“The use of sand art therapy in correctional and developmental work with children before school age»

“The origins of the abilities and talents of children are at their fingertips. From the fingers, figuratively speaking, go the thinnest threads - streams that feed the source of creative thought. In other words, the more skill in a child's hand, the smarter the child."

V.A. Sukhomlinsky

What is sand?

I think everyone can easily answer this simple question. In fact, sand is an amazing and mysterious material. He has the ability to attract and fascinate a person - with his suppleness, the ability to take any form. It can be dry and light, wet and plastic.

Playing in the sand captures both adults and children. Remember how nice it is to join the game of "Kulichki", build a castle on the seashore, or just watch how dry sand spills out of your palm.

Sand has the ability to pass water, in this regard, it absorbs the negative mental energy of a person, interaction with it clears the energy of a person, stabilizes the emotional state. One way or another, observations and experience show that playing in the sand has a positive effect on the emotional well-being of children.

Today I want to introduce you to such a technique as sand art therapy.

The principle of "Sand Therapy" was proposed by the psychotherapist, the founder of analytical therapy, Carl Jung. As you know, sand consists of the smallest grains, which, when combined, form a sand mass. Many psychologists see in individual grains a symbolic reflection of the autonomy of a person, and in the sand mass the embodiment of Life in the universe.

The purpose of this therapy- do not change and remake the child, do not teach him any special behavioral skills, but give the child the opportunity to be himself.

The sandbox is an excellent medium for establishing contact with the child. And if he speaks badly and cannot tell an adult about his experiences, then in such games with sand everything becomes possible. Playing an exciting situation with the help of small figures, creating a picture of their sand, the child opens up, and adults get the opportunity to see the inner world of the child in this moment.

Playing on the sand with figures is especially significant in working with those children who find it difficult to express their feelings (children with low self-esteem, increased anxiety and shyness, with unstable attention, aggressiveness).

Sand games help preschoolers not be afraid of making mistakes, from which no one is immune. In working with sand, everything is simpler: if you did something wrong, run your palm over the sand and start over.

Sand games can be used as a developmental, psychoprophylactic tool.

In that academic year teachers of our kindergarten began to actively use in their work educational games with sand, drawing with colored sand and painting with sand on special light tables. This technique is surprising in that it suggests using sand and sand painting techniques as a basis for creativity and self-knowledge.

Children attend such classes with pleasure, because they help them to realize their ideas in creativity, to get rid of tension and anxiety, to develop communication skills, that is, the ability to communicate.

Sand therapy classes under the guidance of a psychologist gives answers to many questions of parents regarding the inner emotional world of their child, allows you to open and see real reasons conflicts, fears, and in the future to carry out a correction!

Once, having visited a sand lesson, children dream of returning again, and most often they don’t want to leave at all.

Contraindications for use

sand therapy:

• Allergy to dust, sand;
• Violation skin hands;
• Negative attitude towards sand.

How can you play with sand?

Exercise "Imprints".

Prints, both bas-relief and high-relief, on wet sand can be made using molds. They use molds depicting animals, transport, geometric shapes of various sizes, etc. An adult and a child take turns making prints in the wet sand. Then the child, following a verbal instruction or according to a plan drawn by an adult, makes a series of prints, commenting on the process.

"Magic footprints in the sand."

The teacher and the child leave prints on the wet sand of their hands, and then finish them or supplement them with pebbles to make funny faces, fish, octopuses, birds, etc.

Funny palms: make handprints on the light table, finish the images with your finger.

"Gold Diggers" scatter pebbles on a sandy surface, hide, look for "gold", stack with a sieve.

"Chasing Anger": to make a large oval hill out of wet sand, to make faces if desired - this is all the accumulated evil of the child. Then, saying loudly: "Evil go away, come joy," destroy the sandy hill.

Paintings in the sand: on a flat, damp surface, various images of animals, people, etc. are drawn with a stick or finger.

On the light table with dry sand, draw various plots “My kindergarten”, “My family”, “my happiest day”, etc.

Experiments with sand: Task: pour dry sand into buckets, jars, funnels, molds. Questions: What kind of sand? (dry, pours well, rustles, etc.). What can be molded from dry sand? Try to make a house.

Can do developmental exercises fine motor skills hands: fingers “go for a walk”, jump, perform zigzag movements, “play the piano”. Children with interest leave prints of palms, feet or footprints on wet sand. They like to make prints of geometric shapes with their hands. At the same time, children better remember their names (circle, square, triangle) and size (large, small). With pleasure, the preschooler plays in the construction of passages, labyrinths, wells.

You can also draw on dry sand by breathing through a cocktail tube, decorate various images with colored sand.

