How Sandtray Therapy Can Heal
~ Jerilynn Blum, MA, LCPC
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My therapy office is a wonder to behold. When clients walk in, they see shelf-after-shelf of tiny figures, toys, and trays of sand. Because play is naturally the language of children, they invariably gasp, "Wow!" They need little explanation to how creating sandtrays can help them work through their problems.
Before
I've finished my introduction on how to make a sand world,
my clients are well on their way to picking the toys and
miniatures they want to place in the sand. Their inner
worlds of emotion spring to life as they tell their stories
and begin the process of playing through their issues.
On the
other hand, most adults aren't as spontaneous. When they
enter my therapy office, they usually blurt out, "What is
all this stuff?" Thus, we begin a journey to rediscover a
forgotten richness of self-expression within them.
Sandtrays access healing from within:
Sandtray
therapy, also referred to as Sandplay, is a unique,
profoundly deep and self-affirming therapeutic method of
healing life patterns. People tell their stories, play out
their beliefs and emotions, and envision change in their
lives as they create three-dimensional worlds in trays of
sand using toys and miniatures. Because this type of therapy
is a physical process, it accesses awareness from the body.
Because it involves thinking in symbols, the Sandtray
reflects preverbal, primary levels of awareness, where there
are no words.
A basic
tenet in Sandtray therapy is that deep within each of us,
there is the impulse for the psyche to heal itself. In the
presence of an experienced Sandtray therapist, who creates a
safe and protected space for expression, people are able to
reach deep into themselves. Conscious and unconscious
tendencies are brought together so that change can occur.
Who sandtray therapy can help:
Sandtray
is a person-centered form of therapy. It helps people come
to a greater wholeness in the midst of virtually any
problem. I have worked with clients ranging in age from 5 to
80 who have presented with many issues, including:
In all
cases, my clients have amazed me with how they have reached
inside to liberate painful, confused, split-off parts of
themselves. One 30-year-old woman released long-held grief by
re-enacting a plane crash she was in at age 13 – a catastrophe
that killed her father. Other children have played through
violation they felt from being physically or sexually abused by
enacting wars or clashes between ferocious animals in their
Sandtrays.
The case of Mace:
Mace was
eight when his father died of a heroin overdose. He had
witnessed his father’s drug usage and frequent explosions of
rage. As a result, the boy was displaying anger,
hyperventilating at night, and having trouble completing school
work – on top of being extremely anxious and fearful.
When he
initially started working with me, Mace’s Sandtray worlds were
extremely rigid. Figures guarded a large castle and an alien
stood in the corner holding a huge gun. In another early world,
an alien viewed a dead skeleton distanced far from him in a
desert. At first, he would not move the figures in his worlds.
As is typical of a child’s process in the sand, he gradually
descended into his pent-up anger and fear. Moving battles of
huge proportions occurred.
Eventually,
Mace composed several worlds created from every gold object in
my collection. By this point, his make-believe characters felt
confident and abundant with riches. In his outer world, Mace
gradually quit being angry. The nighttime hyperventilating
stopped after he did his battle worlds. His overall confidence
increased and his grades improved. At first, he was unable to
talk about his father, but as he came to resolution in the sand,
he was able to discuss him with both his mother and me.
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