Teorie i practic n sandplay Internet. www.

Sandplay Therapists of America

The Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) is a non-profit professional organization, whose purpose is to promote education, training and research in sandplay therapy. The STA is an affiliate of the parent organization, The International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST), which provides an international meeting ground for the exchange of knowledge and experience in sandplay.

Sandplay Therapy
Sandplay therapy is a psychotherapeutic tool used with children and adults. The method consists of the clients creation of a three-dimensional picture with miniature figures in a tray of sand in the protective presence of a trained practitioner. Sandplay as taught and practiced by the STA was developed by the late Jungian therapist, Dora M. Kalff, of Switzerland for use with children in Jungian therapy.

circle of heaven, the center, realized in earth, the square, emanating in the four directions An ancient circular sun sign joins the solar power of the masculine and the maternal feminine in the square, the earthly container. From this grounded union of primal energies, wholeness emanates in the great directions.

Introduction to Sandplay Therapy

Dora M. Kalff

Dora Kalff, Jungian therapist, developed sandplay therapy in Switzerland in the 1950s and '60s based on her studies at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, in Tibetan Buddhism, and with Margaret Lowenfeld, in England.

Summary The client is given the possibility, by means of figures and the arrangement of the sand in the area bounded by the sandbox, to set up a world corresponding to his or her inner state. In this manner, through free, creative play, unconscious processes are made visible in a three-dimensional form and a pictorial world comparable to the dream experience. Through a series of images that take shape in this way, the process of individuation described by C. G. Jung is stimulated and brought to fruition. The process that analytical psychology strives to bring about, and which Jung designated as the process of individuation, can be understood as the process of becoming conscious of human wholeness. By wholeness is meant an attitude that goes beyond mutually exclusive opposites and strives for an integration of these opposites. It is the structure of wholeness which, beginning at birth, is the fundamental aspect of the human being and which Jung refers to as the Self. This wholeness is first situated in the mother's Self. Caring for the newborn infant's needs, which appeal generally to the maternal, such as satisfaction of hunger, protection against cold, etc., are localized in the bodily mother. We call this the phase of mother-child unity in which the child experiences unquestioning security and safety in maternal love. After one year, the child's Self is freed from the mother and is experienced instead in relationship to her with her demonstrations of affection; and the sense of safety grows into a relationship of trust. The resulting security is the basis for the third phase, which starts at the end of the second year of life, in which the centre of the Self becomes consolidated in the child's unconscious and begins to manifest itself in symbols of wholeness. The child plays, draws or paints in a symbol-language, thousands of years old, and with which the human being consciously or unconsciously, through times, in all cultures, has given expression to wholeness. This is a profound experience which often finds its expression in the form of a circle or square and is accompanied by a numinosum. Thus the circle becomes not just a geometric form, but turns into a symbol which allows something invisible alive in the human being to come to light. Symbols speak for internal, energy-bearing images, for dispositions of human-ness which, if they become visible, exert a continuing influence on the human being's development. Symbols with numinous or religious content therefore speak of an inner spiritual order that can be the basis for a healthy development of the ego, which creates the link to the external world. Jung has spoken of the unity of the external and internal world. Often, in fact, through a one-sided adaptation to the external world with the mask of the persona, the internal world of the unconscious is repressed -- that world incorporated in the opposite-gender soul-image of the Animus and Anima. The unconscious contains the transmitted energies of previous collective experiences, as well as forgotten and repressed experiences of the individual person. The human being, understood as a unity, must be capable of continually mediating between the demands of the internal and external world, as the only way of proving that one is an authentic individual, because in this way one is neither a will-less victim of unconscious contents nor a super-adapted creature in relation to society and the world. This attitude, however, can only be realized in such a way that the ego, which is the centre of the conscious personality, becomes conscious of its relativity and understands itself as forming part of the Self, which embodies the unity of the conscious and unconscious person. In addition, Jung attributes to the Self a healing and regulating tendency which the analytical work aims to reveal.

The work itself that is performed during sandplay can bring about the relativising encounter of the ego with the forces of the Self as a numinous experience which frequently finds its expression in religious symbols. Another aspect of the wholeness upon which particular emphasis is placed in the sandplay is the totality of body and spirit. In its negative aspect the spirit appears as exclusive intellect which has lost all connection to feeling and the body. This lack of connection expresses itself in contempt for feeling as something unclear and in the opinion that the body is primitive and non-spiritual. This attitude, all too frequent in modem man, is often the cause of psychic disorders. Only when the intellect has learnt to understand itself as one element among others making up the total person, can the client find the way back to the sense and meaning of life. Symbolically, the newly found wholeness expresses itself in mandala-type representations.

"Sandplay" is the method I use in therapy both with children and with adults in order to gain access to the contents of the unconscious. As the name suggests, it consists in playing in a specially proportioned sandbox (approximately 19.5 x 28.5 x 2.75 inches; floor and sides painted with water-resistant bright-blue paint). Boxes of dry and moist sand are provided. Clients also have at their disposal a number of small figures with which they give formal realization to their internal worlds. The figures from which they can choose should represent as complete as possible a cross-section of all inanimate and animate beings which we encounter in the external world as well as in the inner imaginative world: trees, plants, stones, marbles, mosaics, wild and domesticated animals, ordinary women and men pursuing various activities, soldiers, fairytale figures, religious figures from diverse cultural spheres, houses, fountains, bridges, ships, vehicles, etc.

