Autoethnography and Sensemaking: A Persian Management Scholar

Abstract The present study applies a therapeutic modality known as sandtray to help 10 graduate students at New Mexico State University (NMSU) reflect on themselves. A shallow, rectangular sandtray, measuring 28.5 inches by 19.5 inches and 3 inches deep, half-filled with sand, is the basic instrument. The basic element of every sandtray is sand which is the basic element of the earth that connects people to their soul. I will introduce the sandtray therapy as a simple, nonverbal method in which small toys are representatives of real phenomena – namely, deep personal issues. Furthermore, I will bring together various approaches toward sandtray therapy as presented by different researchers, along with a personal disclosure of my own experience using this method and by providing photographs of my sandtray. My experience was in accordance with Carl Jung who explained that sandtray figures are characterized in a way that corresponds to the four essential phenomenological functions or personality types identified as the following: thinking, feeling, intuitive, and sensate. In the last part of this chapter, I will discuss the ways in which my sandtray represents my background as a person coming from Persia along with a Persian culture living in the United States while adapting myself to a new life.