The little box of secrets. The pain of children in witnessing intrafamiliar violence

Abstract

The text addresses the issue of witnessing intrafamiliar violence and describes the psychological and physical damage to child development and the approach used in psychotherapy with children who are victims. Through the presentation of clinical cases, the author argues that the traumatic consequences on children who witness the violent relationship between parents are similar in cases of conflict between couples and in cases of maltreatment by the father on the mother. The concept of witnessing violence should therefore also be extended to situations of violent marital conflict. The author urges psychotherapists to pay more attention to the signs of witnessing violence in the family, so that appropriate protection and care interventions are activated.

Keywords

• Assisted intrafamily violence
• trauma
• abuse
• conflict
• psychotherapy