“When there is no case”. The difficulties in the therapeutic relationship in an intervention through art therapy with a pediatric hemodialysis patient

Abstract

One of the groups of the project “ALETHEIA: Arts and Art Therapy as an approach to trauma and emotional memory” focuses on investigating how art therapy can improve the well-being of children in the hospital setting. For pediatric patients, the disease and medical experiences can be experienced as a traumatic experience, which will have consequences on their emotional development. This article does not address the whole of the research, but the difficulties in the therapeutic relationship with a pediatric hemodialysis patient. The article is narrated in the first person in the form of an autoethnographic narrative and focuses on the countertransference experienced by the art therapist, with the purpose of showing the difficulties and mistakes arising in the process, thus making visible the reality of the work and the complexity of the cases of trauma.