Dora Maria Kalff: biography and contributions of this psychoanalyst

Dora Maria Kalff was a psychologist, follower of Carl Jung's model of analytical psychology and also child psychiatrist Margarita Lowenfeld. and her world technique, so that her way of working in psychotherapy was based on the development of a non-verbal space that enables the expression of the unconscious freely.

In addition, she became popular worldwide thanks to the creation of her sandbox or Sandplay technique; a tool that has been used in psychotherapy since the 1950s in order to address unconscious conflicts, through representation She is symbolic by creating scenes with figures and a sandbox, the interior of which is painted blue in order to symbolize the sea and the darling.

In this biography of Dora Maria Kalff We will see who this researcher was and what were the most important events in her life and what her sandbox or Sandplay technique consists of.

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Brief biography of Dora Maria Kalff

Dora Maria Kalff was a Jungian psychologist who became popular worldwide thanks to the creation of her sandbox technique; a tool that has been used in psychotherapy since the 1950s in order to address unconscious conflicts by representing the inner world of patients in such a way that they can be helped to be aware of some relevant aspects to follow the direction towards healing on an emotional or psychological level. psychic.

early years

Dora Maria Kalff was a psychologist who was born on December 21, 1904 in a small town in Switzerland., which is located 20 kilometers from the city of Zurich, called Richterswil. She had a complicated childhood due to a series of health problems that she suffered throughout this period, which caused her to not be able to spend enough time interacting and playing with others kids. This is perhaps why she was withdrawn and quite introspective, according to sources.

In the academic field, Dora Maria Kalff always stood out, since she was always very applied in her studies; on the other hand, she mastered several languages ​​apart from her mother's, such as Latin or Greek, among others.

Later, Dora Maria Kalff she went to London to continue her studies at universityher, managing to graduate in the career of Philosophy.

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Meeting with Carl Jung and his wife

Dora Maria Kalff was still advancing with her work and her training when, at 45 years of age, she personally met Carl Jung and his wife, Emma. This meeting was very stimulating for Kalff, and the couple was greatly impressed, so who encouraged Dora Maria Kalff to continue her training in the field of psychology analytics. For it she would later enroll in a center that was a leader in it at that time, the Küsnacht Institute of London, which had been founded in 1928.

specialized training

It is worth mentioning the child psychiatrist Margarita Lowenfeld, who was very influential for Dora she after attending the latter at a conference that she gave in 1954 and that dealt with a therapeutic technique that she had developed, known by the name of “world technique”. This technique had been devised in order to help children express themselves through miniature figures; serving as inspiration for the later work of Dora Maria Kalff.

After this meeting, Dora Maria Kalff did not stop training and investigating, becoming especially interested in the analysis of the language of the unconscious. In addition, she immediately showed great skills in dealing especially with children, something that Jung and his wife witnessed, so they encouraged Dora so that she would focus especially on therapeutic work with children, this being the first step towards the development of her therapeutic model of the box of sand.

At the Küsnacht Institute, Dora Maria Kalff studied for 6 long years, receiving a good training and during which she met very important people in the field of psychotherapy such as d w. Winnicott or m Fordham, among others.

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Return to your native country

When Dora Maria Kalff returned to Switzerland, she launched the development of the technique for which she became famous, the Sandplay method or the sandbox, starting from the influence of Carl Jung and Margarita Lowenfeld. Her idea in developing this technique was that there was a pretty remarkable correlation between what they did children with toys in the sandboxes of the park and a series of concepts raised in Jungian theory.

In 1966, she published a book entitled Sandplay: A Psychotherapeutic Approach to the Psyche, in which she spoke her about the therapeutic method that she had developed, focusing primarily on psychotherapy with kids.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Dora Maria Kalff She became interested in Eastern philosophy and, more specifically, in Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and Taoism, which influenced her attitude when working in therapy with patients. In addition, she wrote a related book entitled "Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism" which may serve to deepen her understanding of the sandbox technique.

The Sandplay or sandbox method was becoming increasingly popular, so Dora Maria Kalff had to traveling around Europe, America and Japan in order to train new therapists so that they could apply their method. Furthermore, in the 1980s she met with various professionals who were specialized in her method in order to continue promoting said method and this gave rise to her having to develop a more formal structure that could enable the practice in a more standardized way and thus facilitate its study by other professionals and her students.

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His legacy

Dora Maria Kalff passed away in her native country in 1990, leaving a remarkable legacy within the field of psychotherapy, since his famous sandbox or Sandplay technique is still used today around the world.

In addition, an International Society for litter box therapy has been created, which was founded by her in 1985 in the city of Zurich and which continues to function today. At its headquarters, future qualified professionals are trained in the management of the Sandplay method.

What is the Sandplay or sandbox method?

The well-known Sandplay or sandbox method by Dora Maria Kalff is designed to be applied by a professional qualified that, before being able to apply the litter box to other people, they should have previously gone through that process therapeutic. In addition, that professional should be a psychologist, psychiatrist or doctor, this being the minimum requirement required to qualify in the management of this method.

On the other hand, the Sandplay method was developed in order to access the contents of the unconscious level of both children and adults. To put this model into practice, a wooden box and a series of figures are used that the participants must choose and offer as completely as possible, in a way that that could be a representative sample of all beings, both animate and inanimate, that we could find both in the external world and in the internal world of the imagination.

It is worth mentioning that the sandbox, despite what it might seem at first, is a very useful tool. simple, since it is simply a tray or a box that should be filled with sand without it reaching overflow. Later, when carrying out a session with a patient, this he should start by selecting a series of figures and objects that serve to represent a series of scenes that are as similar as possible to her dreams.

The psychotherapist should favor the development of a facilitating environment so that the patient opens up when using both the sandbox like the figures to express themselves and thus show possible dreams, conversations or any imaginative representation that could show something relevant.

While the patient carries out this representation, the therapist should be in charge of observing without intervening nor make an interpretation or an analysis of what he does with the figures. Instead, the therapist should look at what the patient is saying during the performance in order to decide, based on what the patient is saying, if an analysis is necessary.