Sandplay Therapy
"Supporting the Emergence of the Self""A basic postulate of Sandplay Therapy is that deep in the unconscious there is an autonomous tendency given the proper conditions, for the psyche to heal itself." - Estelle Weinrib 'Images of the Self-The Sandplay Therapy Process'
Sandplay Therapy provides:
- a means of self-discovery, healing and integration
- a transformation or redirection of blocked energy
- access to the childhood world of imagination and play, re-awakening our own creative nature
- a means by which children and adults, unable to articulate their feelings and experiences, can find expression and integration
- safe entry into the deeper archetypal, mythic and transpersonal realms of the psyche
- an activation of our natural, self-healing capacity
- an opportunity for a creative non-rational experience, as a balance to society's overemphasis on the ego's intellect
Sandplay Therapy was developed by Carl Jung and Dora Kalff from the original work of Margaret Lowenfeld. The process involves creating scenes in a tray of sand, using realistic miniatures chosen from the therapist's collection. These miniatures cover all areas of life such as people, plants, animals, houses, transportation, creepy crawlies, crystals etc. The sand may be moistened with water so that it can be molded or shaped into whatever 'landscape' the individual wishes to create.
a sandplay in progress
Karen with a clientThe use of sand and miniatures gives us a symbolic way of expressing our feelings and viewing our lives. Sandplay provides a fun, non-threatening approach to the unconscious, and a safe space in which to explore feelings and life situations that may feel overwhelming. The client may not have a particular focus in mind, however, playing with the sand, making a landscape, and adding symbols from the shelves, enables the psyche to find its own bearing, free of the ego's influence. Using the sandtray, we are able to play out our fantasies, and to externalize the inner world.
"Sandplay heals wounds that have blocked normal development. It enables the constellation and positive activation of the Self and the emergence of a stable ego capable of relating equally to the outer material and the inner spiritual worlds - to life in the here and now, and to the transpersonal dimension. At its best, sandplay therapy is a prime facilitator of the individuation process. At its least, it is an invaluable adjunctive modality." - Estelle Weinrib 'Images of the Self-The Sandplay Therapy Process'
Sandplay therapy is wonderful for children and adults!
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a vast collection of miniatures for Sandplay |
Karen offers a Sandplay Training for Counsellors and Therapists.
Next course: Begins 6th April 2012
This certificate course has been approved by the Aust. Counselling Assoc. for OPD
Sandplay Therapy - Training Course
Group Supervision for Counsellors & Therapists
A Client's Sandplay Experience"Birthing a Star"
I wrote the following piece immediately after a Sandplay Therapy session I had with Karen. I'd made a mound of sand in the centre of the tray, and placed amazingly weathered, 'writhing' pieces of driftwood around it, as if to guard it. As I stroked the mound of sand in the centre, it felt as if I were stroking the part of me no one had ever recognized or acknowledged in my childhood - the deepest, truest, most fragile self. And then I felt it speak the following to me:
"Don't forget me. I'm amazing. I'm the music magpies sing. I'm the shining inside laughter and tears. I'm more precious than all the money in the world. And the world hasn't seen ultimate beauty until it's seen me.
Do you know my time has come to open? And that the long incubation was magic in disguise? When I burst open, I'll take your breath away!
Do you know nothing can ever stop me? Do you feel the power of my fragility, feel the power women know in their deepest places, feel the power of this ageless voice? Do you have any idea how much power you have here in me? I'm what flowers in the aftermath of death. Do you know you need never leave this place again, that you can live from here for the rest of your life?
Can you say me into the world? Write my voice, sing my sound? My calling never stops - you've heard me all your life, in birdsong, rain, and wind; heard me in hope, and yearning; heard me in awe.
There are pieces of earth in me, and pieces of star, slivers of ocean and a million lights. If my voice has found you, you've reached the inner sanctum. You can do miracles from here.
Your rage is my release, is the fire that opens the pod. I've called your rage, and watched it blast through walls of lies. Your time has come. There have been many deaths, I know - small crimes against the soul - and you've sometimes felt in tatters, miles from any light - but these monuments to loss the ocean gave you, this driftwood shaped like dance, stands sentinel around you, warding off all theft.
Caress me when I call you - you'll be kindling magic, crafting dream, birthing a star from deep inside."
(Lisa Seckold)]
The following article is an extract from:
"Sandplay Therapy - a step by step manual for psychotherapists of diverse orientation" by Barbara Labovitz Boik and E. Anna Goodwin
In sandplay therapy the therapist pro vides a sand tray, water, and a multitude of objects and materials with which to imaginatively create scenes in the circumscribed space of the sand tray. Sandplay can be used effectively with children, adults, couples, families, and groups. As Ruth Ammann analogized, the sand tray is like "a soul garden", a kind of container for the display of the client's psychic life. The sand tray is an "in-between-space," where the client's inner and outer life can develop and reveal itself. The tray is that free and empty space where the client has the opportunity to create her/ his own world and transform her/his existing world with fresh insight. The therapist provides a safe and accepting environment in which the client can allow her/his inner voice to speak. To continue Ammann's metaphor, this "in-between-space," in which the conscious and uncon scious material can unfold, come together, and be made concrete, is also the space between the client and the therapist. This is the space where the unconscious and conscious of the therapist and the client meet and interact (Ammann, 1994).