In sandplay it immediately becomes clear that the human being can come closer to wholeness. It becomes possible to break through the narrowing perspective of our bogged-down conception and fears and to find in play a new relationship to our own depth. Immersed in play, the person succeeds in making an inner picture visible. Thus a link is established between internal and external.

The sandbox corresponds in its extents to the field of vision. In this area the fantasy which strives towards boundlessness is formed and shaped. We can say that fantasy becomes fruitful only where it is obliged to restrict itself within definite forms. The result is the polarity freedom/restriction. Freedom, on the one hand, consists in the fact that few boundaries are set to the client's shaping activity. The client has the possibility of selecting from the variety of figures and to construct a portrayal of the world that is closest to him or her. Restriction, on the one hand, resides in the fact that, out of many figures, a choice must be made. In this way clients succeed in portraying the problematic that is unconscious to them. Now we observe that a process is set in motion in which the unconscious, hidden totality assumes the leadership. When persons begin playing, they submit to the law of the very thing that leads them to that reconciliation of opposites which indeed is the decisive characteristic of the playing. Play is the mediator of the invisible and visible.

Another important polarity in sandplay is that between body and soul. The image is shaped in the sand physically, so that we can say that internal contents find a bodily form. We observe moreover that the act of shaping can become a deep, emotionally felt experience if the manifestation of a wholeness is achieved, which has the mandala as its most beautiful expression. One prerequisite, among others, for the unfolding of inner forces is something I have designated as the free and protected space. It is the therapist's task to give shape to such a space: a free space in which the client feels fully accepted. It is a space protected by the fact that the sandplay therapist recognizes the patient's boundaries. The therapist becomes a trusted person. In this way negative or destructive tendencies are not suppressed but are portrayed and transformed.

The analytic process with sandplay unfolds through representations of the unconscious contents which find their expression in symbols. The initial scene most often reflects a situation lying closer to the level of

consciousness, but which still contains references to the problematic. In many instances, on the basis of an initial scene we are already able to find important indications of how and in what direction the solution of the inner conflict could develop. Subsequent images lead out of the exclusive predominance of the conscious level and to deeper layers in the person, having unconscious contents. These images often have a chaotic character and testify to unleashed energies. Eventually the patient may reach the stage we can designate as the expression of wholeness, or in Jungian terminology, the Self. Thus a psychic situation of repose-withinoneself is generated, which often effects a numinous experience and establishes contact with the spiritual. The ego becomes less absolute as centre of the conscious personality by coming to recognize that it is contained within the Self, which embodies the unity between conscious and unconscious. This experience is the basis for initial transformation of energies.

In the sand images this is seen at first on a primitive bodily level. Themes of the plant and animal world emerge. Water and earth are in the foreground. Therefore I call this phase of development the vegetativeanimal, the encounter with the lowest level of the body. This is also the point where the encounter takes place with the complementary-sexed soul-image, which is as yet still resolutely unconscious, that is, in the man with a feminine creative side and in the woman with a masculine logos-side. These are the new creative energies which begin to emerge. Recognition of these energies leads to the effort to deal with them and, at a subsequent stage, to their transformation. Dark energies are transformed into bright, constructive ones and with the help of awakening creativity they give life a new direction. The wholeness expressed through sand must now find its expressions in the wholeness of living.

We could say in summary, that the wholeness of ego and Self, of body and soul, becomes the goal and finds its expression in the principle that energies are not repressed but rather transformed. From this description of a possible sequence of inner development we can recognize that the healing experience is the direct consequence of the client's involvement with the dynamic of the internal image and gives plastic expression to them. Experience shows that a discussion or an extensive interpretation of the sandplaying activity can inhibit the client's capability of keeping open to something that still demands spontaneous expression on a pre-verbal level. For the process of healing and self-perception, however, it is of decisive significance to establish contact with the as yet unconscious sides within oneself. For this reason it is an important aspect of this work that a discussion and conscious realization of contents on a verbal level should be postponed until the process of sandplay experience is largely concluded and has been experienced as an internal "lived" process. The primary element then, with this form of therapy, is the shaping and experiencing of the sand images and of the resulting resolution of inner tensions. This type of experience, too, can be viewed as a form of conscious realization of unconscious contents, though not on the verbal level but of that of the shaping and experiencing of these contents. The inner experience of these contents frequently precedes modifications in the external sphere of life.

The fact that the images are not commented upon and interpreted during the sandplay work does not exclude the possibility that, with adults, a process of conscious realization of the experience on a verbal interpretative level can be of great significance later.

It is important, however, that the therapist or counselor understands the symbol-language of the images correctly and, on the basis of this comprehension, follows the process internally and, under certain circumstances, without making reference to the sandplay, establishes connections to the external life situation and raises possible problem points. It can also be decisive for the progress of the work to recognize a possible transference which may express itself symbolically in the sandplay, and to be able to react to it appropriately.

