Avaliação terapêutica com adolescentes em situação de acolhimento institucional

Abstract

The Therapeutic Assessment with adolescents (TA-A) is understood as a collaborative and semi-structured psychological assessment approach, which seeks to promote the positive development of the adolescent and their family. It is noteworthy that different social contexts produce different adolescences, with different subjectivities, challenges, and potentialities. In this sense, we think here about the reality of adolescents who live in institutional care, understanding that they may experience weakening or disruption of family ties and various psychosocial consequences, which requires an ethical and problematizing stance in acting and research in TA-A. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze how the Therapeutic Assessment process promotes changes in the demands presented by adolescents living in institutional care. To this end, a multiple case study was carried out, of a mixed nature and with exploratory purposes. The TA-A process was carried out with two adolescents, aged 12 and 14 years old, who lived in a shelter institution, and with the institution's psychologist, who participated in one of the cases as responsible for the adolescent and, in the other, as professional who carried out the referral and identified demands. The TA-A processes were carried out in 9 and 10 sessions, lasting an average of one and a half hours each, and followed the semi-structured steps of TA-A. The records were made in written form by the evaluating psychologist, through session reports. A qualitative analysis of the reports and a pre and post TA-A comparison were carried out to assess possible changes, using the Jacobson and Truax method (JT method) and analysis of the Reliable Change Index (RCI). It was observed that affects related to institutionalization and previous experiences of violence and neglect permeated the demands for evaluating adolescents, and that specific adaptations to the TA-A semi-structure were necessary. The systemic aspects proposed in the TA-A semi-structure, with the understanding of the influence of family relationships in the maintenance of complaints, were not possible with this configuration. However, understanding the relationships established between the adolescents and the institution enabled guidance that provided the institution with a new perspective on the behavior of the adolescents. Furthermore, TA-A promoted changes in the demands presented by the adolescents with different scopes in each case, but consistent with the specific context of each participant, with their life stories and external supports, highlighting that the safe and collaborative space promoted in TA-A, as well as the underlying values sustained in the process, proved to be essential in promoting the changes observed.