Trajectories #7: One Brick at a Time - The Story of The Developmental Library

Project Introduction — Trajectories

Trajectories is the newsletter of The Developmental Library, a community-driven space for anyone navigating the world of developmental and life-course psychology.

Every month we give a voice to professionals and scholars who tell their story with authenticity: the daily work, the tools they use, the resources they find valuable, the questions that still run through them. We don't look for linear careers or perfect answers — we look for situated experiences, plural points of view, different trajectories.

Psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, researchers, teachers, and students: if you're passionate about psychology throughout your life, this space is yours too.

Newsletters come out on the 23rd of each month. If you would like to contribute as Voice of the Month — or share resources, insights, reflections — write by the 15th at thedevelopmentallibrary@gmail.com.

Each entry adds a perspective. Each experience opens a new trajectory.

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Introduction to the month of July: Building a space — the roots of a community

This month Trajectories is looking in the mirror a little. Instead of hosting the voice of an outside professional, we chose to tell where all this came from: The Developmental Library, the newsletter you're reading, the magazine we're building together, the projects that have been added like bricks to each other over time.

It is no coincidence that we are doing this right now. Talking about "being therapeutic," about presence, humanity, and relationships in care —the theme of the next annual magazine— means first of all asking: what kind of space do we want to build for those who work, study, or simply love psychology? In this issue, you'll find the community's origin story, the active projects that have emerged from it, the official invitation to participate in Roots and Horizons, and —as always— resources, readings, and materials for your psychology corner.

There is a time, for those who truly love something, when it is no longer enough to practice it alone. You need a space to take her, share her, grow her with someone else. For me, that moment came in January 2025, and from there The Developmental Library was born.

How it began

I trained between Madrid and Milan, writing both theses on autism: the first on the importance of supporting self-regulation in siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during the global pandemic, the second on how communication and parental intervention influence the risk of maltreatment in children with ASD. From that journey between two languages and two cities, a characteristic was also born that I still carry in the project today: some content is in Italian, others in English, because this is how the thoughts that generated it were formed.

But The Developmental Library doesn't come from a coffee table plan. It stems from a very simple desire: to have a place to engage, network, and share resources, while maintaining the ethical and scientific rigor that this work requires. I wanted to meet people who shared my passion. So, on October 18, 2025, I launched my Instagram page and website, starting with my first collaborations on newsletters and posts. From there, brick by brick, everything else was born.

Today, The Developmental Library is a community-driven space, open to anyone who experiences psychology in any form — psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, researchers, students, or simply people passionate about human development throughout their lives. The mission remains that of the origins: to make psychological knowledge accessible, insightful, and applicable to real-world research, teaching, and practice.

A mosaic of columns

On Instagram, the project has expressed itself in many different voices, each with a specific goal: Theory in 60 Seconds explains the fundamental theories of psychology clearly and visually, without ever trivializing them. On Psyche reads current events through the lens of psychology. Infographics and Diagrams synthesize complex research and models at a glance. Practical Tips give professionals and students concrete tools to use right away. Conference Recaps tell the story of what moves at international conferences, from neuroscience to trauma, from personality to psychotherapy.

Then there are more contemplative columns, like Why it moves us, which connects books, articles, and films to the psychological insights they bring with them, or Standing on Giants, dedicated to the great minds who built developmental psychology as we know it today — because, as I like to repeat, modern psychology exists because someone dared to think differently. The Student Corner accompanies those still studying, while Neuroscience, Psychology in Practice, Research Made Simple, and Meta Analysis Mondays combine scientific rigor and popular clarity, each from its own corner.

Trajectories: Your own corner of psychology

From this desire to give voice to experiences was born Traiettorie, the community newsletter. I always explain it like this: it's "your own psychology corner." Each issue features a professional who explains how they trained, where they work, and what tools they use in everyday life — to make themselves known even to those who work in a completely different field. It's not an abstract theory newsletter: it's made up of people talking about their profession, what they see every day, how they really work. Alongside the month's entry, there are practical tools, recommended resources, and an always-open invitation: anyone who wants to share their world of psychology can write to us.

Roots and Horizons: When the Community Becomes a Magazine

Over time, a bigger idea was born: to celebrate the community's "birthday" by involving everyone in writing a proper magazine. From there was born Roots and Horizons, the annual journal of The Developmental Library — a meeting place between science and subjectivity, research and practice, theory and lived experience, which collects research, reflections, papers and community interviews in a single publication.

The theme of the 2026 issue is "Therapeutic Being – Presence, Humanity, and Relationship in Care," and it focuses on something no manual can truly fully teach: the human, embodied, and relational role of the therapist. It is a reflection on how care arises precisely in the encounter between scientific data and lived experience — the Self that heals, between science and subjectivity.

Anyone wishing to participate can choose one of the seven sections of the magazine, each with its own entry:

• Theoretical Reflections, for interdisciplinary essays and articles on development, psychodynamics, neuroscience, and cultural psychology.

• Prospective Research / Featured Research, for those who want to report on recent research by putting it in dialogue with clinical practice.

• From Theory to Practice, where ideas take shape in the helping relationship.

• The Voice of the Community, a space for experiences, reflections, and firsthand accounts from the field.