It is entirely consonant with this work that along with the shaping of sand images there should also be room for discussing everyday problems and examining important dreams together with the analysand.

Especially in the case of work with children, there should be sufficient possibilities, in addition to sandplay, to pursue other games and creative activities such as modeling and painting. Such games can make an important contribution to the enactment and realization of that which comes to light in the sand images themselves and also, conversely, can further encourage the continuation of the internal sandplay process.

In order to be capable of carrying out the sandplay task, the therapist/counselor, in addition to psychological training, must be able to fulfill two all-important prerequisites:

1. Since the sandplay process expresses itself in a symbolic language, a profound knowledge of the language of symbols - as expressed in religions, myths, fairytales, literature, art, etc. - is indispensable. This applies especially to the depth- psychology interpretation of symbols as developed by C. G. Jung. Above all, one must have experienced these symbols and their efficacy on the basis of one's own psychic maturation process. Only this practice makes it possible to accompany the client's experience effectively.

2. On the other hand, as we have already seen, the therapist/counselor must be capable of establishing a free and protected space. What we want to mediate for others should emerge from our own experience. This means that the therapist/counselor should possess an openness that is the fruit of an open encounter with one's own dark and unknown sides. Also important at the same time, however, is an experience of one's own deep-seated positive potential - an experience which guarantees an inner security which thus enables one to create a protected space for others.

Finally it is decisive for successful work to have a positive motivation, which sets as its objective the creation of a space for the client which will enable coming closer to wholeness in an independent manner. This intention should be combined with the striving, through ongoing work upon oneself, to deepen one's own capability of giving authentic and non-self-seeking help. Journal of Sandplay Therapy, Volume 1, Number 1, 1991.

What is Sandplay Therapy?

Lauren Cunningham Lauren Cunningham, LCSW, is a founding member of Sandplay Therapists of America and the founding editor of the Journal of Sandplay Therapy. Children have always delighted in playing in the sand, bringing their inner and outer worlds together through imagination. Different cultures have also used sand in imaginal rituals of visioning. The Dogon medicine men of Mali draw patterns in the sand and later read the paw prints left in the night by the desert fox to divine the future. Tibetan Buddhist monks spend weeks creating the Kalachakra sand mandala, which is used for contemplation and initiation into Tantric practices. Donald Sandner, in Navaho Symbols of Healing, wrote

about the Navaho sand painting ceremonies in which images of world order are created to invoke the healing powers that bring the psyche of the people back into harmony with the universe. Upon the completion of all these rituals the sand is brushed away and dispersed. Whether the makers of these sand creations are children, healers, or priests, potent and ineffable energies can be stirred on an intuitive, non-rational level. Sand opens the door to the unconscious world. In western European folklore, the sandman puts children to sleep by sprinkling sand into their eyes. Sand is impressionable, mutable, and impermanent: "Dancing on sands, and yet no footing seen," Shakespeare wrote in Venus and Adonis. The sand particles, created by the disintegration of the earth's rocks, are ideal for pouring and shaping into an image of the symbolic world. We can "...see a World in a grain of Sand" as Blake wrote in Auguries to Innocence. So it's not surprising that psychotherapists as contemporary healers stumbled upon playing in the sand as a therapeutic method. Margaret Lowenfeld, a pioneering child psychoanalyst during the 30's, was the first therapist to put sand into trays with water and figures nearby in her consulting room. She graciously attributed the invention of what she later called the "World Technique" to the children themselves who naturally brought these materials together in play therapy. Dora Kalff was initially influenced by Emma and Carl Jung and her immersion in Tibetan Buddhism. She also studied with Lowenfeld in London for a year in 1956. When she returned to Zrich Kalff developed another way of using these materials therapeutically which she called "sandplay." Sandplay therapists who work in the way Kalff taught differentiate sandplay from sandtray therapy. Sandtray therapy is a more generic term referring to a variety of effective ways of using sand, figures, and a container from different theoretical perspectives. Sandplay therapy emphasizes the spontaneous and dynamic qualities of the creative experience itself. The essence of sandplay is non-verbal and symbolic. In what Kalff called the "free and protected place" provided by the tray and the relationship with the therapist, children and adults play with sand, water, and miniatures over a period of time, constructing concrete manifestations of their inner world. When energies in the form of "living symbols" are touched upon in the personal and collective unconscious, healing can happen spontaneously within a person at an unconscious level. As a more harmonious relationship between the conscious and the unconscious develops, the ego is restructured and strengthened. Sandplay may open the person to re-experience pre-verbal and non-verbal states. Children understand (recognize) language before they can speak (recall) language. An adult may have forgotten or never learned words for some inner experience. Yet they may recognize a figure intuitively without being able to recall why or what it is. That's why sandplay therapists sometimes say, "Let the figure pick you!" The quiet tray with its smooth sand and a trusted therapist nearby allows images to arrive for the maker. The variety of figures and the sensory experience of sand and water also stimulate the unconscious. The elemental nature of sandplay evokes the body and touches the mother within. Sand can be molded, water poured, fire ignited, and air blown. The elemental flow and balance that is created in the tray mirrors processes in the psyche as well as in the natural world. The size of the tray itself is meant to hold a person's steady gaze which may encourage a concentration and intensification of the psyche's energies. The sand and blue bottom and sides offer the concrete possibility of digging down to the depths or building up to the heights. The three dimensional figures also offer a fullness of representation that requires no skill. Even a three year old can build complex, multidimensional scenes. These figures can facilitate both differentiating and linking together different pieces of meaning and bringing them further into consciousness. Like the alchemical vessel, the tray within the relationship between the person and the therapist contains and intensifies the heat and pressure so that a change can happen.

