A Case Study on Sandplay Therapy for an Alchemistic Transformation Process of a Middle-aged Woman

This study reveals that a 43-year-old woman, emerging from suppression of feelings and inner conflicts, recovers motherhood and realizes the true self through an individuation process. The purpose of this study is to understand that self-emergence and self-integration processes during sandplay therapy are connected to the flow of Jung's alchemical transformation process. Sandplay therapy was conducted over a total of 29 sessions, 50 minutes per session, on a weekly basis during the period of 12 months. The therapist provided the client with a free, protected space to ensure that the client can feel she is accepted and understood, look back on her previous life, and release her suppressed and projected negative elements out of her mind. The sandplay therapy was analyzed by dividing it into three stages based on Jung's alchemical transformation process: nigredo, albedo, and rubedo. The client's alchemical work in respective sand trays includes the following processes: first, taking off her persona in confrontation with shadows and facing negative elements, second, integrating Anima and Animus through inner purification, third, beginning to engage in individuation through the free, creative self realization. The middle-aged woman in this case study shows a remarkable rebirth of self by recovering motherhood through the death of immature ego, the endurance of pains with an insight into shadows, and self-strengthening. This case study is significant in that it shows a middle-aged woman's individuation process in connection with Jung's alchemical transformation process.