ABSTRACT
Sandplay creates a common field wherein the body and the mind can mutually influence each other. In Sandplay, a holistic fusion of the psyche and matter is experienced through the human body. Children often somaticize psychological stress, allowing their bodies to carry the tension, trauma, and strains that they are not otherwise sufficiently developed to express. Somatic stress has been described as energy that has been blocked or thwarted in some way with the result that it can damage the immune system. Many experienced Sandplay therapists acknowledge the effects of Sandplay on the subtle mind–body relationship, and support the use of Sandplay as a therapeutic intervention for children with somatic symptoms. The benefits of the Sandplay method are attributed to healing at a deeper level, giving the child access to their inner world via symbols and imagery "as a process of describing one's psychoenergetic state thus allowing for change in the inner stasis at the root of most symptoms".