Mimic gymnastics

We were walking on the sand and suddenly fell into a hole. We were covered in sand. The whole body was covered with sand, except for the head. A bee flies over your face. It must be blown off, but so that the sand does not get into the eyes.

Relaxation exercise

Dip your hands in the sand and make various movements with them to the music. After completing the exercise, talk about your feelings.

Game "Hello sand!"

The teacher, on behalf of the Sandman, asks to say hello to the sand in different ways, i.e. different ways touch the sand
- alternately with the fingers of one hand, then the other hand, then all the fingers at the same time;

- it is easy (with tension) to squeeze the fists with sand, then slowly pour it into the sandbox;

- touch the sand with the whole palm - the inside, then the back.

Thus, sand games allow you to:

- Stabilize the psycho-emotional state

Improve coordination of movements, finger motor skills

Stimulate the development of sensory, tactile-kinesthetic sensitivity

Develop communication skills and speech, spatial orientation

Stimulate cognitive interests and broaden horizons

Diversify ways to collaborate.

You can play simple games with sand not only in the office of a psychologist or other specialist, but also with your child in an ordinary sandbox. Think about what to tell your child at the time of the game, what to pay attention to, how to interest the process.

You know your child better, his interests, favorite toys that can take part in games.

Good luck to you!

Literature:

1. ON THE. Sankovich Technology of playing in the sand. Bridge games. - St. Petersburg, 2006.
2. T.D. Zinkevich-Evstigneeva, T.M. Grabenko. Workshop on creative therapy. - M., 1999.

The portal Psy.Firmika.ru contains psychological offices and centers offering sand therapy in Moscow. In visual tables, prices for programs are presented, and customer reviews will allow you to evaluate the approach of psychologists and therapists and the effectiveness of their work in general.

Sand therapy: a simple game of sand or a method of spiritual healing?

Sand therapy or sandplay (from the English "sandplay" - playing with sand), is rightfully considered one of the most interesting methods in psychotherapy and psychological counseling. Sand therapy is practiced by psychoanalysts and psychologists in order to help a person understand his inner world and improve emotional well-being.

What is special about Sandplay Therapy?

Sand therapy is based on the ideas of C. G. Jung, the founder of analytical psychology. He was sure that thanks to playing with sand, a flow of blocked energy was released. In the process of such games, a person gets the opportunity to realize his experiences and find explanations for them, as a result of which a feeling of calmness and confidence comes. Sandplay therapy allows you to:

• to formulate their own fears and experiences;
• discover internal resources that help overcome difficulties;
• find ways to resolve conflicts;
• change your attitude to specific situations and events.

After courses of playing sand therapy, anxiety disappears in a person, self-esteem increases and faith in oneself strengthens.

How to choose a specialist?

When choosing an office for sand therapy, first of all, you need to ask who conducts the classes. The therapist must have the appropriate education and experience.

It will be useful to attend the initial consultation, which is carried out for parents in most centers that practice sand therapy. During such consultations, you can decide how suitable this technique is in a particular case, as well as choose the appropriate format of classes (group or individual).

Who will benefit from the technique?

Initially, sand therapy was used only in child psychoanalysis, but today this method is equally actively used both with schoolchildren and preschool children for the development of speech and as part of general developmental activities, and with adults and adolescents to help them express difficult experiences and resolve internal problems. conflicts. Children's sand therapy often takes place in groups, and in the course of classes, a situational style of communication is formed in children, and the position of the individual as a member of the team is also revealed. Sand exercises are considered especially effective for children with speech disorders and brain dysfunction.

How are the classes going?

Sand therapy uses sand trays or special illuminated sand tables, water and various figurines. Among them should be both natural (for example, stones, shells) and artificially made: figures of people, animals, cars, trees, and so on. The more figures and the more diverse they are, the more fully the client can express himself.

The game model depends on the specific problem that the client has addressed. Often in sand therapy classes for children, the psychologist does not give any tasks or instructions, but simply asks to play with the sand and come up with some kind of fairy tale. For an adult, the therapist can set the topic of the game, for example, "Me and family", "My children", "My fears". During the session, the psychologist asks the necessary questions, touches on the necessary topics, and gradually, together with the client, comes to important conclusions and decisions.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Swiss psychologist and philosopher Carl Gustav Jung first drew attention to the therapeutic effect of playing with sand for mental disorders in children and adults. He began to apply this method for the psycho-correction of his patients and later described it. This method has acquired the name Jungian. It has found wide application in practical psychology.

The undoubted therapeutic effect of the Jungian method makes it possible to achieve serious results in the treatment of psychosomatic disorders in children of preschool and primary school age. In addition, playing with sand is a great help in developing the skills and abilities of preschool children. This technique is called Sandplay.

Therapeutic sand play for preschool children: what do you need to play in the Jungian sandbox?

