The MSTG Sandplay Conversations for 2025-26. MSTG’s Conversations series from October, 2025 through April, 2026 will 
examine important themes of alchemy and how they appear in sandplay
therapy. Each Conversation topic will include two sessions.
The first session of each pair will be a presentation of the material with clinical sandplay examples and some discussion. In the second session, a week later, we invite participants to bring clinical examples of their own for discussion and consultation. We will also have time to discuss the didactic material in more depth and to look at the sandplay images more closely.
Session3: Alchemy and Sandplay Therapy: The Nigredo, Albedo and Rubedo
February 5: Presentation and February 12: Discussion Group
In this Sandplay Conversation, we will review the three main colors of Alchemy, the nigredo, albedo, and rubedo, and how they appear in Kalffian sandplay therapy and psychotherapy. Murray Stein, the Jungian analyst and teacher, calls these phases “states of minds.” The nigredo, the blackening, is a period of breaking down, of dissolution. It is a state of unconsciousness, of egolessness, a period of suffering, where painful things are broken down in order to be re-generated. The albedo, or whitening, emerges after the nigredo, is the ash and all that survives after the great suffering of the nigredo
period. It is a period of purification, when there is no longer any contamination, when we withdraw our projections. During this period, one becomes quieter, more emotionally detached and objective. The rubedo, or reddening, is the period when life is returning. When albedo has been solidly grounded, the life-blood follows. It is a period of full consciousness, of fully- embodied experience.
Session 4: Alchemy and Sandplay Therapy: The Coniunctio
April 2: Presentation and April 9: Discussion Group
Psyche begins in a state of blissful union and throughout its development ego separates into conscious and unconscious states. Through the process of psychic maturation we call individuation, unconscious parts of the psyche become conscious when they are reintegrated and the conscious ego develops a relationship with the Self. This process is lifelong and allows the individual to achieve his greatest psych potential through multiple episodes of coniunctio or coming together of opposites. In this session, we will focus on the process of coniunctio, the alchemical process which is catalyzed by the Eros principle. We will discuss the greater and lesser coniunctio as well as the introverted and extraverted forms of the coniunctio.
Instructors:
Regina Driscoll, PhD, Certified Sandplay Therapist – Teacher; Jacquelyn Wiersma, PhD; Ellen Dona, PsyD; and other senior MSTG members.
Event Flyer: Sandplay Conversation 2025-26
For more information and to register: https://www.minnesotasandplay.org/