Abstract

This dissertation reports the results of a qualitative investigation of the individual psychological experiences of adaptation to a new socio-cultural environment of six adult participants with immigrant backgrounds. The experiences were expressed through Sandplay Therapy sessions in the form of verbal accounts and three-dimensional expressions in the form of sandpictures. The research design was based on the Descriptive Phenomenological Psychological Method (DPPM) which helped to uncover what the Sandplay Therapy expressions of immigrants in Quebec reveal about their psychological adaptation to their new environment. The data were collected over a period of sixteen months through Sandplay Therapy sessions and included the following categories: the written verbal accounts of the experiences; the therapist’s process notes and comments; and the visual data in the form of photographs and maps of the created sandpictures. Data analysis included the analysis of the transcription of the sessions and of the sandpictures, for which the perspective of the Kalffian model of Sandplay analysis and Jungian theory was used. The findings suggest relations among the imagery representing the participants’ experiences (in the form of the sandpictures); the underlining psychological processes unfolding in the participants’ psyche; and the conscious understanding of the experience of adaptation voiced by the participants. The research participants presented patterns in their expressions linking their experiences of adaptation to the unfolding of the specific psychological processes that were revealed through the images.