Sandplay as alchemical vessel: Healing sexual trauma and drug addiction

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Abstract

Sandplay is a nonverbal expressive therapy that was developed in the 1950s by Dora Kalff, a Jungian psychotherapist. Kalff incorporated the theories of Jungian psychology, Margaret Lowenfeld's World Technique(a nonverbal play therapy), and Eastern philosophy and thought (Kalff, 2003). Kalff observed that the sandtrays that children created often paralleled the individuation process described in Jungian theory (Kalff, 1980). Like Jung, she realized that the “healthy development of the ego can take place only as a result of the successful manifestation of the Self, whether as a dream symbol or as a depiction in the sandbox” (p. 29).Just as a series of dreams is used in the analytical process, a series of sandtrays “represents an ongoing practical confrontation with the unconscious“ (Ammann, 1991, p. xv).

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