• Used in Sandplay wooden box, painted inside and out with blue or blue paint. The box must be waterproof because during the game the sand has to be wetted. The dimensions of the box for 1-3 children should be - 50x70x8 cm. Such dimensions were not chosen by chance, this is the optimal field of visual perception of the child, he is able to cover him entirely. blue or blue color- these are symbols of the sky and water, in addition, these colors have a calming effect on the psyche of the child. The box can be made of other materials, but preference should be given to wood.
• At 2/3 of the volume, the box is covered with sand . The sand must be clean, sifted, you can use river or sea sand, as long as it is not too small and not too large. It should be loose and pleasant to the touch.
• Needed for sandbox games collection of miniature toys . The size of toys should not exceed 8 cm.

Sand Therapy Toys :

1. Human characters, dolls, miniature figurines. They can be selected separately, or you can purchase toys in the store in separate thematic groups.
2. Animal figurines. Figures from Kinder Surprise will go, you can do it yourself or. It can be wild, domestic, prehistoric animals
3. household items : children's dishes, houses, perfume and toilet water bottles, cream boxes.
4. Fairy tale characters good and evil.
5. Comic book characters and "cartoon" characters .
6. Decorations, souvenirs.
7. natural elements : branches, flowers, snags, interesting knots of trees.

All these treasures should be stored in a certain place, as if living in your own house.

Sandplay sessions - which games will keep a child interested in sand therapy?

People learn the world through 5 senses and the most ancient of them is tactile sensation. The first sensation of a child in the world is a tactile sensation. And subconsciously people got used to trust him. It is this trust in tactile-kinesthetic sensations that makes therapeutic sand play so effective. Therefore, it is necessary to start play therapy with a tactile acquaintance with the sand. There are a number of methods on how to competently and correctly build these classes.

Getting to know sand using the Sandplay method - games for young children

Have the children do the following with the sand:

1. Glide your palms on the sand in a zigzag, circular motion, like ashinka, like a sled, like snakes.
2. Make the same movements with the edges of the palms and discuss with the child the difference in the impressions, try to give the child the opportunity to explain the difference himself. Try not to correct the child, not to impose your opinion on him, but, on the contrary, to encourage and praise him in every possible way.
3. Take sand in your palms and pour it out in a thin stream, pronounce the sensations experienced at the same time. Do this with the right, then the left palm, then both at once.
4. Bury your palms in the sand and then "find" them. All this is done in a playful way. The question is asked “where did our pens go?”, and then the joy that the pens were found.
5. Place your open palm on the sand and close your eyes. Then the adult pours sand on the finger, and the kid must guess which finger the sand is poured on and move it, as if greeting the sand.
6. Run your fingers across the sand, leaving footprints on it. Or play in the sand like a piano. All this must be done with comments.

Sand therapy: exercises for children to develop motor skills, relieve emotional stress, aggression

Interacting with sand during games, the child gets his first experience of reflection (introspection), he learns to recognize and identify his feelings, fine motor skills of hands develop. When a child tries to pronounce his feelings, speech and thinking develop, so the importance of sand therapy can hardly be overestimated.

Sand Therapy Exercises

1. On a flat sand surface, an adult and a child leave prints of their hands, first they simply press their palm to the sand, and then do it with the back of their hand. At the same time, the adult says what he feels at the moment. And asks the child to tell about their feelings. Small child will not be verbose, you need to ask him leading questions. What kind of sand? Smooth? Dry? What is the difference in the sensations of touch with the back of the hand? This teaches the child to listen to his feelings, to classify sensations as pleasant or not pleasant. It would seem that such a simple procedure as touch gives a rich experience for reflection, if done consciously. Such, they teach to characterize their feelings.
2. Create various patterns in the sand with your fingers, knuckles, palm ribs, fists, and then dream up what they look like. You can see flowers, snowflakes, branches or animal tracks. There is an immense scope for fantasy, you just need to unobtrusively, gradually awaken it in a child. This exercise has a positive effect on the emotional state of children.
3. Have a sand shower with the kids. Let at first it be a fine rain of sand that fits in one palm, then the rain intensifies, the sand is scooped up with two palms, but for a shower you can use a children's bucket as an auxiliary material. It is important that the child realizes the idea of ​​his involvement in the events of the world around him. He will be less afraid of him. The world will cease to be hostile to him. Exercise helps eliminate tension, stress, aggression.

How is sand therapy used to correct emotional, speech therapy and other problems in children?

How does sand therapy help in the treatment of psychosomatic diseases?

It is very difficult for children to put into words what excites and worries them deep inside. They have a small vocabulary, and even adults cannot always get to the bottom of the source of internal discomfort, where can the baby cope with this overwhelming task. But fears and doubts torment his soul, and this mental pain is transferred to the body. So there is a tick, stuttering, enuresis, aggressive behavior.

