13 year-old Olivia’s life was shattered when she lost her childhood playmates to a double murder-suicide at the hands of a trusted adult. She presented with symptoms of traumatic grief. In addition to a profound sense of loss and confusion, Olivia was overwhelmed by fear, horror, and intrusive thoughts. Further wounding by her small-town community left her disconnected from herself and the external world.
The experience of trauma activates survival emotions and complicates grief, creating “disconnects” on a psychological, somatic, and neurobiological level. Healing from trauma in Sandplay involves reconnecting to the body, accessing the transformative energies of the Self, creating a coherent trauma narrative, and developing the brain’s capacity for self-regulation through neural integration.
Dan Siegel states that neural integration is an essential process in the movement toward well-being. Neural integration involves creating an “integrated flow” of neural networks by differentiating previously coupled and automatic elements of the mind and linking these components of information flow in new combinations. He identifies nine domains of neural integration.
In this workshop participants will review Olivia’s compelling sandplay process, with particular focus on how she taps into the healing properties of sandplay and play therapy to re-create her trauma narrative, integrate her nervous system, and achieve a sense of wholeness, connection and vitality.Olivia shares her terrifying experiences related to the Hispanic legend of La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) and later takes her therapist on a journey of forgiveness to the actual places where La Llorona once haunted her. Utilizing didactic and experiential learning, this workshop will explore clinical concepts in trauma and grief, Olivia’s personal and cultural experiences with the legend of La Llorona, and the process of neural integration in sandplay.