Flooding and Grieving: A Boy’s Journey Toward Healing

Marion Anderson, PhD, JA, CST-T

Abstract

This article reflects upon the psychological meaning of flooding in sandplay scenes. The symbolic connection between the alchemical solution and flooding in trays is explored from a Jungian perspective. The author presents a clinical example of a four-year-old boy who worked on the elaboration of the loss of his father. The boy expressed his grief through a series of trays flooded by “sewage” that he felt compelled to clean. In the sandplay scenes a theme of dirt was followed by a theme of being stuck which was represented by cars that were “stuck in the mud.” There was a marked repetitiveness to his themes and his attitude or work was especially persistent. By the end of the therapy process he had built a new psychic foundation also symbolically represented in the trays and sessions. The article also examines the perspective of the therapist in accompanying a process of repetitive flooding and stuckness.

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