We often observe that psychosomatic patients have tendencies of suppression or alexithymia. Since their verbal expressions are emotionless, verbal approaches to them are less useful. So we also comduct sand play therapy as a non-verbal approach. We applied the sand play therapy to 24 cases for whom verbal approaches were not successful due to the following reasons : 1) less emotional expression 2) alexithymic tendency 3) tendency of mutism 4) mild mental retardation 5) lack of basic trust or excessive distorted perception By conducting the sand play therapy, we gained the following results; 1) The expression of patient's emotional states is promoted and it facilitates catharsis. 2) The patient's qwareness of emotional states is promoted. 3) It is important to catch a good timing between waiting enough and working on the patient during the sand play sessions by considering the therapist-patient relationship and the therapeutic process. 4) We can examine and modify our therapeutic attitudes by watching and talking with the patient about the sand play expressions, and that in turn helps us control our counter transference. 5) The sand play therapy facilitates to restore the patient's sense of reality which is excessively distorted. We conclude that the sand play therapy is useful and necessary for the patient for whom verbal approach is not successful.