Psychologists call such diseases psychosomatic. Medical treatment of such diseases is not successful. Here, as in homeopathy, like cures like.

Psychologists say that in such situations you need to project your inner world onto the outside. You can draw your state, but small children do not draw well. They get upset, cry, and adults cannot understand them. Thanks to playing internal experiences in therapeutic sand games, children are freed from the oppressive burden of internal experiences and are on the mend.

Adults, observing their behavior during the game, learn to understand and decipher their behavior and adequately respond to it. Such games are called projective and their importance cannot be overestimated.

Jungian sand therapy, along with game therapy, is just such an approach that, in a non-verbal form, through playing with sand and rearranging miniature figures, as well as through the construction of sand paintings, allows you to penetrate into the deeper layers of the psyche, into unconscious emotions. The method makes it possible to determine, to see in the construction itself, in the manifested artistic form, the emotional state of the child's client, the nature of the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious, between the Ego and the Self. Sandwork, like spontaneous play, allows you to find forces within the psyche that drive it towards healing and integration, resolving the conflict behind the psychosomatic symptom. Such brilliance and imagery of the method, which includes an independent and unimposed play of the child with sand, is complemented by accompanying questions and comments of a special kind from the therapist. (Prilutskaya Maria Igorevna - clinical psychologist (Lomonosov Moscow State University), child psychotherapist, specialist in analytical work with psychosomatic disorders in children and adults, Moscow Association of Analytical Psychology (MAAP).

Examples of projective games:

1. "My family". The child is offered to choose from a huge variety of items those that he will need to recreate his family. Adults do not influence his choice in any way. Ask the child to place his family members as he wants. Offer him a situation that it is evening and the whole family is at home, and everyone is doing their own thing. Pay attention to who is in the center of the composition, ask the child why this particular person is in the center. Ask what his relationship with the "center" is. Ask about family relationships. Who lives best in the family and why. Believe that in the process of parsing his composition, you will learn a lot of new and useful things about your child and your family. Well, entrust a deeper analysis to a professional psychologist.
2. "My friends". The child is given situational parameters of the game. He must choose the figures and call them the names of his friends. Do not be surprised if these are fictional characters, and among real people there will be no friends. In the process of recreating the situation you have given, many discoveries will be made. You can learn about your child's problems and help your child overcome difficulties in communicating with children in kindergarten or school. And he will successfully overcome these difficulties during the game, which, as a result of the transfer, will change the situation in real life.
3. "Fairy tales". You can invite your child to build their own fairy-tale kingdom and populate it with good and evil characters. The child himself must play the role of a fighter against evil. An unlimited number of miniatures can be used in this game, and he can freely change them in the process. Here he is the master of the situation. If the child is not interfered with, then his deep problems and fears will be revealed that adults did not even suspect. Moreover, during the game, you need to gently guide the child to overcome these fears. He should explain that he is the master here and he always has a choice and the opportunity to do as he wants. The realization that he is omnipotent and himself can change any situation will make the child happy. Later, and in real life, the child will become more self-confident and less anxious.

V. Andreeva, sand therapist, Jungian analyst:

Using the Sand Therapy method invites us on a journey where sometimes it will not be easy, but always interesting. The process unfolds like a fairy tale, to an inner deep meaning, a dream, lost parts of yourself and relationships. I am constantly amazed and inspired by the figures that come to life in the paintings, how they connect the past and the future, provide an opportunity to get to know oneself and lead along the path of individuation.

N. Skibinskaya, analytical psychologist, sand therapist:

There are children who dip their hands up to their elbows in the sand and splash in the sandbox as if in water. They have a blissful smile on their faces, and they say: “How good! So glad!" At this moment, I don’t want to talk about anything, and peace and tranquility sets in.

Other children are sometimes even afraid to touch the sand. One child slowly lowered his finger along the side of the sandbox, looking straight into my eyes, as if he was afraid of getting burned. Is this how you usually touch water to see if it's hot or cold? He tried to understand if I could be trusted, if I would deceive him? But as soon as he was convinced that the sand and the environment around him did not threaten him, he easily began to interact with him.

Some pour a lot of water into the sandbox. They like to mess around in this "dirt". On the street, mothers usually do not welcome this, but here you can. The process of working in wet sand can be very fascinating, and sometimes you want to prolong this state. The soul, overwhelmed with various feelings, finds a calm release in interaction with wet sand. The mind seems to heal itself. The inner space is freed up for a new positive experience and a feeling of acceptance, trust and love.

Many children in the sand love to play hide and seek. They bury something in the sand and the therapist has to find it. Then they change places. Thus, children try to feel their need and value for their parents in transference to the therapist.

