Sand tray therapy series over 1 week -Graduate Student

by Graduate Student for Sand Tray Therapy
(Decatur, GA)

I have been using my Zen Garden sandtray to complete my sandtray over a week series. It is a little small, but it is already in the house, and I don't have to move the big sandtray around. I also really like the dish that it is in; the bottom is such a beautiful turquoise blue.

My first sandtray is pretty dark. I used black sand on top of the white sand. The fairy, though pretty, looks discouraged, all hunched and protective, and trapped sitting inside of a circle. The path to the water looks ominous with the black sand, and she has to go right by the evil eye. (The evil eye is actually meant to ward off evil according to Mingei Imports in Decatur.) In the sandtray, though, it looks scary. My interpretation is that I feel trapped by my existing life without a way to create a better life.

My second sandtray is more cheerful with the yoga/surfer girl having a way to get to the water, though the water is a pretty small area. She could go over the rocks (shells) to get there, and some of them are pretty big. She could also just walk beside the rocks to get there and bypass those obstacles.

My third sandtray is less cluttered. Maybe that is because I finally had time to straighten my house. (I just got through with my ESOL student teaching.) The little Buddha-like figure looks peaceful, but pretty lonely underneath the tree. The lion could come and eat the Buddha. It seems that the Buddha needs someone to be by his side. The jar in another corner is empty; maybe that means empty promises.

It is funny how these trays just start out as something I'm doing, but when I look at the photographs, I can see meaning in them.