ABSTRACT
There are about 1 million orphans in the mainland of China. Some of them were born with severe illnesses and physical disabilities. They need psychological help and support. In our project “The Garden of Heart & Soul,” we use Jungian Psychology and Sandplay to help and foster the psychological development of these orphans. The basic idea with which we started this work was to build a psychological container, an inner home for the orphans. Later we realized that The Garden of Heart & Soul, the inner home we were working on, was not just for the orphans, but also for ourselves, for our own Heart and Soul. Being so close to the orphans, feeling their suffering and their needs, we came to understand the meaning of the notion of the “orphan,” and the meaning of its archetypal image. Going through suffering of another, we are close to our own psyche and nature. Based on the clinical work presented in this chapter, the author analysis the archetypal meaning of “therapy” in Chinese: defense from water, together with the Chinese character for “healing”: boat of the heart. With the image of healing, the meaning of “therapy” will change into a new situation: it is no longer only about the defense from water but also about moving, sailing on the water.
