The Abandoned Journey

 

You woke up and you remember vaguely a dream. Very often you try to go back to sleep to continue but you are unable to remember the whole story. You can only remember the last few scenes and a very very vague drift of the story. A brief analysis tells you it is a patchwork of various momentary situations you register subconsciously during the day. When you want to know the significance of your dream it is best to recollect what kind of feeling it evokes in you, especially recurring dreams.

I believe sandplay therapy for certain people is like dreaming. They create pictures in the sand tray almost in a hypnotic way, an expression of their feelings and experiences etched in their conscious and unconscious mind. 

I have worked with children caught in acrimonious divorce where the recurring theme of their sand stories is danger and threat. Sometimes it amazes me how the mind works. In the sand therapy room there are hundreds of symbols which they can pick to tell a story. It can not be a coincidence that the same theme appears and very often the symbols picked are repeatedly used.

Why I suddenly felt like talking about sandplay therapy is an encounter with a client last week whose sand picture left an indelible mark on me. The girl is caught in her parents' acrimonious divorce which involves physical violence as well, hence she stays with mother. In brief, she picked a sole symbol of a cab, opened one door of the cab and placed it in the vastness of the bare landscape she created . No driver was in sight but she created footsteps on the sand leading to the edge of the tray. In her words the guy (driver) abandoned his journey halfway and left, not sure where he went. 

We are not supposed to impose our interpretation onto their sand stories but when I stepped back to relook the sand tray after the client has left, the scene created looked so dismal and forlorn evoking some sadness in me. 

I would name the sand picture: The Abandoned Journey