ABSTRACT
The authors set child distress in the current social context, in which the Covid-19 emergency has accentuated the existing background of anxiety and insecurity. In this context, relational disorders characterised by perceptual and emotional desensitisation and by the process of dissociation are increasing in children. Child psychotherapy can support caregiver/child self-regulation in order to facilitate their creative adaptation. Being able to feel fully present in the encounter with the other by re-sensitising the contact boundary allows both to regain emotional and bodily sensitivity. The theoretical concepts that have guided the authors in their reading of child pathology from a phenomenological and situational perspective are presented, first of all considering the child’s suffering as a suffering of being-with. The case of a little patient is also proposed through the compilation of a Gestalt clinical form in which both the child’s discomfort and the therapeutic relationship are analysed following phenomenological, aesthetic, and field coordinates. Finally, some hints are given about the model with which the authors work with children.
