Many clients new to hypnotherapy are surprised to discover that entering a hypnotic state is a skill. Some clients find it challenging to allow themselves to “drop” the ailed state. Going into a guided trance requires clients to trust both themselves and the hypnotherapist; and building that trust can take time. There is usually also a need for the hypnotherapist to educate the client about the myths and misconceptions of hypnosis so that once the client engages in the trance experience, they will have an educated basis to determine if they have reached a hypnotic state. This preparation and education phase can take several sessions and some experimentation with hypnotic techniques and approaches before a client experiences success.
During the twenty-five years that I have trained hypnotherapists and worked with individual clients, I have sought many alternatives to formal hypnotic inductions as a way to help clients work with their subconscious resources for transformation and healing. I strive to empower and support clients who find it difficult to trust themselves and their experience (or lack of experience) in the trance state and commonly suggest alternative approaches to working in trance states early on in therapy. One approach that proves to be evocative, playful, highly creative, and completely self-guided by the client is Sandplay Therapy. Originally developed by Margaret Lowenfeld in the 1930s for use with children in play therapy, sand play therapy is now used with adults, families, corporations, and communities. Sandplay therapy is empowering, self-directed and gentle, yet deeply propulsive as a vehicle for transformation.
In the traditional form of sand play therapy, the therapist provides a waterproof tray approximately 18″ wide x 28″ long x 3″ deep painted blue on the bottom and sides. The tray is filled halfway with high-quality fine sand and the therapy room is equipped with shelves containing a myriad of quality and aesthetic miniature figurines.Included in one collection include small trees, plants, and people of all races, cultures, and periods of life. history; prehistoric, wild and domestic animals from around the world; materials from nature such as rocks, moss, shells, glass, wood, driftwood and pinecones; and marbles, beads and ornaments.A collection also includes toy cars, trains , ships, planes, wagons and other travel vehicles; spiritual and archetypal cross-cultural figures, symbols and icons, as well as miniature figures and objects of daily life. Structures and dwellings from all historical periods and cultures, bridges, fences, towers and caves are represented in the collection, as well as cartoon and fantasy figures that are common in our culture. For the most part, the figures are to scale in relation to the size of each other and the sand tray.
In the traditional sand play process, the client creates a series of scenes or worlds in the sand by sculpting the dry or wet sand and placing chosen objects from the shelves on the tray. The role of the therapist is to provide, as Dora Kalff emphasizes in her book Sand Play, a “free and protected space” and to help the client deal with any content or emotion that sand play evokes. In the traditional approach, the therapist has little or no interaction during the session and does not provide any interpretation of the tray, instead waiting until the entire series of trays has been completed. At a later time, the therapist shows the client slides or videos of the trays in sequence as a map of the client’s healing, integration, and individuation process.
Sandplay approaches have evolved over the years to be used as an interactive process similar to hypnotherapy. In this more active approach, sand play can be used for inner child work, part therapy, dream work, past life therapy, problem solving, grounding, learning, and improvement. of the memory. The organization of the figures on the tray by a customer is a metaphor for the reorganization of one’s own consciousness. Clients can move figures to tell a narrative story or use voice dialogue in psychodrama as the figures tell their personal stories. However, in contrast to the private inner experience of hypnotherapy, the symbolic work is created outside of the client’s view.
When the client is a child, sand play therapy is especially appropriate. A child relates to the world primarily through his body, and sand play gives him the opportunity to participate in the therapeutic process in an active kinesthetic way. He can “show” instead of “tell” and allow subconscious feelings and experiences to emerge spontaneously through play. “Hypnosis” occurs in front of the child in the arena, rather than just inside the child, giving both client and therapist access to what was previously information or content that was likely inexpressible to the child. It is the process of engaging in creative play that is healing. Expressing through symbols, personal maps of experience, metaphors or stories allows the client to become a witness to himself and give him a concrete and direct experience that he is the creator of his own world or experience of it. Simply observing one’s own process in the sandbox can be tremendously liberating and liberating, giving the customer perspective and an experience of not being the problem, but witnessing the problem.
Like hypnosis, sand play involves the power of suggestion. If a customer creates an experience of a potential solution to a problem in the arena, the solution is imprinted as a future positive response to the customer in their daily lives. The memory of the tray or a photo of the creation becomes an anchor or post-hypnotic cue not only for the possible solution to a problem, but also gives the client a way to have a new and positive emotional relationship with the client. problem.
Additionally, sand play, like hypnotherapy, induces the client into an altered state of consciousness in which the subconscious mind becomes an active player and resource in the therapeutic dance. The self-directed ritual of preparing the arena, choosing the objects, and concentrating on creating the scene in the arena works much like a process of hypnotic induction and deepening where the subconscious is more accessible. As in non-directive hypnotherapy, when creating the sand tray, the client can choose to focus on a specific issue or concern or allow the subconscious to spontaneously guide the focus of the session and the focus of the tray. Often a customer will not be aware of what she is creating until she sits down to watch the scene of her on the tray.
Most importantly, sandplay is very creative, even for people who think they’re not creative, and it’s deliciously fun. Creating sand trays highlights issues that need transformation and helps the client access the source of healing from within.