Following the cruel massacre on October 7, 2023, in Southern Israel, 200 thousand Israelis were evacuated to hotels all over the country. Many had experienced horrific trauma, lost loved ones, and had seen their homes destroyed. Israeli citizens rallied around the evacuees offering them support of every kind including mental health services. The need was endless and yet many found that they simply did not have the words to describe the horror they had experienced. A group of Jungian analysts trained in sandplay therapy sought to find a way to offer sandplay, a nonverbal therapy that had been used successfully in the past during times of national disasters. Reaching out to family, friends, and neighbors, who generously donated money or miniatures, we put together sandplay kits. We also created miniatures that were not readily available but essential for our work such as tombstones, fire, burned trees and safe rooms, like those that served as shelters for the survivors of the massacre.
Traditionally, sandplay is used in a one-on-one setting, yet in this case, the need was so great that we decided to use a group setting, based upon sandplay models that were used after other national disasters[1][2]. While the therapy would take place in a group setting, each client would work individually in his/her own tray creating an image with the help of a large selection of miniatures. The temenos would be held by therapists who would witness the creation of each tray and on its completion, would give each client an opportunity to talk about their completed work if they wished to do so. The tray would be photographed and only dismantled after the client left the room.
We opened our first sandplay room in Eilat, two weeks after the” Black Sabbath” working with evacuees from kibbutzim who were severely impacted by the massacre and since then, we have been running numerous groups for mostly children with evacuees in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. The groups have been run by 16 experienced psychotherapists who practice sandplay and have volunteered their time once a week. The sandplay images we have witnessed thus far are powerful visual reflections of the impact of trauma and evil and attempts by the psyche to deal with this overwhelming material. In some trays we have seen the recreation of the traumatic events using scary aggressive figures (dragons, monsters, skeletons, zombies) with the addition of the military and rescue forces, that were missing on the day of the trauma. Hero figures, superheroes and weaponry have been in frequent use, especially in the scenes created by boys. We have seen many compensatory scenes with objects of protection such as precious stones or magical fantasy scenes with rainbows, butterflies, unicorns, or fairies (particularly in the trays of girls). Many children have recreated their homes or built peaceful images reflecting moments of joy on the beach or in the countryside. The frequent use of fences in many of the trays reflect the great need for protection, safety, and control, and suggest the longing to have a place of one’s own, with more boundaries rather than sharing a hotel room with the whole family. The frequent use of Israeli flag in almost every sandtray, reflects the identification with the collective, typical in times of war, and a need to belong to something bigger during times of helplessness and fear.
In addition to the children’s groups, we have also offered sessions to adults and workshops for mental health practitioners who have been burned out by their constant exposure to trauma. These sandplay scenes also reflect the collective trauma with the same patterns that we have seen in the trays of those who directly experienced the trauma: expressions of monstruous evil and activation of healing and compensatory images from the unconscious.
[1] Meltzer, B. and Porat, R. (2017) The Development of Sandplay Therapy Treatment for Prolonged and Complex Trauma Related to War and Terrorism in the Middle East. In Turner, B.A, The Routledge International Handbook of Sandplay Therapy, Routledge Press, New York, NY pg.176-189.
[2] Razzi Freedle, L., McGee, M., Blechman, S., Souza, J., Jr., & Zandbergen, D. L. (2021). “The lava ate my school” The use of group sandplay to reduce anxiety and post-traumatic stress in displaced elementary school students. Journal of Sandplay Therapy, 30(2), 129–147.