2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
There are times in the workplace in which a person's true problems and desires are not obvious. Or a person himself doubts what exactly he wants, what exactly worries him.
For such cases, there is an excellent technique for working with the unconscious.
Adults are not far from children at some points.
Do you know how psychologists work with children? Since, due to their age, children do not know how to name their inner experiences, psychologists use techniques for working with the child's unconscious in working with them. One of these techniques is working with sand.
Each of us adults in our childhood played in a sandbox: someone made Easter cakes, someone built castles, and someone a sand road. The child's leading activity is play. It is through her that he shows and replays all his inner experiences. Paradoxically, the technique works the same with adults.
Sitting down for the sandbox, even the most skeptical - minded adults begin to build their own world. They plunge into the process and at the end we get what leads to the surprise of many
A psychological sandbox is a sandbox made of wood, made according to certain standards. The interior of the sandbox is sky-colored. And by playing, you can make a sea, a river (any body of water) out of it. Be sure to go to the sandbox, the sand therapist collects a collection of figurines for different situations in life that the client may need. From stones denoting grievous grievances to glass colored stones denoting resources. Much and much more. Each figure has its own conventional interpretation.
The sandbox is divided into parts: past, present and future. And where each figure stands is also very important. The psychologist interprets and discusses with the client
The client's task is quite simple: "Build your world."
A task that completely gives freedom in building. There must be a figure in your world that denotes yourself.
Half an hour of free flight and imagination to build. Even if a person cannot build anything, but simply plays with sand, this is also very diagnostic. Mountains, reservoirs and the figure of the hero can already tell a lot about the inner world of a person.
I will tell you a few cases from my therapeutic practice with sand.
The first case "I forgot about him."
Natalia was convinced that she really wanted a child. Several doctors passed and she and her husband were already preparing to work on conceiving a baby, but Natalya doubted whether she was ready for a child. I believed that it was rather yes than no. The doctors said that Natalya and her husband were healthy, it was time to start.
In our work, Natalya built her own world, in which there were: her house, she and her husband, table and colleagues - her work, friends, travels and even a lot of money and resources (half of the sand picture was strewn with colored stones). There was everything except the figure of the baby. To my question: "Natalia, where is the child?"
She suddenly said in surprise "I forgot about him !!!".
This suggests that Natalia does not have a child anywhere in the zone of the past, present and future. And we can say that in fact, she is not ready for a child now. When Natalya saw her picture, she said "You are right, building a picture of peace and harmony, I did not even think about putting a child there. And I was happy, building my own world. Without a child … I am not ready for it."
The second case is "This is the world of the big spider."
Oleg, who wanted to understand his plans for life, built a world where there is everything: work, family, friends … … and in the center he put the figure of a large spider that protects the world and the spider is the owner there.
“The spider figure is you?” I asked.
"No, it's not me. It's something big and dangerous, but it's not me. I don't know where to put the figure of myself (the little bunny). It has no place in this picture of the world. I hold the bunny in my hand."
"Oleg, as if you have no place in your life."
"Indeed, it seems as if there is no place for me in my life," said Oleg.
The spider figure is the image of a negative mother. And Oleg began to think that it was true that his whole life was built according to his mother's wishes: work, wife, study, home purchase - everything was chosen by his mother. This is not his world, this is my mother's world. And mom (spider) protects so that this world does not collapse. But Oleg has no place in this world.
“What would you like to add?” I asked.
"Oddly enough, but I would add a snowboard to the bunny. Then he would have left the spider in his own, some other world."
This is exactly what we did. Added a snowboard figure. And then a place was found for the bunny - he left on it. The psychological work went deeper and clearer.
The third case "It is dangerous for me to be closer"
Elena, who came to therapy with a request for problems in communication with others, when building her world, put her friends (whom she chose as the figures of a wolf and a parrot) at a great distance from herself.
And she said: "It's amazing, these are my close friends, but for some reason I don’t want to put them closer to my figure. I’m just uncomfortable. Dangerous. I don’t understand why."
“What do you have to do with these friends?” I asked.
"They are close, old … but they know the period of my life, which I myself want to forget" - said Elena.
“What is this period?” I asked.
"I worked as a prostitute. Youth, stupidity. I stopped it a long time ago, but my friends know it. And I'm afraid that it will somehow come up in my new relationship," Elena sighed.
******
The sand shows a lot that we cannot find within the conscious. The unconscious keeps secrets that tell us a lot about ourselves.
At the end of the construction and analysis of the picture, the therapist allows you to add some figure or change something in the picture. Even when clients know the whole interpretation and could build the picture perfectly (put a lot of resources next to them or add the desired shapes), they are guided by their feelings. It happens that it is obvious to put a bag of money next to him, but sometimes the client feels that inside he is uncomfortable next to this bag of money. And this is a question for therapeutic work. Why does money get in the way.
Sandbox work cannot be fooled. To add something superfluous - something that is not included in the human world is very difficult. And intuitively, a person puts only what suits him.
Working with sand is very diagnostic and has a great therapeutic effect. Next to the sand therapist, you can understand your true needs and situations in life, deal with what is happening in the unconscious. It is clear and understandable.
A great opportunity to get to know yourself. How would you build your world?
Author: Julia Talantseva
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