Props can enliven and support the creative process

Why I love props, sand tray miniatures, objects and instruments 
and how I use them

Psychotherapy is a crucible
for deeper exploration
 and a path to feeling 
more creatively alive.
Props and art materials
give tangible form to inner stories, 
metaphor and impulse….. 

Working with props invites play, experiment and curiosity. It can lead to new ideas, perceptions or meanings. Even before that the tactile, visual and kinesthetic sensations stimulated through touching and moving objects helps contribute to an integrated sense of self.

For example, I work with the Russian dolls or babushka. I might choose to introduce them with the idea of working with parts of self at different ages. So I might invite you to find a memory or recall the situation when you were a baby self, then a toddler, and then at 7 year old….perhaps all the way up to your current age. The progressively bigger dolls open up and anchor in a physical sense of self at different stages in life along with the feelings and associations belonging to that time.

I have a wide array of sand tray miniatures which immediately enliven any exploration as they are so symbolically potent and accessible. One client was talking about the pressure of family expectations and I asked her to choose a figure that represents that feeling for her. To her surprise she picked up a person with a revolver and said it was like having a gun to her head! This brought the depth of her experience to the surface in a very vivid way.

 I also use pebbles and shells from the beach. These can be quite grounding. For human beings, stones were among the first tools, playthings, markers, thinking and counting aids. They are ancient and I think that resonates on some level with us, even if it’s not in awareness. I may use them as part of an invitation to show me your family constellation through choosing stones to represent parents, siblings and other people of significance. Link to Mack

Some people approach props with relish, others with less confidence or ease. One of the most important things about using props is pleasure from tactility.  The task of therapy is to build safety and nourish a space of exploration and enquiring creativity. This can take time but gentle encouragement, suggestions, and carefully chosen questions can help. 

Cards or photos help us find something new: a different perspective, fresh thought or intuition. Occasionally I introduce Native American Medicine cards with their broad range of animals such as ‘fox’, ‘spider’ or ‘bear’, and the qualities they are believed to embody which is summarized in the handbook.  I believe that our human relationship with animals and bird over millennia is very profound. Even if today it is often second-hand, through story books when we are little and then on tv and film, what they stir in us has deep roots. I may, for example, use them when I want to offer a resource, perhaps near the end of a session.  A client chooses from the pack without knowing which card it is and it is quite remarkable how powerfully the animal or bird or fish strikes a chord and seems to bring a genuine nugget of insight or wisdom to the chooser.

Props enhance a sense of embodiment whilst drawing attention away from self-consciousness or very stuck modes of being. For example, I may introduce a tennis ball or football to throw back and forth as a way of mobilising the energy in the hands, arms and shoulders. This gives immediate feedback in terms of proprioception. Proprioception is the technical name for the brain’s registration of the body’s movement in time and space; it is a crucial part of our felt sense. It’s fascinating that this word literally means ‘to receive my (own) self’.  

Passivity is the great enemy of our time. Activating awareness of gesture, breath, and especially sensation can focus experience in a way that is very different than using cognition. When we feel something in our body, it can actually deepen our sense of what is really going on.

Being creatively alive is an act of resistance to deadness, conformity and lack of interest in self, others and the world. 

I like to use the swiss ball or pilates ball to engage and evoke a variety of actions and relational negotiations. The main quality of this large ball is its responsive rebound. This rebound means that when you push into it, it pushes back which can give a sense of being met.  I might invite clients to lean on the ball or drape themselves over it, yielding their body weight. This can be felt as an opportunity to let go, a symbolic ‘maternal’ holding and a real physical support.

Props give an opportunity to express through movement what may be inhibited in real life. I’ve seen clients bore into the swiss ball with incredible determination as if their life depended on it. They might say something like ‘I didn’t realise I was so angry’.  Then I might suggest we explore that with the ball between us and that highlights more of the conflict of bringing it into direct relationship. We are face to face either side of the ball so the pushing takes on a different dimension and this is where we can understand how the client communicates or controls their feelings in interactions.
 
Staying with balls for a moment, many clients love the koosh ball, its colourful bobbing filaments stimulate the hands to move, grasp, and respond to the sensory stimulation. Waking up the tactile nerves of the hand stimulates the somatosensory cortex which feeds the imaginative parts of the brain and anchors the body in the present moment. Its popular with clients with ADHD, giving them something to fidget with.

One prop I wouldn’t be without is a heavy blanket – its 6.8kg.  Its weight immediately stimulates body receptors that help calm the nervous system, and for many people enhances a sense of being safe and protected. This is a useful ally in working with trauma and the freeze response.

Finally, I have various drums, tambourines, djembe and a handpan in my therapy room. Nothing organises energy like rhythm! I like to use these to dialogue with a client as we drum out a call and response. Or perhaps a good smack of the tambourine liberates some frustration. The hand pan or hang is more delicate and its notes quite evocative as its vibrations move through the body of the player. It can express quite haunting hard-to-articulate feelings without the client needing any musical training or experience to play it.

Clinical vignettes – link