Sandplay therapy is an applied development of Jungian analytical psychology, which was founded by Swiss Jungian psychoanalyst Dora Calve. Jung's analytical psychology, winfield's "game kingdom technology", China culture and China's philosophy are the three foundations for Calvi to establish sandbox game therapy. We will introduce and explain this in the first three chapters of this book.

I. sandplay and healing the mind

In our understanding, western psychotherapy emphasizes "treatment" and "symptoms"; Analytical psychotherapy based on China culture, including sandplay therapy, pays attention to "mind" and emphasizes "healing". Culver named his basic work sandplay therapy "sandplay: a psychotherapy method for psychology", which already contains the key to understanding sandplay therapy.

"Definition" of Sandplay Therapy

People's understanding and even expression of sandplay therapy have always been quite different, and it seems not easy to make a strict definition of this treatment system. This is also an important topic of the 2003 Seattle International Conference on Sandplay Therapy. After more than two years of discussion and brewing, at the 2005 international conference on sandplay therapy in Rome, Italy, everyone unanimously adopted the following expression of sandplay therapy:

Sandplay therapy is a kind of psychological comprehensive therapy developed by Dora Calvi based on Jungian psychological principles. Sandplay is a creative form of therapy using images (positive imagination), and it is "concentrated extraction of physical and mental life energy" (Jung). It is characterized by the application of sand, water and tools to the creation of images in the doctor-patient relationship and the "space of freedom and protection" of sand table, which shows a series of sand table images. Create a continuous dialogue between consciousness and unconsciousness in the heart of the sandbox player, and the healing process and personality (as well as the development of mind and self) inspired by it.

The above Chinese expression is not only a translation of the definition of sandplay therapy, but also contains our own special understanding. For example, emphasizing the Jungian analytical psychological basis of sandplay therapy, the important role of imagery and positive imagination in sandplay therapy, and taking sandplay as creative therapy are all issues that we paid special attention to when we communicated with Ruth Oman (President of the International Sandplay Therapy Society) for many times to discuss the definition of sandplay therapy. We also participated in the discussion of the 2003 Seattle International Sandplay Conference and voted at the 2005 Rome International Sandplay Conference. The words and comments in brackets in the above definition are specially added by us. In addition, Jungian psychology, image and positive imagination, physical and mental life energy, freedom and protection space, consciousness and unconsciousness, treatment and cure, mind and self, which are the basis of sandplay therapy, are all important contents that need our further thinking and understanding.

(B) the connotation and understanding of sandplay therapy

When we explain the definition of sandplay therapy, we will explain the basic principles of Jung's analytical psychology and the foundation of Calvi's sandplay therapy, including the cultural foundation of China on which Calvi relies, and the creative development on this basis. Calvi studied Chinese since childhood, and in the process of growing up, he intensively read the Book of Changes and Taoist philosophy, intensively studied Zhou Dunyi's philosophical system, and integrated it into the cornerstone of sand table therapy and its self-development guidance.

1. Positive imagination and physical and mental energy

"Positive imagination" is an important method of Jungian psychoanalysis, and it is also called a basic attitude of contacting the unconscious and even being self-centered. We can say that positive imagination is also the connotation technology of sandbox game therapy, or that sandbox game therapy is also a manifestation of positive imagination. Therefore, Jung's collective unconscious thought, prototype and prototype image theory, and the interpretation of images and symbols all belong to the important connotation of sandbox game therapy.

Jung's thought of analytical psychology, including his positive imagination technique, is closely related to China culture. In the book "The Secret of Golden Flower" co-authored by Jung and Wei Lixian (this book contains Wei Lixian's translation and introduction of the Taoist text "The Secret of Taiyi Golden Flower" and Jung's analysis and comments on the text from the perspective of analytical psychology), he systematically expounded the role of his "positive imagination" method and technology for the first time. By borrowing the story of China's "rain seeker" told by Wei Lixian, Jung fully expressed the essence of his positive imagination and his emphasis on the energy of physical and mental life.

Most psychological counseling and psychotherapy only take language communication and written narration as the main forms. The sandplay therapy is the combination of mind and body, the expression of "body" and the language of "hand". When tourists put their hands on the sand table, or gently touch the sand, or pile sand hard, or choose sand tools with different materials and shapes ... this is already "talking", both body and mind are feeling and expressing at the same time, and the life energy of body and mind is refined, and the healing effect of mind begins. In China culture, we often use "understanding, reflection, experience and understanding" to describe the healing process of sandplay therapy. What you get from your heart, you have to give it to your hand, which is also called.

2. Freedom and protection space

For Calve, the cure effect of sandplay therapy lies in its "freedom and protection" space. This is not only the basis of clinical treatment of sand table games, but also the condition of healing transformation.

Freedom and protection, seemingly simple descriptions, are meaningful. Freedom, especially the freedom of mind, is the unremitting pursuit of mankind. It can be said that many mental illnesses are caused by freedom of thought and thought. Chen Yinque's "Inscription by Mr. Wang Guantang of Haining" said: "Scholars must be bound by common principles and the truth must be carried forward. Thought without freedom is better than death. The Hungarian poet petofi's Freedom and Love has also been widely praised: "Life is precious, and love is even more expensive. If it is freedom, you can lose both. "Freedom of mind is also the essence of sandplay therapy.

