MOURNING AND THE MANDALA

Grief is a universal human response to death and loss.Mourning is an equally universally observable practice that allows the grieving person to express their grief and come to terms with the reality of the loss.An innovative practice to overcome the pain of losing a loved one is mandala therapy in a round sand tray.Mandala in Sanskrit means "circle", the mandala has potential benefit for the treatment mental disorders.It can be included as a therapeutic mourning process within sand play therapy, a therapeutic technique that is based on the free expression of imagination and individual creativity and which can be used with children, adolescents and adults.In the context of sand play therapy, symbols can be defined as objects or figures that represent something else.They can be concrete or abstract.Symbols can take many forms, such as animals, people, objects, or shapes, stones, berries, twigs, flowers, petals and other natural materials.A traditional mandala is a square containing a circle and the pattern inside of the circle is symmetrical and balanced.A Grief Mandala has no pre-set pattern inside of it.The practice of the mandala is always associated with the technique of breathing and visualization.Sand can also represent feelings of being overwhelmedor trapped, as it can easily dislodge and bury things.Sandplay is a form of therapy that offers clients the opportunity to portray feelings and experiences that are inaccessible or difficult to express in words.Sandplay also provides a balance to the extroverted, verbal, and outer-focused everyday world.Mandalas are a wonderful way to tap into the Creative Self, the part of the psyche that thrives in authenticity.Touching the sand encourages the inner Self to come to the surface, which is the goal in making mandalas and sand trays.The use of mandala and sand thus becomes a useful approach in the elaboration of mourning.