A Case Study on Sandplay Therapy for a Middle-aged Man from the Perspective of Hero Mythology
Authors:   Korean Association of Sandplay Therapy, Chung Eun Sook 
Published: March 2024

This study is a case of a middle-aged man. The client is intellectually excellent, but has not achieved psychologically balanced growth due to psychological problems (trauma) that occurred in the course of a dramatic life since childhood, has difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and has high levels of anxiety and depression. Sandplay counseling was conducted 24 sessions for the purpose of strengthening the ego and transforming negative motherhood. The entire process of sandplay was examined by applying Campbell's three stages of hero’s journey, the process of departure, initiation, and return. In addition, it was confirmed that the client’s trauma became the golden key and in the process of overcoming it, the inner growth of individuation progressed to the integration of consciousness and unconsciousness. The results of comparative analysis are as follows. At the beginning stage (Departure, episode 1-4), in the developmental history of knowing the adoptive mother as the birth mother until the second grade of elementary school due to the divorce of the parents and growing up with the 6 month younger sister, the hero was originally born and abandoned and went through all kinds of difficulties. Receive the call of the hero's journey to overcome. This stage of individuation is entering into the internal life that is urged by the unconscious. At this time, the client showed the direction to grow the negative maternity, guilt, and weak ego, which are the shadow parts. Second, in the initiation stage (5th - 18th), the hero goes through a gateway like the stomach of a whale and suffers. And while overcoming the ordeal, the meeting with the goddess takes place. This meeting confirmed that the growth in the true meaning of finding oneself occurs by integrating the conscious and the unconscious, distinguishing the self and persona, and consciously conscious of the shadow, anima, and animus. Third, in the stage of return (sessions 19 to 21), he realized that there is everything inside himself, adapt to the reality, become free, and move on to the process of becoming individual beings. In the sandbox, in the 19th session, a strong adult male appeared instead of a tall boy, and in the 20th session, the rise of being an individual appeared. And in the 21st episode, the last of the sandbox, a woman who had been lying down in the previous box got up and stood side by side with a man in a dress and wedding dress, suggesting integration. And in reality, they appeared to be confident in choosing a job that was beneficial to others and the environment that matched their values ​​rather than remuneration. The hero who returned to reality expressed his firm will to live a life that contributes to mankind. Accordingly, through a case study of sandplay counseling, based on Campbell’s hero’s journey, Jung’s process of individuation, persona, was distinguished, and the process of internal growth to find oneself by consciously consciously identifying the shadow, anima, and animus was confirmed.