Listening to the “Opinista”? Relational understandings of voice and silence in a multiperspective narrative study of child psychotherapy

The concept of ‘child voice’ is examined through a longitudinal narrative case-based analysis of interviews and drawings with an 8-year-old Chilean girl, who was in psychotherapy following sexual abuse, alongside interviews with her mother and therapists. Prompted by the child's description of herself through the neologism of the opinista—one who has opinions—the analysis encompasses diverse narratives of a critical moment in therapy, illuminating the complexity and entangled relationality of ‘child voice’. Moving beyond an individualizsed conception of ‘voice’ makes it possible to account for relationality without privileging adult articulations of children's experiences—allowing the opinista to be heard.