Sandplay's efficacy comes from creating the sand picture itself, as a form of active imagination, not in focusing on cognitive processing or on the completed production. Sandplay pictures are generally not interpreted while a process is going on so that the maker can stay close to the living experience in their body and imagination. The therapist is a witness who primarily reverberates empathically to the person playing in the sand. When both simultaneously experience the inner world of the sandplayer through the medium of sandplay a synchronistic moment happens. This helps both to contain and to honor the experience so that it continues on working in the person. Sandplay is usually done adjunctively to talk therapy which carries the interpretive aspects of the psychotherapeutic work. Review and more analytic discussion of the trays themselves can happen years after the process is completed. The heart of becoming a sandplay therapist is in the experiencing of a personal sandplay process with its cycles of getting lost, waiting, and coming home. It is a deeply held Jungian principle that the therapist as wounded healer has to have been initiated themselves before becoming a guide for others. Although the use of sand in ritual practices exists on a continuum from ancient traditions through Jungian and other psychotherapeutic methods, sandplay therapists are now concerned about the economics of healthcare and the impact of modern day values on the future of sandplay. Sandplay therapists also need to continue to relate their work to ongoing developments in understanding the psyche. In the midst of the thrust and rush towards the future, the simplicity and depth of sandplay may help it maintain its integrity as a place of sanctuary and healing. Reference: Sandner, Donald (1991). Navaho Symbols of Healing. Rochester: Healing Arts Press. Journal of Sandplay Therapy, Volume 6, Number 1, 1977.

Sandplay with Children

Kay Bradway Kay Bradway, Ph.D., JA, is a founding member of Sandplay Therapists of America and the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. She is a psychologist and Jungian analyst in Sausalito, California. Sandplay has an accelerating history. It goes back to an early decade of this century when H.G. Wells wrote about his observing his two sons playing on the floor with miniature figures and his realizing that they were working out their problems with each other and with other members of the family. Twenty years later Margaret Lowenfeld, child psychiatrist in London, was looking for a method to help children express the "inexpressible." She recalled reading about Wells' experience with his two sons and so she added miniatures to the shelves of the play room of her clinic. The first child to see them took them to the sandbox in the room and started to play with them in the sand. And thus it was a child who "invented" what Lowenfeld came to identify as the World Technique (Lowenfeld, 1979). When Dora Kalff, Jungian Analyst in Zurich, heard about the work in England, she went to London to study with Lowenfeld. She soon recognized that the technique not only allowed for the expression of the fears and angers of children, but also encouraged and provided for the processes of transcendence and individuation she had been studying with C.G. Jung. As she developed the method further, she gave it the name "sandplay" (Kalff, 1980). Jungian analysts from five countries joined Kalff in founding the International Society for Sandplay Therapy in 1985. The American affiliate society, Sandplay Therapists of America, was founded in 1988. The first issue of the Journal of Sandplay Therapy appeared in 1991.

The essentials of sandplay therapy are a specially proportioned sandtray, a source of water, shelves of miniatures of multitude variety: people, animals, buildings, bridges, vehicles, furniture, food, plants, rocks, shells-the list goes on-and an empathic therapist who provides the freedom and the protection that encourages children (or adults) to experience their inner, often unrealized, selves in a safe and nonjudgmental space. The therapist as a witness is an essential part of the method, but this therapist is in the mode of "appreciating", not "judging", what the sandplayer does. It is necessary that the therapist follows the play and stays in tune with it, but not intrude. The therapist follows the child. Given an empathic therapist, children rarely need any encouragement to start making pictures or scenes and playing in the sand. They come to it naturally. They may engage the therapist in the play but unlike some therapies there is no attempt on the part of the therapist to interpret to the child what the therapist may understand of what is going on in the sandplay. The process of touching the sand, adding water, making the scenes, changing the scenes, seems to elicit the twin urges of healing and transformation which are goals of therapy. This does not mean that the therapist remains distant or unresponsive. But the emphasis is on following the child rather than on imposing a structure on the play or even guiding the play. The child's psyche becomes the guide rather than the therapist. The child may need to engage the therapist in the play. I recall a little ten-year old girl whom I call Kathy who came to therapy with problems of fears of failure and of her anger that had built up over the years. She was fearful of expressing her anger and typically placed fences in the tray after having expressed anger toward or about any member of the family. We did not have to talk about this. By placing the fences around jungle animals, she was able to experience an ability to do something about controlling these animals and, in extension, about her anger and then to feel safer to sense and express her own aggressive feelings. At first this did not include me, but eventually she translated her sandplay into an interaction with me. She came to a point where she alternated between having us "fight" with toy cannons in the sand tray and playing out positive feelings towards me. But there was no need to interpret the transference. Kathy worked it out herself. She had us build a sand castle together in the final tray (Bradway and McCoard, 1997). The tray provided for Kathy, as it does for other children, the place to work through many phases of selfhealing and growing up. For example, a child's placing water and food for animals in the tray is often a step in learning how to obtain nourishment on their own rather than having to depend on its being offered by others and thus provides a step towards a higher level of ego autonomy. Sources of energy other than food, such as wells, gasoline pumps, windmills, often appear during periods of transition when the ego needs an additional supply of energy in order to cope with a struggle between inner and outer forces. And most significantly, the tray provides for the experiencing of wholeness. References: Bradway, K. and McCoard, B. (1997). Sandplay-Silent workshop of the psyche. London/New York: Routledge. Kalff, D. (1980). Sandplay, a psychotherapeutic approach to the psyche. Santa Monica: Sigo. Lowenfeld, M. (1979). The world technique. London: Allen & Unwin. Journal of Sandplay Therapy, Volume 8, Number 2, 1999.