Many therapists who practice sand therapy believe that the first world in the sand that a child builds is the world of his mother. That is, the child is filled with the maternal unconscious, which sometimes affects him destructively. Sand therapy helps to free the inner space of the child for himself, break the merger with the mother, stop bearing maternal projections, stop reproducing the negative scenario of the family and become the creator of your own life path.

The Sandplay technique can be applied not only in psychology for psychocorrection, but also at home for educational purposes. Parents who are seriously concerned about raising a little person will be able to successfully correct the behavior of their children with the help of sand therapy.

In the process of the game, children's fantasy, speech, thinking develop, communication skills, creative abilities develop. It would be nice to organize a table with glass and lighting for sand drawing. The costs here are not high, expensive toys cost much more. But the return on such games will exceed your wildest expectations.

when the Child saves the Adult

For our man, art therapy is not a plowed field. What is it, art therapy or, in other words, creative self-expression therapy?

Until recently, for psychotherapy itself, we had sincere conversations with comrades over a cup of vodka - cheap and cheerful. And under the therapy of creative self-expression (within the framework of this approach) was understood, respectively, "dancing on drunken tables." Nicely. Only, as the poet Arseny Tarkovsky wrote, this is not enough. For, as another sixties man sang, “Neither Verka nor vodka helped. From vodka - a hangover, but from Verka, what to take?

Our people don't like to play. And he doesn't like jokes. We perceive a frivolous, playful, childish attitude to life as an attack on our adult reputation. For, as the archetypal Russian hero of the film "Pokrovsky Gates" said, in response to the sacramental question "What joy do you get from this?" - "They live not for joy, but for conscience" ...

But in vain we are so. Because, only laughing, humanity parted with its past. So force an adult to engage in art therapy ... But before talking directly about the important - the topic of this article, I want to bring an equally important base under it.

Many already know the structure of the human personality, as psychologist Eric Berne saw it. However, it will not be superfluous to recall this well-functioning scheme once again. According to Berne, the human personality can be represented in the form of three virtual instances: Child (or Child), Parent, Adult. All these three personalities in general, and there are - we are all, that is, I, special person. They only speak in different voices, love different things and do not always know how to negotiate with each other. Actually, it is the ability to negotiate, the consensus between such different - the Child, the Parent and the Adult within us - this is the path to psychological health, personal harmony and prosperity.

The parent speaks in the nasty voice of the educator, retells us the threats and reproaches that we were stuffed with in childhood, uses the same intonations that once bothered us. The parent teaches, warns, does not let, frightens. He's always wrong, the corners of his lips are downcast. He's afraid we'll catch a cold, overeat on sweets, marry the wrong guy, and end up on beans. He, the Parent, loves to disguise himself and hide - it is difficult to pull him into the light of day by the tail. It is beneficial for him to sit, like Mashenka, in a box on the shoulders of a bear and mutter: "I sit high, I look far away" ...

A child (or Child) is, according to psychologists, following Bern, the best thing that we have. This is the one who makes the most spontaneous, but always for some reason right decisions, who is not afraid to live, because he trusts the World. A child is that part in us that the World easily carries in its arms. And also the Child and only the Child is capable of creativity. This is a Genius, and he has every conceivable Talent. The child does not like to disguise or hide ... But he was forced to do so. He was forbidden to play, indulge and explore the world. He was told that fairy tales were nonsense. He was told that they don't dress like that. He was put at a desk to teach mathematics. And so it appeared...

Adult. An adult is that part of ourselves that has the knowledge, skills and abilities reflected in the diploma issued to us by the state. An adult can. The child wants. And the Parent oversees and punishes, checking whether the ears are clean.

When a person loses motivation, it is the Child who suffers inside him, who is "forbidden to want." Loss of motivation is both a loss of working capacity and a loss of professional skills, and in the worst case, when the Child is completely repressed, it is a total loss of motivation - a loss of motivation to live.

Don't leave the room, don't make a mistake.

Why do you need Cosmos if you smoke Shipka?

Outside, everything is meaningless. Especially an exclamation of happiness.

Just go to the restroom and come right back.

Do not leave the room, consider that you are blown away.

What is more interesting in the light of a wall and a chair?

The goal of any psychotherapy is to find our Child, who is crying in a dark closet, warm him up, save him and listen to his childish, naive words: "But the king is naked!"

Art therapy in turn - The best way make peace with your inner child and accept yourself as the Creator created us.

And here is one of the best forms art therapy of creative self-expression is sand therapy, very little known in our country and extremely popular abroad.

What is sand therapy?

