A Million Grains of Sand

A Million Grains of Sand is an Italian documentary (with English subtitles) by Andrea Deaglio following the therapeutic work of Jungian Analyst Eve Pattis Zoja, as she and colleagues work with victims of war trauma in the Ukraine, Syrian refugees in Germany, and earthquake survivors in China. The documentary is interwoven with Pattis Zoja’s own family’s intergenerational WWII trauma. As therapists we understand that trauma is part of life. We sit and listen to the stories of individuals, families, and groups in our professional and personal lives. Healing and witnessing as best we can. Yet, there are some traumas that seem impossible to hold. War, natural disasters, and intergenerational trauma can overwhelm and disrupt our ability to tell stories.
What can we, as therapists, do in the face of such horror and silence? This documentary and seminar are for professional audiences interested in deepening their understanding of working with extreme trauma, expressive sand work (a version of Jungian sandplay), intergenerational trauma, and somatic expressions of trauma. The seminar will invite discussion of the ‘cost’ to therapists of engaging in such difficult situations. The seminar will also be of interest to professionals working in creative, arts-based therapies, expressive therapies and sandplay.
NOTE: This documentary can be emotionally confronting and potentially triggering.