Dissonant Symphony: A Depth Psychological Approach to the Foster Child’s Trauma

Abstract

Honoring the need to feel heard when growing up in the foster care system is the main foundation of this research. This study explores how to understand, from a depth psychological perspective, the child in foster care’s trauma. Data has been gathered by utilizing hermeneutic, phenomenological, and alchemical hermeneutics approaches, providing an analysis of the reported lived experience of the subjects and through the patient–therapist experience. It also presents the idea that, even though cognitive behavioral evidence-based practices offer many positives, they are very limited when treating complex trauma. The study explores how implementing depth psychology as a complementary intervention can benefit the client. The findings also demonstrate similarities of themes, metaphors, and archetypal manifestations among this population. This study attempts to trigger the curiosity of mental health professionals and future researchers by focusing on a population that continues to be neglected and whose outcome will have a lasting impact on society. These children’s mental health and well-being should be a priority and everyone’s responsibility. The daily reality of children growing up in foster care is based on an intense dissonance between the voiceless child’s true needs and the organized chaos of a system that can only offer unstable safety.