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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-within-oneself 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 vegetative-animal, 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.
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