Therapeutic Process of Psychological Sandbox

Sandplay provides a way to make unconscious material visible, healed and integrated into consciousness, thereby allowing life to be lived in a more conscious and authentic way. Related neurobiological research supports the fact that emotional memories and traumatic sensory experiences are stored in the limbic system and right hemisphere of the brain, along with nonverbal sensory experiences such as images, body sensations, and emotions.

Non-verbal therapy such as sandplay is the most effective way to access and release these "unconscious" feelings and experiences and bring them into consciousness, allowing them to be healed. Sandplay also provides visual and non-verbal avenues for psychological development and becoming whole. This is a direct way to establish an inner connection with your larger self, which Carl Gustav Jung encouraged as an important step in healthy psychological development.

Sandplay Play Therapy

People in therapy are encouraged to use miniature toys, figurines, and objects in the sand in ways of their choice while the therapist observes and subsequently analyzes the person's interactions with each other. effect. The healer can add water to the sand and place the miniatures in the sand tray in any order. The design of the sandbox is guided by their imagination and subconscious mind. The result is a microcosm of their inner world.

The world in Sandbox is expressed through symbols and metaphors that may not even have direct meaning to the people who created it. But with the help of a therapist, a person in therapy (even a child) can begin to recognize the relationship between the creation in the sand and their inner world.

Clients place miniature figurines in small sand trays to express complex feelings and emotional experiences. Creates visual representations of mental content and reveals unconscious concerns that cannot be addressed any other way. When the material contained in the subconscious mind appears visually and symbolically, it becomes integrated into the person's sense of self and can be activated to induce behavioral changes.

Given enough time and understanding, the experience of sandplay can bring clients to conscious verbal and long-forgotten levels of experience. In a safe environment, clients will gain a sense of balance and wholeness through the presence of tangible personal and archetypal symbols in the pallet.

The effectiveness of sandplay therapy comes from an understanding of Jungian psychology and the archetypes and personal symbolism that appear in the sand bucket. Knowledge of symbolic language forms the basis not only for sandplay therapy, but also for dream analysis and all non-verbal therapies involving art and play.

Sandbox therapy is often confused with sandbox, which is a general term that describes how a sandbox is used with small toys as part of a play therapy program for children. The rationale and therapeutic uses of sandplay and sandplay are very different, although both modalities use symbolic images and sandplay.

Sandplay is created in a free and protected space where the therapist does not interpret, interfere with, or direct the client's symbolic expressions. The sandtray therapist maintains an attitude of receptivity and acceptance so that the client can unconsciously bring subconscious material into consciousness. It follows Carl Rogers' principles of client-centered therapy and allows the psyche to develop into its natural and fundamental state of wholeness.