About us

Training and supervising analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and Infant Observation expert, Dina Vallino (Cagliari 1941 - Milan 2014) has dedicated her life to promote innovation in child’s psychoanalysis. In Raccontami una Storia [Tell me a Story: From Consultation to Child Analysis - Borla 1998, Mimesis 2021] Vallino invites her child patient to make up, draw and write a story together: through this method she helps the child to personify emotional experiences, to which are given narrative interpretations. In 1999 this book was awarded the Gradiva Prize, a prestigious annual prize for the best Italian book on psychoanalysis.

In 2004 she co-authored, with Marco Macciò, Essere Neonati. Osservazioni Psicoanalitiche [Being Newborns: Psychoanalytical Observations - Borla 2004] a book in which they launched a new type of research derived from Infant Observation: the newborn’s relationship with the mother is studied through observations of dozens of children in their families. In 2009, in Fare Psicoanalisi con Genitori e Bambini [Psychoanalytic Treatment with Parents and Children - Borla 2009;,Mimesis 2019] she changes the setting of children’s diagnostic consultations, giving consultations to the child and parents together: Consultazione Partecipata (Participated Consultation) aims at early prevention of mental disorders.

Association Dina Vallino was founded in 2015 by a close group of Vallino’s colleagues, whose first intent was to keep her psychoanalytic practice alive, while creating a community of psychotherapists and neuropsychiatrists with expertise in the care of infant and child disorders. The Association aims not only to encourage an historical study of the figure of the Italian psychoanalyst Dina Vallino, but also to promote the knowledge of her innovative method in infant and child psychotherapy.

Over the last years, the Association has carried out numerous initiatives for spreading the thought of Dina Vallino – conferences, monthly seminars and the re-publications of her works. Keeping in mind the importance of the training of new psychotherapists, the Association has established a three-year Training course structured around the setting of the Consultazione partecipata and Vallino’s specific psychoanalytic method of working with child.