Notebook
October 22, 2025
The Living Symbol: an Introduction to Jungian Sandplay Therapy
There are times when language falls short. A client searches for words, but they don’t apply. What’s present feels deeper, older, or less formed. In Sandplay therapy, this is where the work begins. A tray of sand becomes a place for the psyche to express itself through images.
This essay explores what Jungian Sandplay is — its methods, theoretical foundations, and supporting research — as well as what it feels like and how it can help.
October 15, 2025
The Inner Architecture of People-Pleasing
Part Two: People-Pleasing Through a Self Psychology Lens
Niceness keeps the peace; kindness makes contact. Niceness maintains harmony by smoothing edges. Kindness reaches across difference — it can sting, disrupt, and heal.
Continuing the series on people-pleasing through depth-psychological frameworks, this essay explores Self Psychology — a relational theory that centers the lived experience of being seen, understood, and held in another’s mind.
October 10, 2025
The Inner Architecture of People-Pleasing
Part One: People-Pleasing from an Object Relations Perspective
In depth psychology, from Jung’s work on the shadow to Object Relations theory, behavior is rarely what it seems at first glance. What looks like generosity often masks a more complex mix of impulses. The wish to please can hide anger, envy, or fear of loss. People-pleasing isn’t just a habit; it’s a structure the psyche builds to manage love and aggression.
Early on, many of us learned that being good kept us safe and lovable. The parts that felt angry, needy, or judgmental were sent underground. When those feelings get disowned, they don’t vanish — they get projected onto the world around us.