Doing Nothing One more approach to Sandplay Therapy

Linda Ellis Dean

Linda Ellis Dean, Ph.D., MFT is a Jungian Analyst who trained at the C. G. Jung Institute-Zurich. She is teaching member of Sandplay Therapists of America and the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. Her practice is located in Eureka, California. Dora Kalff, the originator of Sandplay Therapy, once told me she did nothing when she worked. Then she said, It is harder to do nothing than to do something. How can doing nothing during the hours of an analysis or therapy help? What happens in the analytic container, the sacred space shared by the therapist and client, during a Sandplay process? Ive mulled this over in my mind a thousand times. Fifteen years later I now believe Kalff meant that the healing work she did came not from an ego state, but from her relationship with the Self and the collective unconscious. Kalff was right, it is hard to put the ego on hold and do nothing. Sandplay Therapy is a method wherein images are created in a tray partly filled with wet or dry sand as the therapist sits quietly nearby, apparently doing nothing. Sometimes the client talks about his/her life issues and then the therapist responds; other times both remain silent. Over the course of therapy a process of development and healing can be seen -- and to a certain degree -- understood. In Sandplay reductive interpretation is not used because the images often come from a deep archetypal level and are uncensored by the ego. Interpretation actually inhibits the process. Rather than projecting our limited concepts, theories or models onto the images, we wait for the wisdom of the client's psyche to unfold in the series of sand pictures. I imagine the images as newborn babies--precious, vulnerable, alive with a will of their own, and wanting to be incarnated into life into a body and an ego. The image seems to beg for relationship, to be received and appreciated by someone. The therapist serves as a midwife for these images by receiving them just as they are, allowing them their own pace for emerging into the outer world. [S]o the birth of personality in oneself has a therapeutic effect. It is as if a river that had run to waste in sluggish side-streams and marshes suddenly found its way back to its proper bed, or as if a stone lying on a germinating seed were lifted away so that the shoot could begin its natural growth (Jung, C. W. Vol. 17, Par 317.). It seems the silent, respectful acceptance of the images created during the Sandplay process allows the client to feel increasingly safe and free. As this happens the images seem to come less from the ego and personal unconscious, and more from the deeper levels of the human psyche, or the collective unconscious. If, as Jung believed, the human psyche has the ability to regulate its own path toward wholeness, healing comes from this deep level of the psyche rather than from outside. The Sandplay Therapist must have enough self-awareness to be able to step aside while allowing the psyche of the patient to begin to heal. For the trained eye, a map for the healing process can be seen in the Sandplay images. At the same time the therapist must know enough about the symbolic material emerging. Why? Archetypal images can overwhelm a weak ego. A client needs ego strength to work in the sand, or with any archetypal material from the depths of the psyche. It is preferable to do some analytic work with the adult client before moving into Sandplay, and highly attuned observation of the symbolic images emerging in the sand is critical for monitoring the client's ego relationship to the unconscious. The child client is still in an active process of ego development and is much closer to the unconscious (original self) that directs the process of play and of healing. The necessity to do nothing may be difficult for the therapist who is working with a child. If the therapist has not enough training he/she might inadvertently impose upon the childs self-regulating process of development or provide enough safety and containment. The issue of I know better than you know because you-are-a-child-and-I-am-an-adult can halt the process of healing and the development of personality. (Jung, C. W. Vol. 17, Chap. 7.)

