The Hindu Gods, Snakes, and Fairies Images in the Sandplay Therapy Process of the Nepalese Earthquake Survivors

네팔 지진 생존자의 모래놀이치료 과정에서 나타난 힌두 신, 뱀, 요정 이미지

On April 25, 2015 Nepal suffered a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people and left hundreds of thousands vulnerable. Three months later, in July the Korean Society of Sandplay Therapy and Namseoul University provided sandplay therapy to children in the city of Bhaktapur. They provided sandplay therapy to the children in a free and protected place to help prevent them from developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In the first therapy session, the clients created fearful, chaotic, and disorganized scenes with images of buried houses and frightened people, while in the last session images of snakes, Hindu gods, and fairies appeared. This paper will describe in detail two clients’ images to understand the religious context. The purpose of this paper is: to identify children’s problems, behavior changes after the earthquake, to seek the healing process through the images seen during the sandplay therapy, and to understand how these images are related to religious belief in order to help the client to feel better.