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| Treatments for Traumatized Children
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Updated: Apr 27th, 2006 - 21:01:34 |
Sandplay therapy with Traumatized Children
By Leigh M. Baker, Psy.D.
Apr 8, 2006, 10:29
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SANDPLAY THERAPY WITH TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN
An innovative technique used at the Trauma Treatment Center of Colorado for abused children.
Leigh M. Baker, Psy.D.
The play therapy technique that is now called “sandplay” was conceived by the famous writer, H.G. Wells who used it with is son to create “worlds of wonder” with miniature people, animals, and objects. Sandplay grew in popularity within the Jungian world, as a way of getting beneath the layers of conscious personality, and encouraging the unconscious mind or what Jungians call the Self to work creatively with the psychological conflicts and unresolved needs within the person. In most traditional forms of therapy, language is used to work through unconscious conflicts, however, there are other visual and motoric ways of expressing the inner self, such as art and dance therapies, and psychodrama. And it has been demonstrated that sandplay therapy is a very powerful technique that taps into the unconscious to help uncover those hidden conflicts that create turmoil and pain for an individual.
The experience of sandplay is intensely creative as worlds are created in the sand trays over successive sessions that reveal not only the basic developmental stages of the individual’s development, but reflect the striving toward growth and change.
No wonder this technique has been widely successful with young children. Children have an easier time tapping into the creative unconscious and because very young children have limited language abilities, using symbolic objects to express their inner worlds provides a powerful therapeutic process for children.
Traumatized children face even more difficulties in traditional forms of therapy. Because they are young, they unable to use language in effectively describing their inner experiences. And to make matters more complicated, trauma significantly impacts a child’s memory, language, thinking, and behaviors. It is no wonder that traditional forms of therapy have proven difficult with a highly traumatized child.
In providing sandplay therapy at the Trauma Treatment Center of Colorado, traumatized children have the opportunity to recreate their inner worlds using a multitude of symbolic miniatures, including: animals, people, inanimate objects of fantasy and everyday life, fairy tales figures, and representations of landscapes and natural resources. With over two hundred of these carefully selected miniatures and several highly designed sand trays, children have had the opportunity to explore their traumas in a safe and highly creative environment.
Jody Cleveland, MSW has had extensive training in sandplay therapy with Dr. Eliana Gil and has completed her third level of training. Dr. Eliana Gil is the founder and therapist of the Abused Children’s Treatment Services in Fairfax Virginia and the Director of the Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Therapy. Ms. Cleveland has treated children using sandplay therapy for the past five years and has found it to be a powerful tool in helping children to communicate their traumatic experience. By creating a symbolic expression of a child’s inner world, he or she can gradually resolve the issues of victimization, rage, and helplessness that accompany trauma. There is a sense of empowerment, mastery, and control that takes place when a child creates his or her world in the sand. And as the weeks progress, the clinician can bear witness to the healing power of sandplay therapy as the child’s world becomes less frightening and overwhelming and the sense of order and resolution begin to take form.
Ms. Cleveland is available for consultation and training in the use of sandplay therapy with traumatized children. Call the Trauma Treatment Center for more information.
© Copyright
by www.LeighBaker.com
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