See sections below: Active Sandplay - Sandplay with Children - Sandplay with Couples
Sandplay Therapy (Active Sandplay)
Sandplay presents issues and desires in a direct manner that is more clarifying than any other medium. Small pieces and figures from the shelves around the room are chosen and placed in a tray of sand. The choice, arrangement and relationship express very deep psychic processes. As it is the unconscious on display, your depth of understanding can be profound. With appropriate facilitation the presentation in the sand can lead to the deepest changes at all levels of your being.
There is no other technique that can show so much, so succinctly and yet unobtrusively.
In spite of its apparent simplicity, Sandplay Therapy is one of the most effective tools for helping adults. Sandplay offers the clearest display of whatever is happening in your life at the moment. It is such a discerning method that it can pin-point exactly where the blocks lie for discovering and living from our true nature.
Sandplay is the most profound tool for self-discovery.
At the Crucible Centre we call it Active Sandplay because we support you in the moment to recognise and understand the messages from the unconscious. From this space profound and permanent healing is possible. Change can be rapid.
It is a fabulous way to resolve relationship issues. We are ahead of other healers in this, for we have been using sandplay with couples for almost twenty years.
The pieces we find and the way we place them in a tray are symbolic of our lives and beliefs and clearly show psychic complexities and connections that are normally unconscious. There is no other technique that can show so much, so succinctly and yet so unintrusively.
These skills radically change old fixed patterns of behaviour, support an inner peace and clarify our unique spiritual longing, which is why using Sandplay for personal development is so rewarding and effective.
The Crucible Centre has an excellent reputation for the quality of this work,
A testimonial: "I have been seeing therapists for many years. If I put all of what I have learnt from them in one basket it would not equal what I have learnt from you in one workshop about myself."
for more information on our methods,
for a map on how to get here, and for how we plan the day.
.......... Sue Hayes, one of our students, is making sandplay tables, click here.
Sandplay with Children
Sandplay is a precious way of working with children, and the most effective one. Children cannot resist a room full of toys and a tray full of sand in which to create their own world.
We do not have to use words. It is a natural, positive and non-intrusive playtime, so they feel excited and relax into expressing what they need. It bypasses language and gets directly to their feelings. This is why it can be extraordinarily healing for the young.
It is daunting for a child with a trauma to meet a therapist in an office. In our home there is a comfortable easy atmosphere. Hillary does not challenge, but gently allows guided play to reveal what is needed for healing.
As children seldom voice their problems, and rarely conceptualize what is troubling them, working in the sand is the most direct way for them to share their needs. Through Hilary's presence and support while they do Sandplay they naturally explore and disclose their feelings.
The photo is a sandplay by a ten-year old who was exploring the safe place within her, but was (as the bridge shows) still connected to the world around her, a world of houses and people. It helped her a lot to know that she always had access to this place, no matter how hard things might be elsewhere.
Hilary helps support special problems, such as bed-wetting, inadequacy at school, withdrawal and bullying. When children are in grief or separated from their parents they cant put words to it but do show it in the sand.
Most importantly, through sandplay children come to develop a new consciousness about life, and with it true self worth and inner value. They also become more certain and successful at school. Hilary listens to what the family may not have heard.
We find that when the parents join the child in also working in the sand the changes in them make it much easier for the child to settle and mature. Hilary works with young children. Together we work with adults, individually and in groups. Contact us for advice.
Contact Hilary on 6355 2223 or 043 1616 227 or by email.
for more information on our methods,
for a map on how to get here, and for how we plan the day.
Sandplay with Couples
Sandplay helps unravel the way our egos were formed and can access the more vulnerable levels that often undermine relationships. When used in a gentle and playful way it is a most effective tool to deal with the frustrations of relationship. We are ahead of other healers in this, for we have been using sandplay with couples for almost twenty years. It is the best tool for improving relationships.
We specialise in helping couples sort out problems between them and in establishing trust and intimacy as the centre of their lives.
Sharing vulnerability is the key. It may sound strange, but once you understand this, relationships become much simpler, and we stop repeating the same patterns with one lover after another. Contact us to discuss this.
We start a love affair by seeing our soul reflected in the beloved, and then as the initial gloss fades we grieve for the same loss of soul that we suffered when very young. It is for these three reasons that relationship provides the most exquisite place to grow. Fortunate indeed are those who go into the Work with their partners. And even more fortunate those who bring their children with them too.
You can work with us individually or in groups. We run weekends on Intimacy and on Relationships and how to avoid the deepening pitfalls inherent in all relationships. We also offer time for a family to stay in the Lodge over a number of days.