SANDPLAY
WHAT IS SANDPLAY?
It is an alternative non-verbal form of psycho-therapy through which the subconscious mind can be accessed and underlying problems can be solved. It offers an alternative to hypnotherapy and EMDR. It is used for children and adults.
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| Play is a prominent feature of the sandplay method, with no or very little verbal communication |
HOW DOES SANDPLAY THERAPY WORK?
A detailed history of the client’s background and problem is obtained and goals set for therapy.
A sand tray of 48.75cm x 71.25cm with a blue base and sides, filled with a sand collection of miniatures and water, are used with the instruction “Do what you want in the sand”.
The therapy starts at the moment the client is able to surrender to play.
The client expresses emotions through their play. As the client works in the sand tray, the therapist sits nearby making notes of what figures the client uses and what the client says or does, if anything, and takes photographs when the sand tray is completed.
A series of sand trays which is done over a couple of weeks or months is referred to as a process.
No analysis is made to the client until after the process is completed.
The therapist’s more conscious awareness of the symbolic process, which is largely unconscious to the client, acts as a stabilizing factor. The capacity of the therapist to safely “hold” the client’s emerging subconscious content is very important.
Sandplay creates a bridge between the conscious and subconscious.
During the process the conscious mind relaxes its control, allowing penetration to the subconscious material.
The unconscious finds expression in the selection of figures and the shaping of the sandplay.
Sandplay supports the client’s ability to address emotional problems resulting from any number of psychic injuries.
In the course of sandplay inner order gradually grows out of inner emotional chaos evidenced early in the work. Sandplay pictures that first express emptiness and loneliness begin to show new life and growth.
Great despair, carefully hidden behind a façade, can be expressed, and through silent nurture, its destructiveness can be dissolved.
Many of these aspects are beyond the limits or ordinary language and cannot be expressed verbally. Sandplay offers an alternative means of psychic expression.
By bringing the conscious and unconscious together in sandplay, significant changes in the conscious attitude toward the subconscious take lace.
It brings clarity to what might otherwise cause unchecked subconscious eruptions such as anger outbursts, and it fosters the discovery of previously unknown courage and strengths.
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