During a good Sandplay process, as in any other depth therapy, it seems that something other than the therapist and client -- a third -- enters the analytic container. It is almost as if an other -- an inner healer from a deeper level of the unconscious -- has created the images. Though this sounds mystical it is not. Images of totality that emerge in the sand seem to come from what Jung described as the Self, the regulating center of the psyche and an aspect of the collective unconscious, rather than from the ego. In Sandplay the unconscious other is given expression in the images. At first the ego may make the images, but during play in a free and safe temenos, or container, the ego is also able to move aside allowing something new to happen. Case studies of adults and children from all over the world support this idea. These deep images seem to be imbued with a life of their own. The Self enters the process of its own volition and begins to express itself when invited if there is enough freedom and safety provided. It is as if the unconscious other, the Self, wants to have expression! In these images opposites are united, and a process of healing the splits in the personality becomes evident. In Sandplay Therapy images of dark, unknown sides of the clients psyche are allowed, even welcomed, to appear in the physical world or light of consciousness. In the act of making images in the sand there is an integration of unconscious material, and the relationship between the ego and the Self can undergo profound changes which move the personality toward wholeness. A Sandplay process is not finished when numinous Self-images appear in the sand. As Jung said in so many ways and so many places, when the images of totality appear the work must be grounded in the daily life of the analysands (and therapists) for it to be good for something (Jung, C. W., Vol. 16, Par. 539). In other words, an experience of the Self is not enough. This experience, this moment of meaning, needs to be acknowledged and recognized by therapist and client, even without words. As in the relationship between infant and mother there is a need for mutual recognition of what is new emerging from the psyche. The baby may take a new developmental step many times before it is recognized and validated by both the baby and mother figure. It is with the shared recognition and validation in the mother-child relationship that the babys emergent development is anchored in the personality. One of the tasks of the therapist-midwife in the temenos, or therapeutic container, is to be aware enough to recognize the underlying process in the Sandplay. In conclusion, the hard work of doing nothing during the process of Sandplay Therapy requires the therapists consciousness of an expanding process of development that is at first directed by the ego of the client. If invited, and if a free-enough and safe-enough space is provided, a third thing -- the Self -- begins to manifest, directing or at least enhancing the process. When the attitude and ego of the therapist is ableenough to accept and recognize the images as coming from something other than the ego, from a new participant in the work of healing, the clients unconscious seems to know . . . and responds. Ultimately, our own relationship to the Self and our acknowledgment of the healing aspects within the clients own psyche affects the Sandplay process. If we can do nothing, as Dora Kalff suggests, we can help create and enter into a mutual healing temenos. After years of working with Sandplay, I am continually touched by the mutuality of this analytic depth work. Client and therapist alike experience beneficial changes in attitude, in perceptions of personal meaning, in relationship to society and loved ones -- in their daily lives.

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The Sandplay Collection

Gretchen Hegeman The words "sandplay collection" explore the meaning and the construction of the miniature collection used in sandplay therapy. They will not provide the reader with a starting gun and a road map. The point, rather, is the uncertainty, the intangibility, of the collection. There are endeavors with clearly marked starting points and for which the needed equipment can be listed. The start may be easy and the equipment makeshift or general, eventually evolving through wear and varying quality or type, to fit the individual. What is pursued in sandplay therapy, however, cannot be so clearly marked and listed. How the miniatures participate in the healing process of sandplay and the miniatures' efficacy in that process are intangible. There is no formula for creation. What is offered here is intended to be a foundation allowing the discovery of one's own miniature collection. In the course of research, interviews were conducted with Dora Kalff, Martin Kalff, Kaspar Kiepenheuer, and Alexander Von Berghes. Additionally, the available sandplay literature was reviewed. Through the interviews and reading, it became evident that a delicate dance is created in the healing experience for the client. This involves the inner work which the therapist has done, the therapist's relationship to the collection, and the depth of understanding the therapist brings to the potentiality of the healing process. A sandplay miniature collection is not simply a massing of important symbols. It is a reflection of the relation of the individual therapist to those symbols. A client/patient who looks upon your collection will be looking at both you and your soul. You will only confuse them if you are wearing someone else's clothes. As with the healing process and the effectiveness of the miniatures, there is no generic formula for creating the collection. When first learning sandplay, a frustrating discovery is that little information is published about what is needed to put together a miniature collection.

Even with a lively interest in Jungian psychology, learning what comprises it is difficult if one does not live where there are Jungian analysts or skilled sandplay therapists using sandplay. The little that has been written assumes access to an existing collection. This literature needs a reader well-versed in Jungian psychology. There is a description addressing basic collection content which has come from Dora Kalff, describing her playroom and miniatures: The sandtrays are close by and on a shelf are hundreds of little figures made of lead and other materials: people - not only of various types and professions of modern times, but also figures from past centuries, Negroes, fighting Indians, etc. There are also wild and domestic animals, houses of different styles, trees, bushes, flowers, fences, traffic signals, cars, trains, old carriages, boats; in short everything which exists in the world as well as in fantasy. (1980, p 30) What is it like to enter a sandplay room for the first time? How do we feel as we view shelves filled with figures, colors, forms, boxes and bowls filled with tiny treasures? Do certain figures stand out? ? Do we feel embraced or scared? Is there too much to look at or too little? Does the room feel cared for? Are the sandtrays empty or are figures in them? How do we experience the sand trays? Do they invite us? Do we like the feel of wet or dry sand? Do we have a sense of safety and a feeling of "recognition?" Do we unexpectedly see some piece of ourselves here? The emotion of "recognition" is important to the sandplayer's experience and it is important that the sandplay room evoke this feeling. In looking at the figures one should experience recognition: a re-acquaintance with an old friend. The collection and the sandplay experience ideally obtain this; touching upon the still unconscious, healing potential inside. The miniatures, known or unknown, stimulate this possibility, each in its own way. Von Berghes speaks of this when he says: The collection is a balance between the inner and outer world - connecting them. It is a connection between the patient and the therapist. It is my inner and outer world connecting to theirs. This is the transference. My world and theirs coming together. T hat is why it is important to take care of the collection. It needs to be cleaned and cared for because it communicates about the unconscious. After someone has made a sandplay I take a picture (after they've left) and then I say good-bye to the figures a nd thank them for the work they have done. I was introduced to this by Barry Williams, an American analyst who teaches the American Indian traditions." (Interview, Kusnacht, 8/89) [In Native tradition, when beginning or ending a ceremony one gives thanks to the spirits of the place, as well as all the creatures, seen and unseen who dwell in the place.] Kaspar Kiepenheuer emphasizes that there are no rules about the collection. It needs to be a living thing. There is a danger that what is written down may become a recipe. It is vital that the collection be related to the therapist. Kiepenheuer feels this is a special concern in the United States because he believes that Americans feel a loss of their spiritual and historical roots. If we incorporate spiritual things into the collection without feeling our relatedness to them, the collection can feel, and in fact is, artificial. The collection must be a living organism which is connected to and full of the discoveries of our lives. Kiepenheuer likens th e sandplay collection to an autobiography. When he sees his figures he recalls the feelings, experiences, and travels connected with those figures. (Interview, Zurich, 8/88)

