The evolution of images grounded in sand: Case study of a 16-year-old girl with adverse childhood experiences in sandplay therapy lacking miniatures

To explore how sandplay therapy (SPT) lacking miniatures in schools can help adolescents with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The study will provide a reference and framework for school psychologists and counsellors to use imaginative formations (especially kinaesthetic images) in SPT lacking miniatures to understand and help student-clients with ACEs. The case study method is used to describe the actions taken and image data obtained during the SPT and analyse the themes and kinaesthetic images created. Kinaesthetic images provide an embodiment of emotion and self-regulation. Dynamic scene images evoked by kinaesthetic imagination offer an embodiment of self-development. Co-transference images arising from co-relationships embody self-renewal. Three imaginative formations in SPT: (1) clients’ kinaesthetic images; (2) dynamic (sandpicture) scene images and (3) co-transference images generated in the relationship between therapist and client (images emerging in the psyches of both sides, each other’s images of dreams during SPT). Psychologists and counsellors in schools can use SPT within the framework of three imaginative formations and parental interviews to help improve the internal psychological and external interpersonal and family environments of adolescents with ACEs.