Taking care of exposure to violence in a children’s group: psychoanalytic reflections

Abstract

With the aim of transforming the waiting room of an outpatient clinic, dedicated to women and adolescent victims of violence, into an inviting space for children who were eventually brought by them as companions, a playful ambiance was created and led by an interdisciplinary team. Clinical-theoretical reflections are drawn from this experience, which is reported in a narrative on the eight group meetings. Despite the lack of stability in the waiting room, we observed that the children presented at each meeting managed to form a group, sometimes playing in a complementary way, in a representation between aggression and submission, and relying on the holding of the team responsible for the environment who, in turn, also relied on their group to take care of the children.