In her book, Images of the Self, Estelle Weinrib writes: The natures of psychological healing and consciousness remain at heart mysteries. We can only conjecture about them and recognize that healing is not identical with consciousness as we tend to think of consciousness; that is, as an accretion of ego awareness. If ego consciousness were all, insight and awareness could be relied upon to change our emotional responses and behavior, but all too often they do not. (1983, p. 24). Weinrib continues, stating that Neumann hypothesized that there are two kinds of consciousness: egoconsciousness evolving from the patriarchal level of the psyche; and a second consciousness called matriarchal, which is rooted in a much deeper, earlier, and more archaic level of the psyche. This matriarchal mode of consciousness has no willed ego-intention. It is subject to the unconscious and reflects unconscious processes, yet carries qualities of awareness, nonverbal comprehension, contemplation, conception, circumambulation, and realization. It brings forth a kind of psychological state of incubation or pregnancy. She quotes Neumann as describing it as "the regenerating power, a mysterium, out of nature." It is this level of consciousness that can be touched in sandplay. All of these elements: the therapist (as container), the sand, the collection, the healing atmosphere in the room, and the client, work together in calling forth the possibility of healing within the client. Together, they create the "synchronistic moment." The final element is spontaneity. Dora Kalff spoke of this: It is a mistake to think of sandplay as being the figures. It is important to touch the sand first and see what comes to you. (Lecture, Zollikon, 8/84) A difficult aspect of these elements working together is that it is not possible to concretely express the relationship between the therapist and the collection. Kiepenheuer spoke of the relationship in this way: The sandplay collection is a part of my life. When a child uses the miniatures it is like they are playing my violin. (interview, Zollikon, 7/89) He was speaking of relatedness: the recalling of the mother/child unity and a recognition of the security of that deep and early time. This relatedness is a vital aspect of the sandplay collection and the space in which it lives. In the lectures I have attended there has been a sense of reserve in talking about the miniature collections. This comes from a fear that collections might become mechanized and identical rather than personal; that a view might develop that collections must have certain items. Dora Kalff expressed personal dismay that many people would include Japanese figures in their collections because they had seen she had them. (Lecture, Zollikon, '88) n Kalff continuously stressed that we know what the figures in our collection mean and that we have a personal relationship to these figures. Once these issues are recognized, guidelines for starting a collection can be used. The individual therapist cannot be told what should be in his or her collection. Instead, the individual therapist explores, from a decided foundation, what will go into the collection. Each Sandplay collection is a unique, personal collection, communicating the psyche/unconscious of the therapist to the sandplayer. But th e therapist might profit from the experience of other therapists. Martin Kalff, for example, thinks that some collections show gaps when they don't have trees, religious symbols, no bridges, figures from the daily life or culture where the therapist lives . e (Conversation, Zollikon, 1988) To provide a guideline for collecting miniatures, I would like to suggest the following areas or categories that a Sandplay therapist might explore in putting together a collection. The examples under each category are not exhaustive nor essential, but merely suggestive. This list can be further helpful as the therapist's relationship to sandplay deepens. Sandplay Miniature Collection:

