CASE CONSULTATION

“You cannot teach a man anything;
You can only help him discover it in himself.” -Galileo Galilei

This page intended for professional therapists only.
All of us have times when our clinical road feels blocked and we can benefit from outside case consultation. Yet as we become more advanced in our work, it can get harder to find someone we trust to consult with on a case.

This is where using sand tray for clinical consultation comes in: it helps you access what you already know about the case, but don’t know you know. The expert you will be consulting is yourself. I will simply facilitate the process through which you use the sand tray to gain access to your inner wisdom on the case in question.For more information on general principles of how sand tray works, please see the FAQ section below.

Figurines in Sand

In this example, I was able to see that in addition to the forbidding presence the wife was presenting, there were many other powerful assets she was bringing to the marriage.

Figurines In Sand

This view of what was going on beneath the surface static of the couple's presentation let me appreciate their need to enjoy each other in the simple pleasures of daily life, without worrying about how they appear to others.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON USING SAND TRAY FOR CASE CONSULTATION

Try to boil your case down to one clinical question with which you struggle. Examples can be from the general (“What is my best approach in this case?”) to the specific (“Why does this person get under my skin?”). Get to the point where you can give me a two minute synopsis of the case.
The consultation has several stages: (a) You give me your two minute synopsis and consultation question, (b) You create a sand tray with the case “in mind” (I’ll explain how to do that), (c) I will facilitate an exploration of the sand tray you create, (d) you will translate the experience of the sand tray into some clear conceptual understanding of how that applies to your case, and (e) if you are interested, you can look at how the sand tray applies to you personally. This will alert you to the overlap between your client’s issues and your own. I will take pictures of your work which you can refer to before your sessions with your client.
When I go for traditional case consultation I learn a lot of interesting things which I then try to remember when working with the client. When I use sand tray for case consultation, I don’t have to remember anything. I’m simply a different therapist and that difference triggers a shift in the work.
No. This is as good an introduction as any to the remarkable powers of this method.