Setting the stage

The "Sand Stage" is an innovative dramatherapy approach that relates to a sand-tray as a theatre stage. In the session, the client is invited to spontaneously gather small objects and characters and place them in the sand-tray (size 60X80X8 cm).upon completion the therapist invites him/her to imagine that they are in a theater, the curtain opens and the stage reveals itself to them. A phenomenological dialog between the therapist and the client unfolds, which contributes to explore the dramatic scene and expand the dramatic-reality.
The client moves between roles: As a director; s/he takes decisions about actions, clarifies the qualities of the images and their roles, as well as advancing the plot. As actors; they act and express thoughts and feelings; as audience, they become to be as witnesses to the process and can choose their distancing or different point of view along the process.
Therapeutically, the client creates metaphorical images of their inner worlds, while using aesthetic distance and safe zone miniature world. As the images come to life, the phenomenological observation of detailed parameters connected to different personal qualities enables the mind to integrate and organize the reflected drama. This theatre-based therapy is not judgmental nor interpretive.
The workshop will discuss the approach throw experiencing and modelling the process. The participants will choose their object, learn the phenomenological description for establishing dramatic reality and work with the three roles. The facilitator will demonstrate therapeutic work.