Reuniting with the Inner Child by Connecting with Figures from Faraway Realms Through Sandplay Therapy

Daphna Rosin, MAAT, CST, JA

Abstract

The author describes a 13-year-old client who received two and a half years of treatment which included art therapy, sandplay, and Jungian psychotherapy due to anxiety symptoms manifested after experiencing her mother’s life-threatening illness. During this period, she made fifteen sandplay scenes and a variety of artworks, revealing a healing individuation process, from a state of alienation and seclusion of the “Divine Inner Child” as described by Donald Kalsched (1996; 2013) via the “self-care system” (SCS) defense mechanism model, proceeding by connecting with figures from children’s fantasy story realms (e.g. Harry Potter series, Dragon Ball, My Neighbor Totoro) as well as with symbols of natural elements. She was especially drawn to figures from East Asia, which served as a source of strength, emerging from the collective unconscious, probably to enable a psychological separation from her Jewish traditional close environment, but also expressed her wish for actual future traveling to explore faraway lands. The client’s process is interpreted using terms by Jung, Kalsched, Neumann, Kalff, Bradway and Weinrib.

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