| Clients reveal their inner worlds through scenes in the | | | | enough to include religious beliefs and secular |
| sandtray and humanistic therapists try to enhance | | | | ideologies. |
| this experience of clients through the verbal part of | | | | Sandtray therapy allows clients to focus on the heart |
| sandtray therapy. Humanistic approaches emphasize | | | | of things. When clients create scenes in the sand |
| the importance of the relationship and believe in the | | | | that focus on the way their lives are now they take |
| importance of the core conditions. There is | | | | the time to stop living in the periphery and center |
| tremendous value in creating a climate for clients | | | | their attention on the core. Clients are good at |
| where they can take their time, tell their story, feel | | | | distracting themselves with work, entertainment and |
| their feelings, and explore the fascinating and | | | | activity but distractions only help clients cope; they |
| mysterious interior world of self. Good therapy is | | | | do not help clients find meaning in life. Obviously, |
| about the relationship. The relationship is the most | | | | work can be meaningful and having fun is important |
| important factor in any approach to therapy: far | | | | but for many people, work is not meaningful and |
| more important than any technique, knowledge, or | | | | leisure time may be dissatisfying. |
| expertise. Meta-analyses of counseling outcome | | | | Humanistic sandtray therapy promotes healing and |
| studies have shown that the therapeutic relationship | | | | spirituality by helping clients to reconnect to their true |
| is highly correlated with positive treatment outcomes | | | | selves. Fear is the primary factor that keeps us from |
| regardless of theoretical orientation or techniques | | | | reconnecting to who we really are and from being |
| (Frank & Frank, 1991; Hansen, 2002). | | | | real. In fact, according to Kagan and Kagan (1997), |
| However, in people's everyday lives meaningful | | | | people learn to fear one another in childhood and this |
| relationships are not in abundant supply. Many clients | | | | fear tends to persist into adulthood. Kagan and Kagan |
| who come to therapy do not have relationships in | | | | noted that people have a fear of being hurt or |
| which they can grieve losses, struggle with | | | | hurting others and fear of being engulfed or engulfing |
| ambivalence, and question assumptions and | | | | others. Most of our fears are vague and seem |
| self-limiting concepts. Others come to therapy with | | | | irrational. |
| questions about the meaning of their lives. They may | | | | Even though we fear people, we also need people. |
| feel empty, disillusioned, or doubtful because of | | | | According to Kagan and Kagan (1997), this |
| recent awareness that they have centered their lives | | | | approach-avoidance conflict characterizes most |
| around something meaningless. Hope eludes many | | | | human interaction. "People appear both to approach |
| clients as they struggle with discouraging | | | | and retreat from direct, simple intimacy with others. |
| circumstances or self-defeating habits. Therapists | | | | This approach-avoidance syndrome appears to be a |
| who address big questions such as, "What should I | | | | cyclical process: Intimacy is followed by relative |
| do with the rest of my life?" help clients to | | | | isolation, which is followed by new bids for intimacy" |
| rediscover meaning and hope. | | | | (p. 298). Given this approach-avoidance conflict, |
| Myers and Williard (2003) contended that spirituality is | | | | people establish a psychologically "safe" distance that |
| about meaning, growth and relationships. They | | | | is unique to each person. People tend to find a |
| defined spirituality as "the capacity and tendency | | | | distance where they are somewhat intimate and safe |
| present in all human beings to find and construct | | | | (Kagan & Kagan). |
| meaning about life and existence and to move | | | | If humanistic sandtray therapists build a therapeutic |
| toward personal growth, responsibility, and | | | | relationship in which clients feel safe, they can help |
| relationships with others" (p. 149). Myers and Williard | | | | clients overcome fears that hinder their ability to be |
| noted that spiritual experience is "any experience or | | | | who they really are and to develop meaningful |
| process in the life of an individual that creates new | | | | relationships. This process of finding meaning can |
| meaning and fosters personal growth as exhibited by | | | | restore a sense of balance and peace and reawaken |
| the capacity to move beyond former frames of | | | | the spiritual nature of clients who have struggled to |
| reference and risk change" (p. 149). Myers and Williard | | | | experience it. |
| noted that their definition of spirituality is broad | | | | |