Sand Tray Therapy: A Client's Candid Account
As a therapist, this blog entry was a real eye opener. While we might think we have some really great and effective ideas, this is largely irrelevant if we don't consider how they are received. We need to pay attention to what our clients are hearing and experiencing. Read this frank, first person account of a client's sand play therapy experience:
http://www.goodbers.com/blogger/2008/05/graduation.html
http://www.goodbers.com
I am an educational psychologist who utilise sand tray therapy with children and adolescents and sometimes young adults in college. Did sand tray form part of your therapeutic regime or therapeutic framework when conceptualising your couple? I find that when I have used art therapy with a client it is easier for them to work with sand worlds. Also, with older children and young adults I explain in detail and ask them if they would like to try working in the sand as a means to relax. I also inform them that it may seem silly, but therapy is about our stories that we tell and the editing thereof so our lived stories that can flow better (for older individuals). Using figurines in the sand is another way of telling our story. I urge them to select figurines that speak to them and be sure they do not just randomly select. In my first session I would do surface therapeutic work - asking about the figures in the sand and how they relate to each other. I only focus on them when the client relates the story to their actual life. During this process I am also aware of possible naturalistic trances so that I don't bring them out of trance too soon. This enables them to do a lot of inner work and meaning-making. In a subsequent session I would use the picture of their sand world and ask them if they would like to explore the world they built from the picture in a previous session, or I would give them the option to build another sand world. This brings some continuity to meaning making. I try to use sand tray therapy in conjunction with other therapies that worked for my clients in previous sessions, and start using sand tray therapy only after a third session when I have built a therapeutic relationship with a client.
I have worked with an adolescent boy who comes from a family culture that therapy is unmanly. I did one session with him after 2 art therapy sessions (with his father and the other individually). The client also walked out thinking what was that about, but when I looked at the video, I realised that I did some deep work (which could have been too soon, but considering the cultural milieu of the client, I thought brief therapeutic interventions would be an ideal here). There was a great deal of thinking happening and what appeared to have been silly to my client must have been relevant to his current experience too as he went into a naturalistic trance and a great deal of projection took place. A year later when I contacted his father, his father informed me that he was doing much better considering the loss of his mother six months after they terminated therapy. I am just wondering if you ask your clients to reflect again on the sand tray experience if they would hold the same opinion a year later...It must be difficult working with couples and groups in sand tray therapy because trance work may be difficult to accomplish, nonetheless, I believe deep work is not impossible to achieve.
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Clearly, just like other forms of play therapy, there are many ways to work with a sand tray. The nice thing about using sand tray is that therapeutic work can stll take place even when clients have limited insight or self-awareness. And work can continue to take place as clients process what they have done and reflect back on their sand trays. I use a digital camera and a color printer which allows me to print out a picture of each sand tray, allowing clients to take a second look at what they have done. I work very little with adults, and almost never with couples. It would be interesting to hear from other therapists about their experiences with couples and families, as well as adults in individual therapy.
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I think it is very easy to get so wrapped up in what we do that we forget how clients experience the world of therapy. From the outside it must certainly look odd; sitting and listening to peoples problems all day and asking them to do all kinds of strange things. Like a sand tray for example!
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That was an inspiring post,
Keep up the good work,
Thanks
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