How Body And Symbol Inform Sandplay Therapy

This article looks historically at how imaginative processes that preceded the psychological foundations of C. G. Jung, offered early examples of how symbols, sensory awareness, and imagination in humans might be understood through the lens of Sandplay Therapy and Jungian theory. Using the legacy of Jung’s premise that body and psyche are inseparable, and Sandplay Founder Dora Kalff”s observations of how these aspects can be observed in sandplay process, this article invites new understandings of an integrated view of somatic experiences in the sand. Other noted analysts, Erich Neumann, and Marion Woodman are discussed as part of the growing relationship that brought more understanding of how the body, symbol, and imagination appear in both clinical settings and Sandplay Therapy. The relational field created in the therapeutic dyad is explored, as well as the co-transference and connections that arise in the work. Zappacosta weaves in case studies that illustrate just how body, symbol, and sand inform and transform Sandplay process.