2019, Vol.10, No.2

Journal of Symbols & Sandplay Therapy 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.44

pISSN : 2234-0556 / eISSN : 2288-5188
https://journal.kci.go.kr/sandplay

The image of the jar has emerged in various cultural contexts. The purpose of our study is to understand its symbolic meaning. We examined it from the perspective of analytical psychology. This involved an analysis of the manufacturing procedure and function. We also studied stories of jars such as Sikjang Mountain folktale and the Marriage at Cana of the New Testament, and the architectural works related to Buddha’s Sarira. We find that it serves as a symbol of the space in which the psyche can achieve self-actualization.

In this study I analyzed the symbolic meaning of the toad houses made by clients in sandplay therapy. For this purpose, I explored toad houses created by four clients who are experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties. They sang a lyrics of the song “toad, toad, I will give you an old house, give me a new house” while playing with sand. In order to analyze the symbolism of toadhouses, I examined counseling records that contained verbal and nonverbal expression of the children during the therapy session, sandplay images created by clients, and record of counseling with the mothers. As a result, Four clients were commonly not nurtured warmly in their early lives from their mothers. They were making toad houses at the ‘turning point’ in relation to the positive mother-child unity phase, when they were getting out of the negative mother-child relationships and attempting psychological independence. In conclusion the toad houses were represented as a symbol of transformation of death and rebirth of maternity in sandplay therapy.

Poverty has forced over a million children in Uganda to live on the streets. These children often come from families where they suffered violence and sexual abuse. Besides starvation and unhygienic conditions, street children face physical and sexual abuse. The perpetrators range from adults such as the police to other street children. For our study, we recruited sixteen former street children, eight boys and eight girls. They were living in a child welfare facility at the time of research. We used the mixed research method for our research design. For quantitative research, we used two measures: CRIES-13 (Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale-13), CYRM-28 (Child & Youth Resilience Measure). We used a qualitative case research method to analyze the themes in the sandplay process. The quantitative results indicated that the group sandplay therapy improved PTSD Symptoms and resilience. The qualitative results revealed several common themes such garbage, salvation and big project.