Sandplay Wisdom

Understanding Sandplay Therapy

Rie Rogers Mitchell, Harriet S. Friedman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000361179
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Consulenza psicoterapeutica

Sandplay Wisdom provides key concepts for understanding and using sandplay therapy effectively, distilling insight from more than four decades of experience. Rie Rogers Mitchell and Harriet S. Friedman provide both core principles and hard-won practical tips to deepen understanding of sandplay therapy for both experienced and novice practitioners.

The principles presented provide key insight into many important therapeutic dimensions, including childhood trauma, archetypal life stages, age and gender issues, transference and countertransference, as well as sandplay with both adults and children. The book is illustrated with case material and images from real sessions throughout and provides invaluable guidance on working with clients in a vast range of contexts.

This important book will be essential reading for all sandplay therapists in practice and in training. It will also be of great interest to practitioners, academics and scholars of play and arts therapies.

Chapter 1

What is sandplay?

Sandplay was developed by Dora Kalff, a Swiss Jungian-oriented therapist, in the 1950s. Sandplay is a powerful nonverbal and symbolic form of therapy that gives both child and adult clients the opportunity to portray, rather than verbalize, feelings, experiences, and internal states often inaccessible and/or difficult to express in words. Sandplay therapy facilitates the psyche’s natural capacity for healing and can be used in conjunction with traditional verbal therapy.

A basic premise of sandplay therapy is that the psyche possesses a natural tendency to heal itself, given the proper conditions. Similar to how our physical wounds heal under beneficial conditions, the psyche also has an instinctual wisdom that emerges when left free to operate naturally in a protected environment.

The aim of sandplay therapy is to activate healing energies at the deepest level of the psyche by using miniatures and a sand tray to reflect the client’s inner world. By this activity, and through the experience of free and creative play, unconscious processes are made visible in a three-dimensional form, much like a dream experience.

Thus, sandplay provides a vehicle for the unconscious to let itself be seen and known. Through the process of playfully creating sand trays, individuals often retrieve lost memories, work through trauma, discover unrealized aspects of the personality, and integrate parts of their personality – thus leading to a sense of greater balance, wholeness, and an enriched, more satisfying life. The nonverbal, symbolic nature of sandplay makes use of the natural language of the unconscious and provides a needed balance for today’s extraverted, technological, and outer-focused everyday world. Sandplay promotes a more natural, balanced, and integrated way of life.

The sandplay method is deceptively simple. The therapist creates a free and protected environment in which the client can relax and let his or her internal state be accessed and expressed. Using sand, water, and miniature objects within a shallow box (28 ½" × 19 ½" × 3"), which is painted blue on the bottom and sides, the client creates a three-dimensional picture (i.e., a concrete manifestation) of his or her inner imaginal world.

Some children, mostly those eight years old or younger, create dynamic pictures that are constantly in movement until coming to rest when the child moves on to something else in the therapy room. Older children and adults often comment about their scene. However, interpretations and discussions about the trays by the therapist are not initiated until after a series of trays has been created over time (This is called a sandplay process). It is important that the sandplay process remains at a nonverbal, instinctive level, rather than a cognitive, intellectual place, so that the unconscious can continue to be accessed without client concern about what the therapist has said or might say about the sand picture. In this way, sandplay helps honor and illuminate the client’s internal symbolic world and provides a place for its expression within a safe container, i.e., the tray filled with sand.

Upon completion of a sandplay picture during a therapy session, the client may make comments about the scene, which are usually recorded by the therapist.

After the client leaves a sandplay session, the therapist photographs the scene. This picture is then stored with the client’s other sandplay photos, awaiting completion of the sandplay process. Finally, after the sandplay process is complete, the client and therapist may view the photographs and reflect on and decipher the content of the trays and the process itself. Providing such a window into the unconscious deepens understanding of the individual psyche and provides a framework for future verbal therapy.

Five important characteristics define the Kalffian-Jungian sandplay method:

1. 1. The therapist must provide a free and protected space for the client to be able to create a picture in the sand tray, with no interpretation of the tray and not much verbal interaction as it is being made. It is the therapist’s nonverbal acceptance of the images used in the tray that is essential. This period of relative quiet helps both the client and therapist stay attuned to what is being created in the sand and concentrate on what images emerge in the tray
2. 2. A sandplay process consists of the trays that the client creates over time. Usually the tray-making process leads toward natural development or a sense of unification
3. 3. Delayed interpretation: In the sandplay work, therapists try to follow the client’s natural way of being, rather than leading the experience. During the tray-making process, there is relatively little verbal exchange between the client and therapist. Of course, if a client asks where a particular miniature is located, the therapist responds, but the therapist does not make comments or ask questions during the process. This quiet space helps the client and the therapist stay attuned to what is being created in the sand and does not interfere with the client’s feelings or images that are being created in the tray. The miniatures on the shelves are the symbols that speak the language of the unconscious and provide indications of the client’s inner drama. Later, after the entire sandplay process comes to a natural conclusion, the therapist and client may agree to view and discuss the trays. This is often a powerful event; the verbal and nonverbal join together
4. 4. After a scene has been created in the sand tray, it is not taken apart in the presence of the client. The scene is a statement of the client’s psyche. Taking the scene apart in the presence of the client is disrespectful and could be a damaging experience. Normally, a picture of the scene is taken after the client leaves the therapeutic session; the scene is then dismantled
5. 5. Sandplay is part of a larger therapeutic experience that may include other therapeutic methods, for example, ongoing verbal therapy about concrete life events, unconscious material such as dreams and fantasies, and verbal interpretations by the therapist. Only one part of what is going on in therapy is the creation of the sand pictures; that part, the nonverbal, is a deliberate regression into the symbolic level of the psyche

