ABSTRACT This paper presents the clinical case of Leonardo, a sensitive and intelligent 4-year-old boy struggling with emotional dysregulation and impulsivity. The intervention, based on the biopsychosocial model of early development, combined relational psychoanalytic infant-parent psychotherapy, the Touchpoint Approach, play therapy, and attachment-informed techniques. The therapeutic work focused on understanding Leonardo’s nonverbal expressions of anger and distress and improving the relational dynamics within his family. Sessions aimed to create a safe space for Leonardo to express and reframe his aggressive impulses while supporting his parents in developing more attuned coregulatory strategies. By addressing both the child’s and parents’ internal representations and interactive patterns, the intervention promoted emotional flexibility and resilience. The case highlights the bidirectional influences between child and caregiver and illustrates how early psychodynamic interventions can strengthen emotional development, improve family relationships, and foster healthier adaptive functioning in the face of developmental challenges.

This paper illustrates how relational intervention in play therapy sessions with adolescents can open not only new communication roads for the adolescent, but also space for a family’s past traumatic experiences to be addressed. It describes in detail the case of Nandia, a 12-year-old girl seeking help for her fear of vomiting. Using relational play therapy techniques, Nandia begins to articulate her anger, leading to a reduction in her emetophobia symptoms. The therapy process also unveils underlying familial dynamics and unresolved traumas, highlighting the importance of integrating the parents into a parallel work in adolescent treatment, in order to eliminate “the elephants” in the room.

ABSTRACT This autoethnographic paper examines the reworking of my refugee experience through the co-creation of a therapeutic home for a dying man and his family. Drawing on personal narrative and psychotherapeutic insight, this work interweaves my story with existing theories regarding the refugee experience to offer reflective inquiry into refugee trauma, displacement, and the process of repair. By positioning the refugee experience within both individual and collective psychic realities, the paper advocates for a more nuanced understanding of refugee subjectivity—one that extends beyond pathologizing frameworks to include psychosocial, cultural, and psychospiritual dimensions, facilitating a return to a deeper sense of universal belonging and home. The journey traced in this paper moves from traditional, intrapsychic conceptualizations of trauma toward a more integrative, relational model. I propose a psychoanalytic sensibility attuned to what I term the “brokenwhole”—a state that is absent of psychic tension and embraces suffering as intrinsic to the human condition. Rather than seeking to eliminate pain, this approach supports individuals in inhabiting their wholeness, enabling them to bear the truth of their brokenness without retreating into psychic defense.