A “Kintsugi” Approach to Family Therapy with Adoption? Two Clinical Vignettes.

This paper analyzes two clinical vignettes, outlining a family therapy approach to adoption, which aims at transferring some core elements of Milan and Post-Milan systemic thinking into the unique challenge of working with adoptive families. Systemic therapy, especially in its Milan and post-Milan approaches, is considered “cold” by some authors, when it comes to addressing individual feelings and emotion, and therefore unable to provide a safe and warm space for exploration.

This paper presents two different therapeutic interventions, conducted with adoptive children and their new families, in which classical Milan Approach principles (focus on current narratives rather than the past ones; positive connotation, triadic hypothesizing) are used to co-construct a sense of mutual belonging and bonding within the families, without disregarding individual variables.

This contribution could represent an interesting starting point for alternative routes in family therapy with adoption.