Images of Resiliency: Troubled Children Create Healing Stories in the Language of Sandplay

This is a story of hope and resilience about and by boys labeled by society as hopeless and "bad". The message of this story is that, given a means such a sandplay with which to reach into their imagination, children who have been damaged by violence, poverty, and racism can find valuable strengths and resilient qualities within.

Sandplay is used as both a therapeutic modality and as the child's primary means of communication. The choice of figures, their placement and movement through the trays and the statements that sometimes accompany this action are used in place of standard verbal responses to explore and convey the troubled child's experiences and self-generated resilient solutions.

The stories of four boys in a residential treatment setting, two from African-American and two from Hispanic families, are presented to express the particular resiliency qualities of Social Competency, Problem-Solving Ability, Autonomy and a Sense of Purpose and Future. Fifty-six color photographs of sand tray scenes and extensive quotations of their verbal commentary illustrate the "myths" these boys create. Jungian symbolic interpretations, adapted to the imaginative reality of inner-city children of color, amplify the meaning of the stories.

I have been working professionally with children and families since 1983. I am a licensed psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, and registered Play Therapist -Supervisor. I have published articles on the use of play and sandplay therapy with culturally diverse populations in CHILD WELFARE and The Journal of Sandplay Therapy. I train and supervise students and volunteers to provide a client-centered group model which makes play and sandplay therapy available at no cost to children in schools, shelters, hospitals, and other community settings.