• Dialogues, multi-voiced conversations between professionals, trainers, students and researchers.

• Resources and Tools, to share readings, podcasts, and tools useful for professional growth.

• Creativity & Culture, the magazine's artistic space, including poetry, photography, storytelling, and illustration.

Active projects: when the community takes different forms

The beauty of this community is that I continually connect with new people, with different ideas, proposals, and interests. From these meetings came what I call the "active projects" — small worlds within the larger world of The Developmental Library.

1. Capitolo Aperto is the book club, born from my love of reading since I was a child. Every two months we meet to discuss a text chosen together — not manuals, but books that talk about psychology, human development and the complexity of being a person. It's a way to open up dialogue, meet different perspectives, and discover books that, on my own, I might never have read.

2. The Spectrum of Intimacies arises from an uncomfortable but necessary reflection: sexuality and affectivity are rarely addressed comprehensively, and even less so when they are intertwined with neurodivergence. Cultural taboos, a lack of adequate tools, and communication difficulties make this topic difficult for professionals, families, and young people themselves to address. The project gives authentic voice to different experiences and needs, through video calls, interviews with neurodivergent people and professionals in the sector, thematic meetings and practical resources — a training and narrative space for psychologists, educators, caregivers and for neurodivergent people themselves.

3. Project Love was born from a conversation with a colleague, starting with the first book discussed in the reading club, on how everyone defines love. I created a questionnaire that explores different conceptions of love —romantic, family, friendship, spiritual— and how they change across cultures, generations, and individual experiences. There are no right or wrong answers: only the authentic perspective of the person answering matters.

4. The Unconscious of History is the most recent monthly column, exploring the boundary between psychology and history. Every 15th of the month, an episode recounts how historical events, figures, and cultural revolutions have transformed the way we understand the human mind — and how psychology, in turn, has shaped history. It's a passion I've carried with me since I was a child, when I loved history and mythology well before studying psychology: I've always been fascinated by how these two disciplines continue to speak to each other. 

5. El Circol de Ringhera is the most recent project. In Milan, there's a lot of culture —exhibitions, talks, aperitifs—, but there's often no room to truly stop, get to know each other calmly, or meet the same faces again. The railing was just that: the public housing gallery, the shared corridor overlooking the courtyard where people knew each other without an appointment. This group wants to be our backyard: themed aperitifs, walks, game nights, workshops, shared dinners, with a single underlying idea — creating real relationships, not just contacts.

From digital to physical

I still don't know what form this community will take over time — in such a short time it has already changed a lot, it has expanded, it is growing. I'm proud and passionate about what she's becoming, and I hope to see her transform again, taking her more and more often to physical places as well.

In May we organized the first Picnic & Psych: we found ourselves painting, playing, chatting, sharing a picnic. I'm now working on Sip & Psych, our informal meeting time — an aperitif where professionals and enthusiasts gather to exchange ideas, stories, and perspectives, with or without a theme, but always with good conversations. And I'm building One Page at a Time, a notebook left in a bar where anyone can leave questions, thoughts, resources, tools — the freedom to tell their story, one page at a time.

Recommended book

"The Gift of Therapy" by Irvin Yalom. A collection of short, direct reflections on the therapeutic relationship, written by one of the authors who most insisted that it is the authentic encounter between two people —not just the technique— that cures. Perfect for getting into this year's Roots and Horizons theme.

Recommended reading and open access resources

• Frontiers in Psychology (frontiersin.org) — an entirely open-access journal, with sections dedicated to developmental, clinical, and cultural psychology.

• PLOS ONE — publishes open-access psychological research, useful for those who want to read the original study and not just the popular summary.

• APA PsycNet Open Access Collection — a selection of articles from the American Psychological Association made freely searchable.

• Autism (SAGE Journals) – open access articles, for those who want to delve deeper into research on the autism spectrum, a topic dear to the origins of this project. 

Podcasts, apps and educational materials

• Pop Psychology — Italian podcast that makes psychological concepts accessible without losing rigor.

• Therapist Uncensored — for those who want to delve deeper into attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, and therapeutic relationships.

• The Neurodivergent Woman — podcast dedicated to neurodivergence and everyday life, in line with the Spectre of Intimacies project.

• Insight Timer — free app with useful mindfulness resources for both clinical and personal use.

Quote: 

"Members of a cohesive group feel warmth and comfort in the group and a sense of belongingness; they value the group and feel in turn that they are valued, accepted, and supported by other members."

— Irvin D. Yalom, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

Yalom wrote this about therapeutic groups, but the same dynamic is what makes a community like ours alive: it's not the sum of individual people who post or participate, it's the fact that everyone feels part of something, supported by others as much as they contribute to supporting. It's the principle behind Chapter Open, El Circol de Ringhera, the magazine Roots and Horizons — every project born from this community exists because someone decided to build it together with others, not alone.

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The Developmental Library was born out of a desire to share, and it is precisely thanks to sharing that it continues to grow. Whether you want to share your world of psychology in Trajectories, contribute to a Roots and Horizons section, or simply join one of our meetings — there's always a place for you in this library that grows thanks to the people who live there.

Want to share your world of psychology or share your resources? Send us an email — our library grows thanks to you.

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