Rome, Apr. 8 (LaPresse) – Months on, the case of the forest family still seems far from resolution, and concerns focus on the mental health of the three children. This is detailed in a new technical report, filed with the Juvenile Court of L’Aquila, by psychiatrist Tonino Cantelmi, Associate of Psychopathology at the Gregoriana University and Medical Director of "Opera Don Guanella" Rome, and Martina Aiello, psychologist-psychotherapist and Coordinator of the Legal Psychology Area – ITCI Rome, consultants for the Trevallion/Birmingham couple.
The report focuses on observations following the latest video calls between Catherine and the children, after the mother’s removal on March 6. “Observations of the video calls after the mother’s removal clearly show significant psychological suffering in the minors, continuing the acute traumatic response already documented at the time of separation. This suffering does not manifest through explicitly oppositional behaviors or structured verbalizations—completely incompatible with the children’s emotional state—but through expressive and behavioral signals typical of traumatic responses in developmental age. In particular,” the consultants write in the report reviewed by LaPresse, “markedly blank facial expressions, fixed or unresponsive gazes, reduced emotional expressiveness, and a general impoverishment of relational initiative are observed, clinically compatible with hypoactivation, freezing, and emotional withdrawal.”