(Re)existing in the Field: Adolescence, Microaggressions, and the Clinic of Presence

When the Field Fails to Support: Microaggressions, LGBTQIA+ Adolescences, and Creative Adjustments in Gestalt Therapy

Abstract

This article discusses the effects of symbolic violence and microaggressions on the psychic constitution of LGBTQIA+ adolescents, from the perspective of Gestalt therapy. Understanding suffering as a field phenomenon — relational, social and political —, the text analyzes how the environment imposes normative standards that silence, nullify and fragment the process of constructing the self. The pressure for heteronormative conformity triggers dysfunctional creative adjustments, which manifest themselves in symptoms such as guilt, withdrawal and self-harm. The clinic is presented as a space of emergency and possibility, where contact is restored and the subject can exist authentically. Listening without correcting, welcoming without translating and recognizing the singularity of each experience are clinical and ethical acts. The article proposes an engaged listening, capable of sustaining presence and affirming the right of these young people to live beyond survival.