A creative, sensory based psychotherapy:

It is not unusual for people to assume that a therapeutic medium involving the use of sand and including the word ‘play’ sounds like it is for children. Sandplay is a therapeutic method for all ages. The word ‘play’ here is used to indicate a creative, sensory, image making application that can provide access to a deeper therapeutic experience than talk based psychotherapy alone, can do. Using the creative experience that is ‘play’, with the tactile primordial material that is sand, can successfully engage people towards the finding out more about their own internal experience.  The more we know about and can ‘locate’ ourselves and our own unique experiences, the more we can map and understand issues and difficulties.  From here, with the insight and awareness of growing, grounded confidence. we can identify and support the nature and basis for our perceptions and responses. 

The psychology of Carl Jung:

The use of the sand tray itself has many applications in different settings, the application here is Jungian and the setting is psychotherapy. Jungian is the term used to indicate the application of the analytical psychology of Carl Jung. This is the basis or lens through which understanding the created image and the experience of working with the sensory material, may be understood. Analytical psychology offers a way to understand the meaning of the created images.

The Sandtrays:

The process of Jungian Sandplay introduces you to two sand trays – one is wet sand and the other dry. This choice allows the client to select the sensory experience they would like to work with. The flow and softness of the dry sand or the more sculptable, slightly stickie wet sand. For different individuals there are different sensory experiences of the wet and dry sand.

The figures:

You can’t enter a sandplay room without noticing that there is a vast array of miniature figurines and objects displayed on shelves. These support the creative process, as they can be used to help to create an image – to give expression for thoughts, sensory or felt experiences. Simple though they may be in their plastic, wooden, metal, stone etc., forms, they are invaluable in their ability to hold expression in the process of the work. They act like a kind of conduit that  allows visual and spatial exploration and can evoke a new response, development and/or insight. 

The experience of Sandplay:

The creation of an image and the very process of its creation gives the client perspective, time and space to consider their own experience beyond describing and talking about it. It is not necessarily the creation of the completed image that holds the most value, but it can be how the client finds the experience ‘speaks’ as they focus on creating something. The use of the word ‘speaks’ here refers to the internal sensation of a spontaneous idea, thought or realisation, it may also be a sensory response or felt sense that might arise. This may be gently noticed and observed, as further interpretation at this point might interfere with the emerging conscious awareness. The intention is to support and facilitate the expression of the individual client as they formulate and shape their world view – separate from the shoulds, musts and self expectations or demands that come from external environments. 

Understanding the effect of Sandplay:

While comments of interpretation, psychological theory, ideas or hypothesis may be interesting and insightful, it is important not to set down an interpretation too quickly. Working through sandplay facilitates immersion into absorbed personal consideration. It supports connection to deeper individual sensory experiences, which are a valuable support and resource – often outside awareness in the busyness and demands of everyday life. Sometimes clients experience a strong need to define or know the meaning of the creative work, as it unfolds in a session. This experience can be insightful in itself, however it is important in this method that we keep possibilities of interpretation open during the ongoing creative process. This protects a free and open space for the clients inner experience to present more clearly to them. Once the work in the sandplay process comes to a natural finish, it can then be reviewed with the possibilities of psychological and developmental  interpretation discussed. At this stage the client will have solidified their own experience and can shape any interpretation or analytical ideas around that, rather than vice versa.

Integrating the experience:

The meaning and integration of the process is important but this takes place after the process of Sandtray work is felt to have reached a completion point. After each session a photograph is taken of the image. These images can later be reviewed together by the client and therapist. It is at this review stage that interpretation possibilities are discussed. It is very important that the client can consider interpretative aspects while also protecting and speaking for their own personal experience. Personal insight and experience is always the priority – interpretation and psychological ideas are intended to lend support, additional context and to ground new development.

Sandplay and symbolic language:

In Jungian Sandplay we talk about symbols and symbolic language. The figures and objects are considered to carry broader meaning possibilities and are sometimes referred to as symbols. For a simple example the client sees some small cakes on a shelf and comments ‘oh they remind me of baking with my mother as a child’. This can raise related feelings, memories and ponderings – the actual objects of the miniature cakes have no direct connection to the client’s experience but rather, act as a focal point through which the aspects of the original experience can emerge. The memory might seem significant or insignificant, relevant or irrelevant but it has come to mind, been evoked, and may hold some useful possibility for insight once the client remains open and curious. In the free and protected space of the therapeutic process clients will find themselves curious and surprised by thoughts, ideas and memories that arise, as they engage with the materials and allow themselves to play freely. To play freely is to allow yourself to be affected by experiences that arise and to follow them – to enter the rabbit hole as in the famous tale of Alice’s adventures written by  Lewis Carroll.