Play Therapy: Mandalas

I enjoy beginning a session with a mindfulness activity. In doing so, it allows my clients the opportunity to relax their mind and body– bringing their focus to the “now”, allowing each client to observe, describe, participate, and take a non-judgemental stance on the here-and-now (Dialectical Behavior Therapy concepts).

While mindfulness may be practiced in a variety of forms, with children I love to incorporate art, music, and sand tray into a mindfulness exercise.

One way I utilize a “hands-on” approach to mindfulness is through the use of Mandalas.

Mandalas can be used in the sand tray, on a floor, or on paper.  A mandala is a circle, and each client is instructed to fill in or complete the circle with a representation through color, shapes, patterns, or objects of the client’s current thoughts, feelings, and possible behaviors. I encourage my clients to “not think about it, just begin creating and observe what comes to mind without changing anything”. In making this statement, my clients are reminded it is okay to be “whatever you are, where you, when you are” without the feeling they need to change anything about themselves.

The example below is a mandala I created during a session with a client. In many of my mindfulness exercises I complete for self-care, I incorporate color and watercolor paint as a means of expression. For myself, a mandala is a great way to practice mindfulness and self-care.

Below, you can see my mandala is full of color and various shapes. Each color represents an emotion which was experienced during the exercise. As someone who is a deep thinker, I found myself pondering the colors and the emotions associated with each. In addition, I thought about how each emotion might look in the present moment, with each color taking on its own shape.I continued to observe my body, my thoughts, and my emotions, adding to the mandala until I felt it was a complete representation of my current state of being.

Once the mandala is complete, take time to observe, describe, participate, and take a non-judgemental stance on your mandala to fully understand yourself in the moment.

I will complete a mandala alongside my clients during session, encouraging them to let go of any barriers they may be experiencing, allowing themselves to be present in the moment, freely able to explore themselves without scrutiny.

Through the completion of a mandala, I will engage in conversation for the remainder of the session (through talk or play), discussing the client’s mandala and how each part of their mandala may be currently impacting their lives– negative and/or positive. I will discuss each part of the client’s mandala: how some colors blend and others do not; do the shapes or colors have symbolic meaning; was it difficult to stay present and observe without feeling the need to change a thought or emotion; is there anything about their mandala they wish they could change.

Go on, give it a try!