Freedom and protection, we can also add a sense of security to form the basic relationship between therapists and visitors emphasized by sandplay therapy. This relationship is always reflected in the working atmosphere of treatment and transformed into an important element of healing. It should be pointed out that the "free and protected space" needs the efforts of therapists, and it is the quality and skill of psychoanalysts to create this "free and protected space" and atmosphere in your studio, between you and visitors.

3. Consciousness and unconsciousness

The definition of sandplay therapy refers to "the dialogue between consciousness and unconsciousness in the heart". If we make a simple explanation for this, then it contains the following points.

First of all, from the clinical perspective of psychoanalysis, there is always a conflict between consciousness and unconsciousness behind many psychological symptoms. Secondly, if we want to solve conflicts effectively, we need communication and dialogue. To some extent, psychoanalysis and sandplay therapy also include this kind of communication and dialogue between consciousness and unconsciousness. Furthermore, the communication and dialogue between "consciousness and unconsciousness" is also the internal development of human beings and the way to create and obtain meaning.

Jung's analytical psychology and classical psychoanalysis both attach importance to the meaning of unconsciousness, and we also know that psychoanalysis or dynamic psychotherapy has always insisted on working at the unconscious level.

4. Mind and self-identity

If you ask Calve such a question, what is the purpose of sandplay therapy and what kind of mental diseases can sandplay therapy treat, then Calve will tell you that sandplay therapy can not only play the role of basic psychotherapy, but also heal the mind and make it a process of "self-orientation".

As we already know, Culver named his book Sandplay Therapy by Moggi as Sandplay: The Method of Healing the Mind, which emphasized the mind. In the International Society for Sandplay Therapy, Kay Bradway, another main founder of ISST, was named as "Sandplay-Silent Studio of Psychology". The representative work "Healing and Transformation in Sandplay: Making the Creation Process Possible" by Ruth Amman, the current president of the International Sandplay Therapy Association, highlights the significance of "psychology".

Therefore, sandplay therapy is related to mind and self-nature. This is also the process of psychological analysis and sandbox game experience that we repeatedly emphasize, and it is also the process of self-exploration; The real healing factor exists in the deep heart of each of us; The real healing power also exists in the depths of each of us.

The source of western psychology can be traced back to the motto of the temple of Delphi in ancient Greece: "Know yourself". On this basis, as a psychological analysis of deep psychotherapy, we can add the experience of "self-nature" and give full play to our talents and the goal of "becoming ourselves". Self-orientation is actually to become and achieve ourselves, which is also the way of our inner freedom.

(3) Understanding and practice: tolerance and embrace, cohesion and embodiment.

Then, as a psychotherapist of sandplay therapy, how should the definition and connotation of sandplay therapy be reflected in the actual clinical work and put into practice?

The first is to turn our knowledge into a professional attitude and integrate it into our work and practice. In specific clinical work and treatment practice, we can focus on "tolerance" and "embrace", "cohesion" and "embodiment".

"Tolerance" includes tolerance and container, which is the first thing we should do when facing visitors. The ancient Chinese character "Bao" has "spoon" on the outside and "Si" in the middle, just like a person wrapped in pregnancy. "It is already in the middle, and the elephant has not yet formed." Shuowen then annotated "vitality begins with children" and "tolerance". It includes the "tolerance" of accommodation and containers, which is the basis of our work. This is not only our basic attitude towards visitors, but also our basic attitude towards "symptoms" of visitors.

"Holding" is to grasp the inner psychological production on the basis of tolerance. English "holdon" seems simple, but it is endowed with professional connotation by Jung's analytical psychology. The prototype of the Chinese character "Bao" is "Biao", which has a similar artistic conception to "Bao". "Zhengzitong" notes: "Hold the truth, hold it, turn it into a silent voice, that is, hold it." The word "Zhi" is annotated as "Zhi" in Shuowen and interpreted as "Zhi" in Guang Yun. There is a poem in "Preface to Poetry, Elegance and Heron", which says "pursuing profits without ceasing". The Book of Songs says, "Holding on is holding on." In the clinical practice of psychoanalysis, when we are faced with the sadness, sadness, complexity, shadow, growth and hope emerging in the sand table, we need this kind of "hug" with the significance of China's cultural psychology.

With "tolerance" and "embrace", with the accommodation and container of psychoanalysis, and with the freedom and protection space of sandbox games, we can "condense" our inner psychological feelings and put their meanings into the artistic conception and sand tools in the sandbox. The Chinese character "Ning" means "Cheng" and "Ding". As Yi Ding Gua said, "A gentleman is determined by his position." People who "get together" will (will) also. "Ganyi Gua" says: "A gentleman learns to take it." Cohesion includes shaping and crystallization, which is the characteristic of Jung's image works. Even the boundless depressive atmosphere, once condensed in the image of sand table, has practical therapeutic effect and becomes the inevitable basis of positive imagination of sand table game.

Experience or image experience, that is, experience in English, is another focus of sandplay therapy. We describe it as a series, that is, the process from "cognition" to "experience" and then to "embodiment", "experience" and "realization". This process implies the special function of body cognition and expression, just as the sandbox game is obtained from the heart and should be given to both hands. It is also the practice and application of the sandbox game that Jung attaches importance to "concentrating on refining the energy of physical and mental life".

This kind of understanding and practice exactly embodies the golden mean we understand: grasping at both ends and using at both ends. We also abide by the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi, "with its light, with its dust"; "two lines" and "self-transformation"; Just as the lotus leaves the mud and is not stained, the defect does not cover Yu, and Yu does not cover up the defect; Metaphysics has been the key to cure psychoanalysis.