The following vignettes illustrate how effective Lowenfeld’s sandtray methods can be for therapists in processing their own personal unease. Both women described are experienced therapists with previous sandtray training and an existing safe relationship with the author as consultant. Both trays were spontaneous and not directed. The information presented is from session notes and photographs, not an interpretation (e.g., Rae, 2013), and each therapist consented to her story being published.
Sara’s Story A busy mental health professional, Sara (pseudonym) requested a sand tray session because she was feeling somewhat overwhelmed by her work. She normally felt a rich satisfaction from providing trauma treatment. When Sara began to notice consistently less eagerness as she prepared for work, she accurately considered it a red flag and requested consultation.
Sara began by creating a hill-like form with sand in the center of her in a circle around a candle. She then stated, “The world is so crazy it needs some harmony.” Quickly, she lit the candle. She then placed items that she described as “abuse,” “torture,” “evil,” and “war.” Sara spoke of the impoverished state of humanity in today’s world. She referred to “evil atrocities in our world,” such as rape, the training of child soldiers, devastating natural disasters, and the rise of warlords in many regions. Sara spoke intermittently as she formed her sand tray.
modulated in her responses to her traumatized clients. Like the miniature group of people in the center of her sand world, Sara felt assaulted by evil and negativity. She said that she was “feeling overwhelmed” by the graphic and intense images of abuse that she dealt with in her psychotherapy practice with teens.
Her heart was “ragged and torn” in her attempts to hold onto her own “safe place,” while being present with her clients’ suffering. After summarizing this tray together, Sara acknowledged not only feeling bombarded by her everyday work world and the “big world,” but also by some personal family issues. This awareness was acknowledged between us and the focus turned to how Sara could nurture and strengthen herself.
As our processing continued, Sara placed the “Do Not Enter” and “Stop” signs in the tray. She moved the “Do Not Enter” sign toward the “devil’s path” and “other evils” as a way to protect her “harmony and peace” group. In the end, her peaceful circle conquered evil. Sara expressed a
Latika’s Story the shocking death of her infant client, Ian (pseudonym). She worked in an agency serving high-risk families with preschool-age children and infants. Latika had just closed this case to transfer to a supervisory position. Ian and his mother had progressed well in their treatment.
Mother’s interactions with her son had become very responsive and she had demonstrated good parenting skills. Latika expressed feeling a “delightful intimacy” working with this pair, and deep satisfaction in their excellent progress. She felt considerable grief for Ian, for his mother’s that Ian’s death triggered memories from her own past losses. Her goals included maintaining professional yet compassionate boundaries with Ian’s mother, and managing her own sadness in the workplace. Latika expected that she may have to deal with some aspects of her childhood to resolve her distress.
Figure 1
Later in the session, Sara focused on the small, black, and hunched their light. She characterized this devil as the “creeping... seeping of evil” towards her circle of “harmony and peace.” She placed a broken red heart as a barrier between these two and pushed the heart into the sand, stating that the heart was “so tattered the evil is likely to get through.”
Sara eventually became able to recognize the connections between her globally-focused observations and her personal stressors. She also realized that she had become increasingly over-sensitive and less
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On arrival, Latika reported that she had not slept well since learning of Ian’s death. She stated that she was “emotional” all week and that her grief was “leaking out” at work. Latika struggled with the question, “How could I have made this not happen?” She was beginning to doubt her own professional abilities, just as she was taking on more responsibilities. Her fourth visit was after Ian’s memorial service and Latika’s own interview by the state’s child death investigator.
In the sand tray, Latika formed rock walls with the stone woman inside (see Figure 2). Next, she set out a tiny baby on its back with a heavy, blue, round object on top of it (Ian was found on his back), and a then placed some other babies, pushing many of them forcefully face down in the sand.
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