A Secret Path to Acquiring Wisdom and Compassion: The Sandplay Therapist as a Five Headed Sea Serpent(The Therapeutic Relationship in Sandplay Therapy)

A Secret Path to Acquiring Wisdom and Compassion: The Sandplay Therapist as a Five Headed Sea Serpent(The Therapeutic Relationship in Sandplay Therapy)

The most familiar descriptions of the therapeutic relationship and therapeutic role in Sandplay Therapy has been in in terms of the duality between classical interpretive activity of analytical therapists and the containing function of the Sandplay therapists (“free and protected space.”) The duality between “active” interpretation in analysis vs “passivity” of containing. “I don’t get it” the novice Sandplay therapist says often with some exasperation, “I just do nothing!”. Far from that: this presentation will attempt to convey an alternative model of the role of the Sandplay therapist and describe a multi-faceted complex and dynamic developmental relationship between therapist and client in the Sandplay therapy process and in Sandplay Therapy (the five headed sea serpent). This relationship roughly recapitulates the historical development of psychotherapy itself. It is through the participation in this dynamic relationship in the service of healing and transformation, that I believe offers a window of opportunity for the therapist to understand the complexity of the therapeutic role and therapeutic relationship, and be transformed him/herself. While, along the way, to discover an elusive and sacred path to acquiring that ever sought after attributes of “compassion and wisdom.”