Skype Sand Therapy - Transformation And Analysis

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

In a previous article, Skype Sand Therapy - Trauma Painting, I detailed the scope, materials and benefits of using this approach, and the creation of the first sand painting

For many of you, this may be enough to apply an effective and interesting technique

However, I take a more complex approach and in this article I want to describe the continuation of the entire continuous and interconnected process for me

So, when the first stage is completed, and you give the client instructions for the second stage, you may encounter an unexpected difficulty.

Clients will strive to immediately transform the picture into a positive image, "write" their fairy tale to the end, as it were, and thereby interrupt the process of experiencing. Be tolerant of this and help the client get back to step-by-step work and even re-create the sand painting.

Example of a dialogue with a client, who hastened to do everything beautifully and painlessly at once. Without waiting for instructions for the 2nd stage, he created a positive picture, which again repeated his process of avoidance in fantasy and the hope of an easy deliverance (hereinafter, the letters P and K denote the responses of the Psychologist and the Client, respectively):

NS: I see how you again run away from the experience of pain and jump into the illusion of happiness, deny the obvious problem.

TO: Yes, exactly, I can't go there.

NS: My task is to keep you at the point of pain and teach you to experience it. And you run away and deny.

TO: I want to get it over with. I already seem to be holding on to this depression and pain, when I go through it every day for an hour. It comes by itself!

NS: And there is. Only not it itself, but rather you yourself. You hold it, and you do not realize it. The situation with the fairy tale in the sand is very indicative.

TO: Crap! Well, then what to do? I do not get it. Okay, I myself, I already give up, I already want to end with this pain.:)) What then, stop the fairy tale again on a sad note?

NS: Try. It is precisely to stop on a sad note without any continuation, cover and leave for a while. To live for a while with the fact that everything is bad in the basin. Only now take a different story and other heroes.

Agrees. I realized that there was no need to rush, and shifted my focus to the process of therapy, awareness and experience of feelings.

Note

• Remember, in this case, the process is more important than the result.
• If the client was in a hurry and prematurely made the 2nd part, one should abandon the analysis of this story and create a new one with other heroes. And about the first one, praise him and say that he at least enjoyed his creative work, practiced and already did something useful for himself. Explain to him the importance of step by step as a feature of your methodology and your analysis.

After the 1st stage is passed, but not earlier, you can move on.

2nd stage. "Transformation"

- In a different emotional state than the picture was created, take it, remove the napkin and photograph it in the best, from the point of view of the client, angle.

- To independently carry out a sequential analysis of the picture. For example, speak aloud or describe the characters and their position in the painting relative to the relief and each other, then describe their relationship using the corresponding figures, describe the figures of the third order, using what first comes to mind:

• to whom does this refer in the picture?
• what is it?
• what can this mean, and what is the role of this subject?
• how can this be used to change the picture?

- Change the picture in such a way that the conflict or drama depicted on it is resolved by moving the figures, changing their position, removing or supplementing secondary and tertiary elements. You can tell it like a fairy tale or a story.

The instruction may sound like this:

“Now take off your scarf and transform the picture so that it transforms into a happy ending to the fairy tale, but not according to logic, but according to feelings. Remove what? What to add? What to swap? Take your time and voice every change."

- Completion of this process, as in the first case, should be based on a subjective feeling of completeness of the composition, but not exceed 25-30 minutes.

- Take a photo of the result again and send both photos to you.

3rd stage - "Analysis" both pictures.

- These photographs and client observations of their processes will serve as material for your next session.

- Let the client tell you their story or fairy tale depicted in these two paintings. Will designate the names and roles of all characters, objects and explain their location and relationship.

- Be careful and do not interpret for the client. Seek and persistently ask about what you see in the pictures. You will probably be able to find something that the client did not attach importance to.

- Give your feedback on what you saw and heard. Use phenomenological terms: “I've noticed that A and B are standing side by side and facing each other. B is farther from them, and turned to face in the opposite direction. What is he looking at?"

- Listen to the answers, guesses and assumptions of the client. Don't push him into insights, this is his process. You see his own in the picture, he - his.

- Discuss and ask the client over and over again: what could this mean?

- Thank the client for the work done and emphasize once again how important it is for his awareness and your mutual understanding with him.

- Ask if you discussed everything. If the answer is yes, move on.

- Tell us what you saw here and what was missed by the client himself in his description. Clients often do not notice the available resources, do not realize the repetition of their own patterns from life in the painting, do not attach importance to important things in the subjects of the third order. Don't pretend to be true.

"I noticed that in the second picture A, B and C are at an equal distance to each other, and I remember what you were telling …"

- Note the use, appearance or disappearance of objects of the third order in the second picture, which can be of great importance: “I noticed that this bright bead appeared in the second picture. On the first one it is not visible, and I wonder what it could be. Now the client's answers are no longer needed - your questions may remain unanswered.

- Summarize by tying the process and the result together, and highlighting the key points of the work.

Note

• A careful analysis and analysis takes about an hour of work - just a whole session.
• The subject of the session can be not only the photographs themselves, but also those phenomena that the client arose in the process of creating sand paintings.
• It is not advisable to split all the work into several sessions - relevance and energy are lost.
• It is imperative to record the painful topic that has come up and offer to discuss it at the next session. If the client now feels that he is ready, he will agree.
• Despite the apparent ease, the client's independent preparatory work can take him for three to four days. Consider this time when planning.

What is the benefit of an approach that combines all 3 stages?

1. Allows the client to reflect those strong experiences that he is not able to express in words and understand.
2. It is the "entry point" for a repressed (forbidden) topic or an illustrative visual example of something that the client cannot understand in any way.
3. Keeps the client at the "peak of tension" and gives him the experience of experiencing the emotion that he habitually avoided or denied.
4. Saves session time and directs it only for joint analysis and analysis of the result or process in a live dialogue with a psychologist.
5. From my experience, I can say that, while observing the technology, this approach helped me significantly advance in working with clients, and for them to reflect and experience those complex feelings that previously haunted and prevented them from concentrating on themselves and the therapy process.

Example from a dialogue with a client:

TO: I want to get it over with as soon as I feel better, I want to live, look for work. When I lived with (name of beloved), it was as if I was in a slimy ether, and now it was as if I was 6 years behind life, and I want to run very quickly, and some small thing holds - this pain - but it is already less. It’s like I’m at the start and want to run, but in such slime so as not to fall again and to start qualitatively.:) How do you?

(Waiting for approval. It is important to pause as this is the moment the client realizes his resistance.)

Again K: In short, I will do everything tomorrow morning and send it to you.

(The decision was made independently, now it can be supported.)

NS: Name K, understand that mental processes do not change with the wave of a magic wand. The time for building new complex paths and connections in the brain is all the same. A painful feeling blocks the direct passage in this "mucus". Everything will happen gradually, you are already getting out, and this is great!

TO: Yes, you are right, there is no need for a wave of illusions (reorientation from the result to the process of therapy).

Feelings become not something vague, frightening and spontaneously controlling the client, but a specific "figure" that can be seen, touched, investigated and identified, analyzed and discussed, which means that they no longer have the same "magical" power over a person as before.

Good luck, new discoveries and awareness of your clients in this exciting and rewarding activity. Let me remind you that all the main issues of preparing, motivating the client and creating a dramatic picture for him are described in the article "Sand therapy in Skype - A picture of psychological trauma".

If you have any questions, please contact me, I am always glad to share my own experience.