Sandplay provides the client access to her/his innermost feeling core or psyche. In sandplay therapy the client represents in images what is happening in her/his inner and outer world. By making concrete what the inner voice is expressing, the client brings into external reality her/ his own relationship with her/himself and allows unconscious material to be revealed. This concrete, observable manifestation of subliminal material brings into greater consciousness that which has heretofore been repressed or unknown.
In the course of people's lives they create personas to interface with the external world. They often repress feelings and thoughts and lose touch with their Selves, the center of their psyches. The constant activ ity and demands of individuals' everyday lives, the dissociation from traumatic and painful experiences, the messages people receive to shut off their feelings, to be rational or think linearly, to conform and to subdue their imaginations, all serve to block them from their Selves. The more people are blocked, the more disparate the persona is from the Self. "The deeper the emotions and feelings are covered up, the more distanced from consciousness memories and a part of our person alities have become, the less likely it is that we can find the words to express them" (Ammann, 1993). As they become more aware of their unconscious processes by allowing the unknown to be seen through the creation of the sand world, individuals can gain energies and insights which were denied to them. In describing Jungian theory, David Hart, in an interview with Adelaide Bry, stated that "the cooper ation of conscious and unconscious life leads to a greater unity and greater strength within the individual" (in Centerpoint I, 1995, p. 19). Sandplay can provide the framework for this cooperation.
Sandplay takes many forms. The connection with the sand in and of itself helps to ground, center, and/or regress the client to a place that needs healing. One of the reasons that this occurs is because as chil dren most people played in the sand and in the dirt. Sandplay often takes a person back to some childhood memory. Some clients use no objects at all; they touch, move, and make formations in the sand. Some use few objects; some use many. Some use the sand dry; some wet the sand with water. Some build their scene quickly; some work slowly. Some create a static world; some create an ongoing, moving story. Some report the experience as very centering and tranquil. Some enjoy the playfulness of sandplay. Some experience very deep emo tions, re-experiencing past pain. There is no right way or right out come. It is important to trust that each client will do what s/he needs to do at that moment in time. It is also important for the therapist to be as aware as possible of her/his biases, values, and unresolved issues. This awareness allows the therapist to be open to receiving what the client is experiencing, with minimal judgment.
"Sandplay therapy is a prime facilitator for the individuation pro cess" (Weinrib, 1983). We concur with the Jungian precept that the psyche naturally moves toward healing and wholeness. This aspiration for wholeness toward which the client may have been striv in g unconsciously becomes increasingly realized as the unconscious be comes conscious. The client reconciles her/himself to, and becomes more aware of, different aspects of her/his personality and the blocks and wounds that have interfered with healing and wholeness. Sandplay is like a dream experience, in that it brings to consciousness what the client doesn't see in reality. This helps compensate for her/his lack of awareness.
We see Sandplay as an adjunct to therapy. Therefore therapists will continue to use the techniques that have served them well in their professional careers. It is important for therapists to honor their own style and theoretical orientations. Sandplay complements many differ ent therapeutic approaches. Gestalt techniques, visualization and imag ery, psychodrama, body work and movement, cognitive restructuring, art therapy, and hypnosis are some of the therapeutic strategies that interface with and augment the sandplay process.
Summary - What is Sandplay?
- Imaginative activity in the sand
- Natural mirror for the individuation process
- Access to innermost feeling core
- Observable manifestation of subliminal material
- Symbolic language for communication
- Safe and accepting environment
- Within a circumscribed space
- With or without water
- With or without objects
- Static or moving world
- Adjunct to therapy
- Used with children, adults, couples, families, groups
Benefits of Sandplay
- Facilitates the individuation process
- Frees creativity, inner feelings, perceptions and memories, bringing them into outer reality and providing concrete testimony
- Utilizes most of the senses, providing an expanded experience
- Regresses the client to past experiences, allowing healing and integration
- Creates bridges from the unconscious to the conscious, the inner to the outer world, mental and spiritual to physical, nonverbal to verbal, thus revealing hidden material
- Invites spontaneous play; no right or wrong way
- Allows defenses to diminish because it is non-threatening
- Functions as a natural language for children and a common lan guage for use with diverse cultures and developmental stages
- Empowers the client by allowing movement from the position of victim to creator and by impacting her/his own course of therapy
- Serves as an adjunct to therapy, making sandplay available for use by therapists of various orientations
- Provides therapist the opportunity to do personal work
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