Mitchell, Rie Rogers
MOVING TOWARDS INITIATION

Journal of Sandplay Therapy, Volume 3, Number 2, 1994

KEY WORDS: sandplay therapy, initiation.

ABSTRACT: Sandplay provided the vessel for Jasmine, a 10 year-old girl, to experience the beginning stirrings of her own initiatory process in a creative and grounded way. Her series of 26 sandtrays (15 of which are presented in the article) were created over a period of ten and one-half months. Jasmine’s sandplay are discussed in light of the characteristics and symbols that were used during ancient adolescent initiatory rites. Using sandplay culminated in a reorientation of Jasmine’s world-view. She moved from a shy, diffident girl, who over-idealized her accomplished father while denigrating her mother who she experienced as fragile, to a self-confident preadolescent who did not need to rely on anyone else’s energy to succeed. She was ready to be initiated into womanhood.