Immigration and difficult parenthood. A work experience at the family guidance centre

Starting from his working experience in a Family Guidance Centre, the author develops some considerations on how the family has changed in the last few decades and on some of the new challenges caused by such changes. He then highlights how nowadays the psychological counselling work is largely dedicated to immigrant families. These families present parenting disorders, which set their roots in the cultural diversity and, in some cases, in the extremely uncertain life conditions of their childhood. In the end, the author presents two clinical cases as examples. In the first case, the author describes taking into charge a young Romanian woman who presents severe parenting disorders in the relation with her daughter and with a childhood characterized by several experiences of abonnement and neglect. The second clinical case presented has as main character a multicultural family in which the clash between the culture of origin of the father and the western assumed by two daughters - born and raised in Italy - gives rise to manifestations of violence and parental intolerance towards them .

Keywords: Immigration; Family Guidance Centre; Parenthood; Minors; Traumatic Relationships; Adolescence

Claudio Donadoni, Immigrazione e genitorialità difficili Un’esperienza di lavoro consultoriale in "PSICOBIETTIVO" 2/2016, pp 93-107, DOI: 10.3280/PSOB2016-002006