinical vignettes and two discussions. Fabia Banella (myself, from Italy) presented a vignette on the work with a 4-year-old boy with anger issues and his family, incorporating a pluralism of perspectives from the play-therapy, relational therapy and Infant-Parent Mental Health Model. Marilou Kountria (Greece) presented a case of a 13-year-old girl with emetophobia who gradually moved to work her anger towards the family and its unspoken secrets. In both situations it was crucial to build a bridge between the work with the children and their parents, and the cases illustrated the powerful impact of parallel work on the therapeutic process. Two main discussants, Raimundo Guerra (Spain) and Brent Willock (Canada), deepened the exploration through their perspectives and wisdom. The webinar was a great experience which gathered more than 50 members from all around the world.

We look forward for the next opportunity to expand the psychoanalytic dialogue in the work with children and families.

Fabia E. Banella, Co-Chair

Fabia E. Banella, Ph.D.
Rome, Italy
Email Fabia Banella