The fact is that traditional art therapy deals with paper, pencils and paints - it forces a person to draw. Sometimes - sculpt. But not everyone has these skills. Sometimes art therapy makes you dance - this is even more difficult for many. Psychologists have come to the conclusion that drawing, sculpting and dancing is the "ideal" space where our Parent can roam. As soon as we pick up a pencil or start moving our legs, the Parent jumps up and begins to "worry about us." He hisses in our ears: “Listen to what the teacher told you! Other children succeed, but you alone fail! Look how crookedly you draw! Everyone went on the right foot, and you alone on the left!”. Everything! No art therapy. Traditional art therapy is not always successful, because the Child who needs to be pulled into the light of day is subjected to even more mockery there than when we simply forget about him in our adult life.

Not at all - sand therapy. Playing with sand brings us back to that unconditionally happy childhood, when we played in the sandbox and no one meticulously followed our progress in it. It's all too frivolous...

The room of the art therapist practicing sand therapy is a cozy room with two huge sandboxes filled with clean, beautiful light yellow sand. Only in one sandbox the sand is absolutely dry, and in the other it is wetted so that it is possible to sculpt three-dimensional sand structures - castles. A sandbox is a box, the bottom of which is painted in pale blue, so that by raking the sand to the bottom, you can "depict" the sky or water. The room is lined with shelves, in which there is nothing! Small, tiny figurines of men, animals, monsters. Doll houses, trains, trees, temples and towers. On the shelves, in addition to these figures, there are also dry flowers, pieces of wood, beads, pebbles, coins, and in general everything that is required to create your Universe in the space of two sandboxes.

For an hour, the art therapist's room is at your disposal. No complexes that "I can't do something" - in a personal sandbox everyone is a king and a god.

Creative self-expression therapy begins here with your hands for the first time for a long time experiencing the most pleasant sensations. The sand wakes up in them, the Memory of the Creator of the Worlds wakes up in them... Remember the very important shots from the cult picture "Amelie". Amelie is a creature in which the Child has never been oppressed, and who easily helped others to call her Child out of the darkness of non-existence ... The first thing she did was to save the soldiers from someone else's childhood, the soldiers buried in a pencil case behind the plinth. The second thing Amelie did was to teach us all to experience contact with the Universe in the simplest and cheapest way - to dip our hands into a bag of bulk products and pass their dry current through our fingers. We combine the first with the second - found soldiers with loose sand - we get sand art therapy.

There is another important substance - water, which is only partially taken into account here - in the form of working with wet sand. Psychologists call this "the dialogue of hands with sand and water." It has an extraordinary healing effect.

As if spellbound, adults drive a toy rake along the sandy surface, turning it into an agitated sea, equipping their City, populating it with characters. And the psychologist, starting from his own methodology, with a camera in his hands, captures what happens during the session in order to deal with the material received - with your internal state, splashed out without any obstacles and conditions - outside.

An hour later, the city built in the sandbox disappears, and the resulting effect exceeds all conceivable expectations. The child woke up, the Parent was silent, the Adult began to deal with his problems.

How does science explain the magic that is inherent in this ritual?

Famous Russian psychotherapists M.E. Bruno and P.B. Gannushkin, as well as their Western colleagues - Ernst Kretschmer and others, believe that the main problem of a person is that he does not know himself, or rather, is not familiar with his CHARACTER. What he knows is imposed on him, this is a big lie. But more than that! Each character is innate, laid down from the very beginning. It is useless and pointless to try to change the character, to fight it.

At a session of art therapy, a person comes face to face with himself - only in the most gentle form. Each lesson in creative self-expression enables a person to understand: what character is closest to him, to himself. And when a person comprehends his character, then two prerequisites for happiness and harmony appear:

1. It becomes easier for a person to understand the characters of others. He now knows what can be demanded or expected from this or that person, and what cannot.
2. A person begins to live a creative life, in its most diverse forms.

As the historian of psychiatry V. Rudnev writes about this: "A person is included in social life, and the painful fractures of his own soul are gradually softened."

We do not like art therapy, but art therapy has long gone far beyond the limits of reception psychotherapists. Maybe some of you saw the set "Japanese rock garden" for sale - board game- a gift for tired managers. This is an exact copy of the psychotherapeutic sandbox I described above. The same sand, the same box, only everything is in miniature. Pebbles, toy trees, fences, rakes - mini-Japan. Zen meditation or sand art therapy - the names are different, but the essence is the same.

It is very difficult for a person to find words in order to express himself directly. "How can another understand you?" What eludes conscious perception is fixed in the free and uninhibited children's play. In the language of psychotherapy: "Trauma, splashing out, ceases to be a trauma." She dies under the rays of daylight.

