Revisión documental: dinámicas vinculares en familias de elección trans

Abstract

This literature review is part of the Master's Degree in Clinical and Family Psychology at Santo Tomás University. The question that guided the review was: How can understanding the configurations and dynamics of trans chosen families, from a complex systemic perspective, contribute to the design of public policies, contextualized intervention processes, and welfare scenarios for this population? This is developed from a qualitative approach through a documentary review of digital sources, with the aim of retrieving, organizing, and synthesizing existing information on linking dynamics, chosen families, trans identity, and intervention perspectives. Thirty-nine texts in Spanish and English were analyzed between 2015 and 2025. The results show that the relational configurations in trans chosen families, in many cases, challenge and redefine traditional family models, becoming spaces of belonging, validation, and support. However, these family forms do not always represent a break with the family ties of origin but may involve processes of reconfiguration and reinterpretation of those bonds. Indeed, these configurations face relational and structural challenges that require constant negotiation and reflection, which can lead to tensions, rejections, or dynamics that affect the well-being of their members. This complexity leads to an understanding of chosen families not as fixed or static ideal structures, but as living, diverse, and constantly changing systems. On the other hand, there is a recognized theoretical shortage on the subject in the Colombian context, which limits the legitimization of such families, the guarantee of rights, the development of public policies, and contextualized intervention processes. Even so, this research opens a path to continue thinking about bonds from other epistemological and relational perspectives, in a critical and intersectional manner, recognizing that trans people not only reconfigure their bodies and identities, but also the affective fabrics that sustain them and give them meaning. What is at stake is not only the right to exist, but also the right to build connections, to care for and be cared for with dignity, recognition, and legitimacy.