Sandplay Therapy Performed by Telepsychotherapy: Going Beyond the Limits of Face-to-Face Psychotherapy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

As COVID-19 spreads internationally for an extended period of time, millions of people around the world are suffering from psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and loss, and the role of psychotherapy is growing more than ever. However, in the current situation where anxiety about infection is widespread, the form of face-to-face psychotherapy has become another factor that induces infection anxiety. The limitation of this existing psychotherapy leads us to think of alternatives that can reflect the rapidly changing clinical situation in different ways during the ongoing coronavirus period. Telepsychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy that has been practiced for distant clients for a long time and can be a safe alternative psychotherapy method for both clients and analysts in the pandemic era. Although some analytic psychotherapists have negative views on telepsychotherapy, the change in the psychological treatment environment caused by COVID-19 leads to a new perspective on telepsychotherapy. The subjects of anxiety, depression, and death that people are experiencing because of the coronavirus pandemic come to us as archetypal shadow. The symbols unfolded in sandplay therapy direct our gaze to the inner world of human beings during this pandemic period and make us look at the unintegrated archetypal figure in the deep conscious. This paper aims to examine the therapeutic meaning and value of sandplay therapy that is performed according to the method of telepsychotherapy by analyzing the case of changed clinical situation due to the pandemic.