What is Sandplay?
Sandplay is based on the work of Dora Kalff’. It is an activity or therapeutic tool that allows adults and children to express their emotions, reveal traumas and develop safe relationships and self-actualisation or wholeness (individuation).
In Sandplay the participant creates a three-dimensional picture/image using miniature figures in a tray of sand. This is done in the protective presence of a well-trained therapist or practitioner.
Working in the sand freely and creating an image without being told what to make facilitates engagement with deep inner processes.
Lorraine Freedle describes 7 stages of Sandplay similar to Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”. These are:
1. Expressing experiences and everyday struggles
2. Accessing and identifying resources
3. Plunging into death, darkness and despair
4. Reflecting, transforming, gaining hope
5. Touching totality, numinosity and wholeness
6. Emerging, bridging opposites, integrating
7. Returning to everyday life with a new perspective
The seven stages line up with Jung’s theory of growth and development - individuation whereby participants experience successive encounters with unconscious material, confront the shadow, expand consciousness, encounter the Self, reconcile opposites and assimilate experiences to bring forth wholeness of personality.
For participants to benefit they should attend regular sessions. Such a process done purposefully and intentionally is likely to be beneficial.
More about Sandplay
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