Sand Tray Therapy

As part of her trauma informed occupational therapy our littlest child has recently been working with sand tray therapy.  It's largely self-directed with minimal guidance from the OT, particularly during the time that the child actively free plays with the desired choices from among the provided items. 

Through this approach, we have already seen our daughter address - essentially on her own - the issue of having two mothers by creating a world in which her two mothers were able to have a long and deep conversation before they began to jointly take care of the miniature figure representing their shared child.  It takes my breath away that my little girl wishes for her first mother and for me to be able to communicate and parent her together.

In another session, our little one buried representations of herself and two other children repeatedly.  Burying is common in sand tray therapy, so her therapist let it unfold organically.  Based on our child's personal history, there are multiple possible interpretations for why she felt buried along with other kids.  Finally after about a dozen cycles of being buried and being brought back to light, our beautiful girl pulled the figurine depicting herself from the sand, looked at me and said, "Mama."  After uttering just this one word she dropped everything into the tray and walked away from an activity she had been engaging in for 45 minutes.  Seemingly, the concept of mama, so simple and yet so incredibly complex, along with my presence had provided the solution and healing she needed in that moment.