What do I see as another benefit of art therapy? The fact that a person doing it may not need comments from a psychotherapist - in the process of work, a person himself deals with his chimeras, calms down and concentrates on the important - previously eluding his attention. This lesson works on laying out Tarot cards - not with a mantic (guessing) purpose, but with the aim of understanding the problem. The insight that comes then is often described by the key phrase: "Ah, that's it! Well, of course, to the point!"

And most importantly, what distinguishes traditional psychotherapy from the "psychotherapy" of the Russian version (dancing on drunken tables) is that you feel good after it.

There is no fun for children more wonderful than sand,
It is always available in abundance,
It flows so gently through your hands,
Nothing compares to it...

Joachim Ringelnatz "Baby Sand".

Sand handling is great psychological method, which I use in my work with children, was already mentioned in the consultation "Games with water and sand", "Sand therapy", which you can also get acquainted with on my website.

Childhood is the best time to develop abilities and discover talents, and sand painting is a unique the new kind art that shows the versatility of each child. Task child psychologist, teacher - to give the child the opportunity to plunge into the world of childhood, to be creative, spontaneous, to see and accept themselves as different, to feel like the author of not only this sand fantasy, but also the author of their own life. Sand painting is healing in itself. Sand play is the most versatile, exciting, interesting game for children of any age. We immediately remember our childhood in the yard in the sandbox with shovels, buckets and sticks, and summer vacations at sea, when we buried our hands and feet in the sand with pleasure, leaving only one head to “stick out”, which looked at the world somehow differently . Soft sand, warmed by the sun, had a beneficial effect on us children, especially on our emotional state...

Children begin to play with sand from the age of six months, throwing it up with a scoop or mixing it with their palms. Sand attracts preschoolers with the opportunity to make cakes, cook porridge, build turrets, cave houses for their toys, all kinds of roads for cars or winding grooves and lakes for water ... It never ceases to beckon with its capabilities and there are already enough "solid" dads and moms - how nice draw with a finger or stick on the sand to the "music" of the sea waves. It is nice to feel the sand in your hands when you pass it in a thin stream through your fingers. And the footprints appearing and disappearing in the sand "tell" us about its softness and at the same time hardness. Long sandy beaches seem endless to us: you begin to feel that you are somewhere outside of time, and all this makes you think of eternity. And watching a slowly running away trickle of sand, you suddenly realize that this is the material embodiment of running time, you think about its transience, and at the same time, about its constancy.

If we consider the pedagogical and psychological aspects of the use of sand, it is difficult to overestimate it - it is both a wonderful sensory material, and an object-play environment unsurpassed in its capabilities, and an excellent material for visual creative activity, experimentation, design, creation, cognition ... The child is included in the game with sand with your whole being - emotionally, mentally and physically. At the same time, favorable conditions are created for children to show concentration, curiosity, enthusiasm, as well as for relaxation. Mental and emotional reserves are activated.

Creating mental images, working with your hands and getting new impressions and pleasure - all this together underlies the healing (therapeutic) effect for the child, in which the head (mind), hands (body) and heart (soul) are harmoniously combined. Ordinary sand is something unusually magical and bewitching. "Sand-Art" sand painting is a surprisingly interesting and very "live" activity for children and adults. Sand drawings provide an excellent opportunity to accept, reveal and manifest in creativity the many facets of one's own "I". This is a new direction.

A bit of history

Sand painting is a rather young art, it appeared in the 70s of the XX century. The style was invented by Canadian animator Carolyn Leaf, who created the sand animation film "Sand, or Peter and the Gray Wolf". Her work has spread all over the world and won the hearts of many viewers and artists. Seemingly simple movements turn into a plot thanks to sleight of hand, telling a whole story ... Later, many animators adopted her experience, they tried to create a dynamic sand film, i.e. without installation, in one breath. Their experience became very successful and laid the foundation for a new art form - the art of sand painting. Due to its indescribable effect on the public, sand painting immediately attracted the attention of psychologists.

And as a method of art therapy, sand painting began to be used only in our days. Unlike sand show and sand animation, in classes with a child psychologist, a teacher, children are taught how to create sand drawings, where the emphasis is placed directly on the very process of creation, where the child’s breathing becomes calm, his movements of the arms and whole body are smooth, the internal state is harmonious. The sand painting technique has artistic and therapeutic merit. Sand is able to "ground" negative emotions, it carries the possibility of transformation. This "talk" of hands with sand gives a huge psycho-corrective resource effect.

Today, experts have already proven in practice the effectiveness of using the Sand-Art method for working with a variety of psychological problems: resolving family conflicts, harmonizing parent-child relationships, stabilizing the current psycho-emotional state and other psycho-corrective tasks. The "Sand-Art" method is successfully used by specialists for educational and developmental purposes: teaching the basics of reading, writing and drawing, developing cognitive processes, expanding horizons and general awareness, developing fine motor skills and coordination of movements, developing imagination and creativity. A serious educational process turns into an exciting and exciting activity for students and pupils.

