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.

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.

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy; not on fighting the old, but on building the new." – Dan Millman. ...
12/27/2025

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy; not on fighting the old, but on building the new." – Dan Millman.

Just about done packing up my Chatham office, a space that has tenderly held me, my clients, my work, and other therapists sharing the space with me, since right after the pandemic shutdown began to ease. During these years, I lost my dog, my father-in-law, and my mother, among others. This office was my place of solace, and the healing work that happened here offered healing for my me, as well.

In the past year, as has been true for me for most of my life, my heart began to yearn for something new, something different...a creative energy returned and ignited. I began writing again. I worked on clinical presentations, a Sandplay Foundations training, consultation groups, and the regional group we just launched here in NJ. I painted and drew, danced, and ran. And out of all of that sprung a choice...to let go, to step forward, to open my arms wide to whatever wants to come. My new office in Morristown holds the promise of adventure and mystery.

Out of the darkest times the greatest light can come. I try to remind myself of that when things in the world, the collective, and in my personal life go dim or dark. A wise teacher of mine once told me that we can't have one without the other, and that the challenge was to hold both together....the dark and the light, and to prosper from the union of the two....that is Life.

How excited we all were....coming together for the first ever, in-person meet up of the Northeast Sandplay Association! ...
12/11/2025

How excited we all were....coming together for the first ever, in-person meet up of the Northeast Sandplay Association! Quite a few years ago, Sandplay Therapist's of America asked if I would become the Regional Rep for my area of the country. We had never had a group in this area as there were not enough certified practitioners to get a group solvent. Then Covid hit and postponed the trek! But I held onto the dream of starting up, and growing, a community of people who are looking for one another, looking for comraderie and new experience, new spaces and opportunities to learn, share, and grow together.

I am so thrilled to see a community finally coming together! This first meeting included depth of conversation and exploration, laughter, hope and a mutual love for the work that we do, and the essence of the deep processes that fill our lives! As a group, we talked of the possibilities going forward, including sponsoring teachers from around the country to come teach here in our neck of the woods

A shout out to who has lit fire in the midst of it, and, in that, was instrumental in helping me to get this done🙏

While the focus of our association is sandplay, all are welcome who are looking for a tribe, a place to be where commonality is the glue, and differences the resilience!

In memory of my beautiful, earthy, Hungarian grandma..... her sweet offering each Thanksgiving was this homemade cranber...
11/27/2025

In memory of my beautiful, earthy, Hungarian grandma..... her sweet offering each Thanksgiving was this homemade cranberry sauce recipe when I was young, I hated it! Yet, like so many things, I have grown into a taste for it. Today, I give thanks for all that I have, and I give thanks for the sadness that I can now feel at the absence of so many who have physically left my life. I wish for kindness and peace to fill as much of the world as is possible🪽🐠

Learning Together: Join the new Sandplay Consultation group - sandplayforhealing.com/store/sandplay-consultation-group-2...
11/17/2025

Learning Together: Join the new Sandplay Consultation group - sandplayforhealing.com/store/sandplay-consultation-group-2026

Address

186 Main Street
Chatham, NJ
07928

Opening Hours

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

Telephone

+19734572650

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