 By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
While I'm knee-deep in getting ready for my "Sand Tray (and Play Therapy) Meets Psychodrama" three-day training and mini-retreat which starts Thursday, I'm pondering the symbols and metaphors that make sand tray psychotherapy and coaching so powerful. Through the years, I've worked with mainly with adults, so my sand tray miniatures and items are a bit more sophisticated than those other practitioners might have for therapy with children. When psychodrama is incorporated with sand tray, I've found that the nature of the work is deepened on multiple levels. I've been compiling and collecting sand tray miniatures and other items from my own sand tray collection of many years, plus a few from thrift stores and yard sales -- and a few that I've made myself. Here's a representation of what are useful miniature metaphors.
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By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
I remember the first time that I introduced the principles of sand tray into a psychotherapy session with a couple, who I’ll call Harry and Sally. The couple, who were experiencing significant conflict in their marriage, had arrived in my therapy room several weeks before, saying that they had difficulty communicating with each other and that most discussions of any substance resulted in angry words and distancing. Each of the couple demonstrated stereotypical gender behaviors: Sally was highly talkative and verbally adept as she jumped in the conversation and chatted easily for many minutes about what she was thinking, feeling, wanting and needing. By contrast, Harry showed up as the proverbial strong and silent type. He appeared to have difficulty bringing a full sentence forward when in front of his talkative wife, even though he was well educated and highly successful in a demanding professional job.  Psychology Arts, a project initiated by the delightful and inventive Azizi Marshall of The Center for Creative Arts Therapy in Chicago, Ill., recently interviewed Karen Carnabucci, founder of the Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies. Here is a transcript of that interview: What do you do? Who do you help?
I use and teach psychodrama and other experiential methods that support people in rehearsing new roles and discovering new dimensions within themselves -- leading to more satisfying lives. With carefully directed experiences -- with both psychodrama and the newer Family Constellations – we are literally able to shift the molecules in our beings into embracing new realities. I especially enjoy working with psychotherapists, educators and other helping professionals who want to learn these methods to integrate into their own work. For this reason, I've founded the Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies in Lancaster, Pa. By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
Welcome to my new practice space! Experiential psychotherapy and coaching are different than your typical talk therapy and brainstorming coaching with markers and easels. We practitioners who use action methods and experiential psychotherapies use floor space, props, pillows and other "supplies" in our work with people and groups. The props -- which may include chairs, stools, mats, scarves and cloths, small figures, simple musical and sound instruments, and other items -- assist in stepping directly into the problem or situation rather than just talking about it. People invariably find that the experiential approach helps them develop fresh insights and feel dramatic and useful shifts that never come with analysis, list making and the usual ways we tend to think about things. In other words, stepping into our experience has transformative power. |
AuthorKaren Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP, is an author, trainer and psychotherapist who promotes, practices and teaches experiential methods including psychodrama, Family and Systemic Constellations, sand tray, mindfulness and Tarot imagery. Archives
May 2025
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