The most important aspect of using sandplay effectively is the preparation and personal development of the individual therapist. Becoming an effective sandplay therapist is an engaging and interactive process that requires developing the ability to receive, facilitate, and understand the profound experiences and imagery that this medium can evoke. Comprehensive clinical training, involvement in one’s own personal therapy, and experience as a practicing therapist are all important. It is recommended that therapists interested in sandplay training read about and take courses in sandplay, Jungian theory, and symbolism, and complete their own sandplay process in order to enhance understanding of the therapeutic process. Further, a sandplay consultation group experience can be very helpful.

In l982, Dora Kalff officially founded the International Society of Sandplay Therapy (ISST). Since that early period, sandplay has spread worldwide with official national associations in China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and the United States. In order to be a Certified Sandplay Therapist (CST), candidates must successfully complete a series of educational requirements, write papers, involve themselves in their own personal sandplay process, and participate in group and individual supervision. To become a Certified Sandplay Therapist-Teacher (CST-T), and thus be certified to teach and supervise others, additional requirements must be met, including co-teaching with a certified teacher and presenting cases before an evaluative audience.

In addition to Kalff’s sandplay approach, the term sand tray is also used to refer to the use of miniatures in a shallow box filled with sand. However, sand tray is a generic term that is used more broadly to include such applications as: (a) using sand trays for research or as an assessment instrument, (b) using trays with more than one individual (e.g., families, couples, and groups), (c) situations where a therapist is not present, or (d) when the therapist is an active participant in a directive or interactive capacity.

Because sandplay is one of the few therapeutic techniques in which language skills are not necessary for understanding the expressions of the psyche, it has truly become a cross-cultural method that is now practiced therapeutically worldwide. Within this ever-shrinking world, sandplay offers a unique opportunity to view universal, archetypal patterns, as well as to observe the unfolding development of the individual psyche.

Suggested reading

1. Kalff, D. (1980). Sandplay: A psychotherapeutic approach to the psyche. Temenos Press.
2. Mitchell, R.R., & Friedman, H.S. (1994). Sandplay: Past, present and future. Routledge.
3. Weinrib, E.L. (1983). Images of the self: The sandplay therapy process. Temenos Press.

Chapter 2

How does sandplay heal?

A basic premise of sandplay therapy is that the psyche possesses a natural tendency to heal itself, given the proper conditions. Similar to how physical wounds heal under certain conditions, the psyche also has an instinctual wisdom if left free to operate naturally in a safe and protected environment.

According to Jungian theory, the Self is located in the unconscious – the place of wisdom – and is the central ordering principle of the entire personality. The ego is located in the conscious part of the psyche, which is the center of consciousness, but less than the whole personality.

The connection between the Self and the ego is an important concept in Jungian psychology – for when the Self and ego are in relationship (i.e., in communication), then the individual is living closest to his or her own actualized state and thus feels more balanced and alive. Sandplay can be an effective means of evoking and nurturing the vital bridge between the Self and ego. Why is that?

The unconscious uses symbols as its language. It is a shared human experience of having one’s unconscious expressing itself symbolically through dreams, art, play therapy, and other imaginative activities. In essence, the unconscious talks in symbols.

In sandplay, the sand provides a stage where symbolic objects can be placed. The tray itself provides a temenos (the Greek word for “container”) for the safe containment of these energies. Thus, sandplay provides a safe space for the unconscious Self to be seen and known by the conscious ego (through the use of symbolic miniatures). Said in another way, sandplay acts as a conduit or bridge that facilitates communication between the Self (in the unconscious) and the conscious ego.

How does this happen in sandplay? What is it about the sandplay experience that facilitates communication and enhances healing? Let us consider the sandplay process and how each part of that process works together to provide healing or transformation. All of the parts are important, but what is even more important is that these parts work together to form a gestalt in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That whole leads to communication and ultimately to healing.

The following attributes of sandplay are important in facilitating and enhancing healing:

1. 1. Turning the focus inward: Putting one’s hands in the sand, shifting and moving it around, is a kinesthetic experience that moves the focus away from the outer world – the conscious mind – and inward to the body, and ultimately to one’s internal realm. In everyday life, we usually do not focus on our internal world. Having an experience with our body helps us move inside ourselves. So, the client should first touch and feel the sand before selecting objects to be placed in the sand
2. 2. Activating healing energies: As the individual scans the collection of miniatures, some items seem to be invested with a magnetic draw. The client’s attention is pulled to them, and they are chosen because of the unconscious symbolic meaning that is projected onto these objects. Once this internal energy field has been estab...