This presentation explains the early beginnings and historical roots of Jungian Sandplay and demonstrates the transformative process for a 10-year old boy.
Sandplay Therapy is a creative form of ‘hands-on’ individual psychotherapy using imagination, sand, water and miniatures to create images within the free and protected space offered by the therapeutic relationship and the sand tray. It is an invaluable and effective non-verbal therapy for both adults and children.
Descriptions of the nature of Sandplay therapy often quotes Jung, for example: the website of the Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) quotes Jung as saying: “Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”; while the ISST description quotes Jung depicting Sandplay as: “… a concentric extract of life forces both physical and psychic…”
During the therapy process, a series of sandplay images portray an ongoing dialogue between the psyche’s Conscious and the Unconscious, which activates the regulating and healing abilities of the Archetypal Self.