Processing Feelings Through Symbols
How Using a Sandtray in Therapy Can Help Us Move Past Our Deeper Pains
When we intentionally allow imagery and archetypes to symbolize something, it can help us get more comfortable feeling those feelings we prefer to avoid. There isn’t a universal meaning ascribed to these figures, but the meaning comes from within us. Often, because of shared human experiences, our culture, and certain attributes, we can guess what something means on a deeper level, but meaning changes based on personal experiences.
Take these pictures I took of some dinosaur toys (found over at the Barnes and Noble within the Chandler Fashion Center mall, near the 101 freeway and Chandler Boulevard), and we can find multiple meanings that could be taken from them.
In this first one, we see this blue colored dragon in the foreground, with other dinosaurs in the background. One could take a story of the dragon being a leader, burning with blue flames from his righteous anger, giving a powerful speech to rally the other dinosaurs into a battle. You might see the blue dragon as fed up and tired of dealing with the other dinosaurs, and he is seething in white hot flames inside, but not letting it out. Another person might see the blue dragon as a cold figure, having just bullied the stegosaurus in the background to where it is now laying on its side, and the dragon is flaunting about his power so that others would fear him.
You see how in one glance, you see many different stories? And as I pointed out new details, you could almost see new perspectives? This is how sandtray therapy works.
When a person creates a sandtray, they see an assortment of miniatures, and use them to create a picture, a story to be told. Then the person who created it shares about what the miniatures are doing, what they are feeling, and provides context for how they all relate to each other on the tray. The therapist asks questions to help the person deepen their felt experience as they talk in the metaphors created. They will often change their position around the sandtray, changing to a new point of view, symbolically helping the person look at their internal conflicts from another perspective. The therapist may even encourage them to change the tray, creating a felt sense of control and emotional change within the person’s emotional world.
Take this next picture and consider the emotions that could be behind the world created with this long-necked dinosaur in the foreground looking back at the fallen dinosaurs in the background. Perhaps if someone had created this scene, the person explained that long-necked dinosaur was looking back, sad that he had hurt the other dinosaurs, and he felt guilty for the harm he accidentally caused.
The therapist might be curious about any connection between this and the person’s real-life feelings regarding his strained relationship with his parents and siblings. Then, without being direct, the therapist might ask about how the relationship between the dinosaurs was before, and how the fallen dinosaurs felt about the long-necked dinosaur now. Usually at this point, the person who created the scene will recognize themselves in the sandtray, even if they didn’t before.
Then the therapist might ask if there is anything that the long-necked dinosaur might want to say to the fallen dinosaurs, encouraging the person who created the landscape to experience a sense of catharsis in saying what they may wish they could say to their family members. Then the therapist might have them consider how the fallen dinosaurs feel after hearing what the long-necked dinosaur said and ask what they need in order to forgive the missteps.
Doing this allows the person to process their own feelings, while also allowing them to consider all sides of the situation without overwhelming shame. The distance created in using a story to symbolize their inner world allows for a deeper felt feelings experience, allowing it to not need to be held onto, encouraging the person to move through the feelings. It may even help them see what they need to do in order to make things feel better on their end.
While it can feel silly at first, using a sandtray is similar to the stories we play in our heads as we process our feelings through dreams, the ones we adventure through playing tabletop role-playing games with our friends, or the wild imagery we see when we use a substance to hallucinate. However, through a sandtray, we are being very deliberate and intentional, allowing us full control over the experience, and doing so within the safe space created within a therapy office.