Sand painting is not just an exciting activity, for a child it is a discovery of a new magical world sand stories. Under the strict guidance of a teacher, he learns to create both separate self-sufficient paintings and entire plots. Children with great enthusiasm master the tricky wisdom of the method. They are happy to show their sand paintings to their parents and invite them to work together.

Suppressed stress, difficult life situations in children lead to exacerbation emotional state: nervousness, aggression, apathy, anxiety, irritability. Sometimes it can manifest itself in the form of an unconstructive outburst of emotion, conflict situations, the development of nervous diseases, alienation, isolation. Unusually pleasant to the touch, sand makes it possible to relax, relieve stress, internal tension, problems go away.

There is another method of working with sand: sand animation or sand painting (Sand-art method). Sand animation (the art of painting with sand) gives a new direction that has won the hearts of many people around the world and is gaining more and more popularity, which makes it possible to express your feelings and emotions without words. There are reasons why you should learn to draw with sand, and this is not at all surprising - drawing with sand or sand animation has a number of positive points:

1. Does not require large material costs. To try your hand at sand animation, of all the necessary props, you only need clean sifted sand and glass. Even semolina or coffee will do, and in the absence of glass, you can use any horizontal surface.
2. Beauty and plasticity. Videos with sand animation will not leave anyone indifferent. Easily changing image details, the finished image flows smoothly and dynamically into the next one.
3. Fighting stress factors: by manipulating bulk materials, a person gets rid of negative emotions.
4. Aesthetics. Sand drawings made by a child allow you to show your imagination.
5. Plastic. You don't need an eraser to edit your drawing, just slide your finger across the glass.

Sand animation or sand painting is a wonderful and at the same time relaxing process that allows you to reveal your inner world. Sand drawing has a positive effect on the emotional well-being of children and provides an opportunity for calm emotional relief, expressions through sand drawing, relieving emotional stress through the feeling of tactile touches on the sand, complemented by relaxing melodies, allows you to achieve peace of mind, relieve nervous tension, develop creativity, express inner feelings This makes it a means for the development and self-development of the child. Sand painting is an immersion in a fairy tale, a fantasy world, bizarre images, winding lines. Creating a sand painting is a fascinating process, it affects all spheres of the senses, awakens creativity, relaxes and inspires at the same time.

What this new method of sand painting gives us:

• It gives you the opportunity to touch the deep, true Self, restore your mental integrity, promotes relaxation and stress relief. This is an opportunity to gently touch your unconscious, to explore the most diverse facets of the manifestation of your Self.
• The method helps to get in touch with your feelings. And sometimes the non-verbal means is the only tool that reveals and clarifies intense feelings and beliefs that seem overwhelming. Working with sand helps to get inspired, regain lost spontaneity, develop inner freedom and feel the forgotten feelings of happiness and creativity. And most importantly, to feel like an author not only this work but also the author of his own life. released internal energy, comes the realization of what I want to do and how.
• In this art therapy process, valuable experience of positive changes is gained. Gradually there is an in-depth self-knowledge, self-acceptance, harmonization of development, personal growth. This is a potential path to self-determination, self-realization and self-actualization of the individual, as well as increasing self-esteem, self-confidence.

Internal conflicts and experiences are more easily expressed with the help of visual images than verbally. Non-verbal forms of communication may be more likely to avoid conscious censorship and rationalization, which accelerates positive personality change. In addition, when the unconscious is translated into a visible and tangible form, a real creative product appears that cannot deny the human consciousness (it is no longer something invisible, intangible).

A by-product of art therapy is the satisfaction that comes from exploring and realizing one's hidden skills, creativity.

Advantages of the sand painting method over other forms of art therapy:

• The process is simple and enjoyable. No special skills and abilities are required. And the material itself - sand - is unusually pleasant.
• Sand painting gives the possibility of transformation, instant change of a creative work without losing its beauty and without resorting to a complete reconstruction. It's like life itself, evolving and changing all the time. I think that is similar to the inner life of a person.
• When working with sand on a plane, movements become measured, synchronized with the rhythm of breathing. And working with sand to music simultaneously involves visual, auditory and kinesthetic channels, which allows a full perception of this world and the opportunity to feel into it. What is sorely lacking in our social life, where our mind makes value judgments about the world. This is close to meditative techniques.
• The technique helps to develop fine motor skills, which is especially useful for children (because the brain develops through the stimulation of the fingers) and for the elderly, because. sensitivity decreases with age. And also for people working at the computer.
• You can draw symmetrically with both hands, which contributes to harmonious development two hemispheres of the brain, and internal centering.