Nature Earth: rocks, stones, volcanoes, mountains, semi-precious stones and crystals. Ocean: coral, shells, seaglass, kelp, driftwood. Plants: Trees of various types, including some of natural materials as well as plastic. Shrubs, sticks and branches, moss, lichen. Flowers and vegetables. Animals: With both wild and domestic animals, it is helpful to have families (mother, father and babies) and to have animals in different poses. Wild: African, Asian, Australian, American, world-wide birds, snakes, water mammals, fish and insects. Domestic: Horses, cows, bulls, sheep, chickens, dogs, cats. Prehistoric: Meat eaters and vegetarians. Fantasy: Dragons, unicorns, monsters. Human Beings: Ordinary People: Workings, walking, sitting, playing. * Families of similar proportions and children of different ages. * Occupations: Farmers, doctors, nurses, firemen, clergy, athletes, policemen-- both men and women. People through the ages and of different races and levels of society: Entertainers, royalty, soldiers, religious (one's own as well as others with which one is familiar). Fantasy: Wizards and witches, smurfs and dwarfs. Different cultures with which the therapist is familiar including a sufficient number of figures to make a total scene. Archetypes: Figures, objects representing Shadow: Scary and ugly objects. Everything has a shadow. We can see shadow in how objects are placed and used. Transportation: Land, sea and air. Vehicles, military and work equipment. Historical forms of transportation. Buildings:

Churches, schools, stores, institutions, different kinds of houses. Lighthouse, waterwheel, windmill. Old and new buildings. Castles. Structures and dwellings for foreign cultures in your collection. Other Structures: Bridges, fences, wells, towers. Equipment: Work, farm, household, musical instruments. Furniture Miscellaneous: Mirrors, flags, umbrellas, feathers, candles with matches, bonfires. String, sculptey, pipecleaners and other building and construction materials. Miniatures can be found everywhere. Becoming a sandplay therapist allows one the chance to visit all sorts of places like junk stores, the Goodwill, yard sales, rock shops, toy stores, airport shops and other places that you now have a reason to explore. Besides buying miniatures it is enriching to make special figures for our collections. Since most of us do not consider ourselves artistically gifted, we shy away from this. I suggest that you try simple things with Fimo or clay. Natural objects like feathers, stones, shells that you bring back from a walk are special, too. A collection grows and changes as you do. Through your self- exploration you will discover your collection. It is less a question of what is in a collection than it is a question of what has gone into the building of the collection. What you seek to put on your shelves are pieces of the whole; of the physical universe and of the self. References Kalff, Dora (1980). Sandplay. A Psychotherapeutic Approach to the Psyche. Santa Monica: Sigo Press. Weinrib, Estelle L. (1983). Images of the Self. Boston: Sigo Press Gretchen Hegeman, MASW, has a private practice in Mercer Island and Seattle, WA 2001Sandplay Therapists of America/International Society for Sandplay Therapy. All rights reserved.

Robin Hood to the rescue! $4.95

Woodsman and Fighter, Little John $4.95

Female Warrior, Lady Marianne $4.95

Catapult $9.95

Masked Fighter, Zorro $4.95

Green Fire Breathing Dragon $4.95

Fire Breathing Dragon $4.95

Wizard/Magician $4.95

Queen $4.95

King $4.95

Prince $4.95

Unicorn $4.95

Witch $4.95

Wolf: Aggressive $4.95

Wolf $3.95

Cannon $4.95

Treasure Chest $4.95

Viking Warrior $4.95

Farmers: husband and wife set $9.49

Male Hiker/Shepherd $4.95

Dugout Canoe $4.95

African Women $4.95

Male: Caveman $4.95

Man without a face/ Faceless Knight and Horse $9.95

ANIMALS: FARM FIGURES: HUMAN

ANIMALS: DOMESTIC

ANIMALS: OCEAN ANIMALS: WILD

FIGURES: FANTASY LANDSCAPE

MISC.

TOOLS

INFANTS

VEHICLES RELIGIOUS FOOD AND DISHES

HOME AND HOUSEHOLD

ALCOHOL

MILITARY

BUGS/SPIDERS ANIMALS: MISC.

ANIMALS: REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS BIRDS

*DELUXE COLLECTION*

*SPECIAL: SAND TOY PACKAGE*

Sandplay, Sand Tray Therapy, The World Technique are all names given to a non-verbal therapeutic tool developed by Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld in London, England in the 1920s. Today the term Sandplay is most widely used to denote this method of the use of sand and water in a tray in which toys or miniatures are placed. The scene or "world" gives both the maker and therapist a sense of what is going on intrapsychically. Lowenfeld began her training as a pediatrician and while engaged in research on infant feeding and the problems of child care she began to make observations which led her to recognize the significance of childrens play. In 1928 she founded a Childrens Clinic for the treatment and Study of Nervous and Difficult Children. It was here that Lowenfeld developed a research and therapeutically oriented approach to child psychiatry and to develop "toys for reading a childs mind" or The World Technique. The story is told that Lowenfeld placed a sample of toys before a child client who cried out in excitement, "Caw Mam, its a whole world to play with".

In 1931 Lowenfelds clinic moved to a new premises in order to accommodate the ever increasing demand for child psychiatry and its name was changed to the Institute of Child Psychology. By 1935 she and her colleagues had opened the first child psychotherapy training program in England. Also that year Lowenfeld published her theoretical ideas on play entitled, "Play In Childhood", still considered a classic text on the subject. Lowenfeld saw in her unique therapy technique that play is a cognitive process which gives the therapist access to the ways in which children think.

"It is generally agreed that before the age of seven children are not able to express their thoughts and feelings in constructive language, although those aspects of mental functioning which register feeling and thought are present in very small children. In what way do children think, register and group their experience?"