Sandplay for Healing, LLC

Sandplay for Healing, LLC Sandplay for Healing provides a full range of therapeutic services for children and adults.

Ruth Castellano sponsors and hosts a variety of workshops and trainings within many communities.

Planting this garden area last year became a profound, active ritual connected to the loss of my mom. It linked me to t...
05/20/2026

Planting this garden area last year became a profound, active ritual connected to the loss of my mom. It linked me to the living being that I knew my mother as, and allowed movement and a continuity to her life. As I planted it, pulled up weeds, and am witnessing this year's blooms, I have found that tending to living Earth has offered a richly alive and beautiful canvas for processing grief.

The digging, turning over the earth, and planting has offered a chance to channel thick, stagnant internal energy into the external world. Burying and planting the bulbs was a symbolic offering of deep emotion into the dark, safe cave space (Earth) where it was held, broken down, and soon converted into something beautiful and generative.

This garden area has become a sacred space that holds memory, acting as a sacred container alive with the life cycles. The bottle tree that was in my mothers garden for years, the Peonies that capture my paternal grandfathers favorite flower, the bleeding hearts for my mother and grandmother, and the wisteria so loved by my mom (especially when they cover archways). These living plants offer a container for the essence of those gone.

Each day, as I step into this space, it is though I have a visit with my loved ones. The ongoing care of my garden offers me a lived experience of tending to and nurturing my loved ones, and myself. The act of tending, organizing, and clearing offers a mirror into the internal psychological process of navigating the chaos of grief into an internal ecosystem where something new can take root and become enlivened.

One of the things I most love about a perennial garden is how the plants deeply embrace the coldest, darkest time of the season to rejuvenate. In this act of acceptance, they open the way to their next season of bloom.
For me, this truth of perennials offers a profound life message🙏

Einsedeln, Switzerland....here is where I understood, in a new way, the union of opposites. All around these scenes her...
05/11/2026

Einsedeln, Switzerland....here is where I understood, in a new way, the union of opposites. All around these scenes here, stood the majestic Alps. These pictures were taken after a strenuous hike up....up....and up, behind the cloister of Einsedeln. I was deep in the woods, sweating and yearning for a view. I rounded the corner and there it was. I was intensely struck by a truth: the beauty of the mountain was held by the valley...and the beauty of the valley was held by the mountain....and neither could be without the other.

I seek to protect the Wild Spirit in the bones of my daughters, to instigate a Wild, rebellious Spirit in the heart of m...
05/10/2026

I seek to protect the Wild Spirit in the bones of my daughters, to instigate a Wild, rebellious Spirit in the heart of my granddaughters. I yearn to model for my grandsons the beauty and fire of a girl as the most beautiful light in the world. I envision a world where hope lives bright for the celebration of the Wild Mother....who runs in the deep forest shadows, in the caves and beneath the trees, unafraid of the truth, sturdy in the face of those who diminish her and any whom she loves. She is Great Mother....tender of the gardens, the Earth, the stones and the heart. She roams the desert of the soul and fills it with flowers and warmth. She descends into the darkest pain of the world, and comes out with the blood of life. She holds Life for all Mankind in the deepest part of the womb, the cave where all possibility originates.

This Wild Mother, Great Mother, tenderly strokes her child's cheek, holds their pain with the gentlest hands, loves from the deepest caverns of the cave. She has volcanic fire and She challenges her children to show up for the world in ways that matter. She teaches them to look in the face of those who want to steal their souls and say NO, you can't take that from me.

She lives in us all. She guides us Home to love our personal Mothers, to deepen our knowing that our mother had her own story. She guides us to fiercely love our children, our animals, our gardens and trees, our natural world. She takes us, if we let her, to our own instinctual Mother, deep within us, where the most tender, loving care can happen for ourselves.

I hope you have Mother love in your soul today. I hope that love gives you a sweet hug when you least expect it.🤗

HierophanyThere is a portal,A circle of women, unfurlingPetal by petal, each a flare of lightTo beckon the fevered, the ...
04/23/2026

Hierophany

There is a portal,
A circle of women, unfurling
Petal by petal, each a flare of light
To beckon the fevered, the injured,
Those clinging to slim filaments of hope
Amidst the simmering violence.

They feel it. Vibrating beneath,
But are not of it, no.
These are the burning women,
Layered in the vestments of
Feminine power.

Their intention sets the wild clocks
To thrumming, fills the hollow bowl
With spirit food for the journey
Of love. Of revolution. Their message:
Abandon ego. Unite. Prepare.

Wash me in birdsong and algae -
Remedy for the toll of suffering,
That I may enter the hierophany.
Let the daisies rule with grass blades,
Weave the threads of our fire.

And I, I again will lift the feather,
Bring the medicines of Eden's daughter,
As we tread the holy path of Ancestors
Wrapped in their strength and witches' plaid,
Gathering our sisters.

Author: Laura Maschal.....a woman whom I have had the gift of trekking through and into sacred spaces that have transformed us both. For that I am profoundly grateful🙏

Join us on April 26th for the next Northeast Sandplay Association meetup!There’s something deeply powerful, and profound...
04/03/2026

Join us on April 26th for the next Northeast Sandplay Association meetup!

