Sand Tray Therapy - Dream Analysis Sand Tray S.B.

by Sherrie Bridges-Sinclair #9
(Macon, GA)

Dream Analysis for Sand Tray Therapy Class
The Dream:
In this dream I am being chased by someone, a man. I am not sure if I know this person or if he just broke into my home for some reason. Although I show him outside the house, he is actually in the house and he is definitely looking for me. The house is shown as a disjointed structure. The smaller round containers around the house are actually rooms within the house. The yellow tin can with a picture of a house on it is placed behind the round containers and the disjointed house to indicate that there is a house within a house; however, from the outside, it just appears as if there is one structure. The inner barriers are supposed to represent inner walls of the house. There is a fence in front of the house. While running and hiding, I have managed to call the police for help. I am hiding in one of the hidden rooms that I discovered while hiding in a closet. There is a small trap door (like that to an attic) in the closet that opens up to some stairs. When I go up the stairs, I discover an entirely different house with bedrooms that have beds and furniture. It is like these rooms are within the walls of the disjointed home.

Dream Symbolism:
Attackers/intruders from outside: social pressures or response to criticisms. Bedrooms: privacy, sex, intimacy, rest, feelings of wanting to retreat. First and other middle floors: internal needs, rest, sleep, hungers, the trunk. Finding extra rooms: recognition or discovery of previously unnoticed aspects, abilities, fears, or traits within oneself; if the discovery is distressing, this may reflect that a feeling of change in one’s status quo that is disturbing. Running up the stairs: escaping from urges arising lower down in the body or a feeling of failing, or not being capable. Wall: unconscious codes of behavior, belief systems, attitudes you live within or are protected by; the boundaries of behavior that you live within or are fearful of extending beyond, or are trapped by. Door: a boundary; the difference between one feeling state and another (depression and motivation). Door to strange landscape or world: finding entrance to the unconscious or a new realization. Furniture (bed) – shows exactly what you are doing in the subtle areas of your relationship; a desire to get away from the world, to withdraw into oneself, passivity (idiom – you made your bed, now lie in it); (closet) – memory, resources; different roles you play or attitudes expressed; hidden memories and emotions; skeletons in the closet. Hiding: hiding from feelings, avoiding something we don’t want to see; being protective. Man – ¬what you deeply need, fear, hope for, or avoid; a person in a dream shows one of your character resources or problems. Policeman/policewoman: sense of what is socially right or wrong, our innermost sense of rightness, therefore inhibitions, feelings of guilt or shame.

The Interpretation:
A few weeks ago, I lost my job. I felt as if I had been attacked by other’s comments and criticisms. Ever since that event, I have felt that I wanted to retreat and hide. I feel as if I was a failure and would be seen and judged by others as a failure. I am also tired and in need of mental and emotional rest. I am hiding the truth from my husband, and also from myself. Finding the extra rooms is more indicative of distressing feelings as a result in the change of status quo. I waffle between feelings of depression and motivation to move on to something new, and challenging – self-employment and starting my own business. For me, the police represent my need to be protected from the pain and loss of self-esteem; but they are far away, suggesting that I am alone and need to depend on my own internal resources to protect me from the external world and its negative criticisms (or my own internal criticisms and self-judgment about my abilities to succeed).