There’s something deeply powerful, and profoundly positive about gathering:

About the way we, like books whispering their tales, find knowledge and wisdom in the sharing of ideas, stories, and history when we gather. In the journeys we each are on, the travel can sometimes feel lonely or disconnected. Gathering with like-minded souls can be a wonderful anecdote.

We invite you to join us for this gathering. We have a theme for our meetup:

A book club, of sorts! Let’s share and talk about some of our favorite books. Books that have landed in your heart, that have fed your intellect, your passion, and books that have inspired creativity and enlivened your journey. We will have books on hand, but feel free to bring one or two of your own.

Meanwhile, there will be delicious food and drink and, we imagine, more of the same wonderful conversation and laughter as at last meetup. We hope to see you at our Northeast Sandplay Association gathering On Sunday April 26th, from 3-5 PM, in Englewood, NJ! Details will follow in a welcome email close to the meetup date.

While the gathering is free, space is limited.
To help us plan, we kindly ask you to let us know if you’ll be joining us. Please email Ruth to reserve your spot, because together, we don’t just gather. We rise.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Each day I am reminded about play as I witness my sweet pup cycle through episodes of organic play periods. I watch his...
03/24/2026

Each day I am reminded about play as I witness my sweet pup cycle through episodes of organic play periods. I watch his mood lift, his excitement grow, and his skills of ingenuity enlarge. I am aware, in the trauma stories of people whom I have met and worked with, of how play and creativity are often either snuffed out or profoundly impeded as a child struggles to survive day to day profound stress. The work for me, with the children and adults I have been blessed to hold space with, always includes spaces and encouragement to tap into deep internal resources for play and creativity. It is what drew me to sandplay.

I believe that play and creativity is integral to the psychological well being of the individual, be it child or adult. The physiological impact of play is a reduction of cortisol and the increase of neuroplasticity (the brain's capacity to create new neural pathways).

Carl Jung Dora Kalff saw play as vital energy for psychological process of creative imagination. Creative imagination is the engine for personal growth. Jung saw play as the bridge between our conscious and unconscious, or outer and inner worlds. Play acts as the antidote to staying rigid in our well defined personas, and allows for a meeting between our Shadow (the unexpressed parts of ourselves) and our Inner Child. Thus, play allows for the experience of multi-dimensionality, an experience of all of ourselves. The end result is the possibility of an organic meeting with ourselves, and the experience of a rich relationship with ourselves.

I am curious how some of you find your way to play and creativity? For me, playing with my dog makes me laugh out loud! And I paint, dance, ski, write, and am known to sometimes still climb trees:-)

Just left Stresa, on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, a place that seemed, for me, to beat with the Spirit of the Femini...
03/14/2026

Just left Stresa, on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, a place that seemed, for me, to beat with the Spirit of the Feminine. I saw themes...of portals, of tree's, of life recovering from the seeming deadness of winter. And all the while, in the background, the sorrow of the world at war. If I paused and closed my eyes, I could hear the birds singing in the trees, people chattering in Italian, German, Russian, French, Egyptian, English, and such, dogs barking in the distance....while at the same time, deep within, I could imagine the thunder of bombs keeping innocent people shivering in terror, wide awake with big, horrifying questions about home and safety, life and death.

I was drawn to these images shown here of what became, for me, portals to visit with beauty, with softness, with nature and love. Portals that offered meetings with history, and reminders of both the brutality of human beings and the stubborn resilience of many back to love and life, hope and beauty.

This must be the teaching from my teacher a while back...if we can hold the opposites, see both, we can help ourselves move from chaos to calm, as often as we need the possibility. The world is at war AND the light needs to stay as bright as it can, deep within🙏

I first posted the start of this painting on January 9, 2022 (the third image here). I had been immersed in cave space ...
01/11/2026

I first posted the start of this painting on January 9, 2022 (the third image here). I had been immersed in cave space and energy for quite a few years as I sat with, felt into, and, in some sense, became the cave. I was drawn to, and often came upon, cave spaces in nature, in relationships, in art, in dreams, and deep within me.
This painting started while on a trip to the Netherlands in 2022 to visit with an aging family member. These trips were full of sorting through memories, holding space for death and dying...while simultaneously, something was uncovering within. I played with this painting numerous times, trying, for some reason to override what my soul wanted to paint. I kept seeing a cavern or container of celestial Light, a Divine Source, in the heart of the native land. The negative voices I wrote about in the January 9th, 2022 post crept in. I questioned who I thought I was to think I can paint! It was young. Yet, that uncovering and opening that was happening during my excursions to Holland were taking root. I began to not care what others thought; I began to allow myself. Maybe you can understand.

And as this was happening, I continued to see indigenous tribal figures dancing in the dark forest. About a year ago, I let the light in. I thought I would share the journey of this process. Art is not a thought. For me, it is a feeling deep within that is asking for expression.

Address

51 South Street Suite 8
Morristown, NJ
07960

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+19734572650

Website

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