Children who recreate emotions in the sands of the Sacred Valley of the Incas to improve their mental health

“Grandma, I would like to meet you because when I was born, you died, and I would like to meet you in my dreams and in real life”, writes little André Marcavillaca in a tremulous but expressive handwriting.

The line is made with pencil and on a piece of paper.

Down below there are some dry yellow flowers that delicately crown the scene.

On this light-sprinkled Andean morning, every dream seems possible.

The child folds the letter with his hands, gently, as if it really traveled to heaven.

He wraps it in a larger piece of paper, closes it, and looks at her.

It's the Day of the Dead and the Living (the first day of November) and life shines in the Casita de los Picaflores, a psychological center in Urquillos, a peasant community in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru.

play to live

The place was founded at the beginning of 2022 by Giselle Silva, a Peruvian psychotherapist, with a fundamental purpose: to attend to the mental health and socio-emotional development of this town, where these services are practically unknown by the local population, but in which they are. there are numerous meditation and retreat centers exclusively for tourists at prohibitive prices.

The 'SandPlay' (sand game in English) is a psychological technique developed in the fifties that consists of playing with miniatures and sand to express emotions through creations.

Natalie Fernandez

At the La Casita de los Picaflores psychological therapy center in Urquillos (Peru), the team of professionals use 'SandPlay' to treat their patients;

Also letter writing.

In the image, a letter that a child has written to his grandmother, who died shortly before she was born.

Natalie Fernandez

The sand serves as a canvas on which miniature figures or texts are placed so that children express their deepest emotions, sometimes difficult to express for those who suffer from complex family situations.Natalie Fernández

A 'little train' of joy in the Casita de los Picaflores.

The way children participate in this psychological center improves their mood and state of mind.Natalie Fernández

The 'SandPlay', combined with the Andean worldview, makes the emotions of the children who come to the center come to light.

Natalie Fernandez

Choosing the miniatures with which to create an arena scene is a difficult process.

Most doubt, change, move forward and back, since the final choice is crucial.Natalie Fernández

Death for the children of Urquillos is not something so strange.

They process it and understand it.

In this area of ​​Peru, the Day of the Dead is also the day of the living.Natalie Fernández

Giselle Silva, the director of the Casita de los Picaflores, plays with the sand of the 'SandPlay'.

"The mere fact of feeling it in her hands is part of the game," she explains. Natalie Fernández

The 'munay' (love in Quechua) is part of the philosophy of life of the peoples of the Sacred Valley and that the psychological center has incorporated into its methodology.

In the image, you can see the word written on the right side of the wall.Natalie Fernández

The figurines that are used in the 'SandPlay' of the Little House of the Hummingbirds represent animals, plants and constructions typical of the area.

In such a way that the children who attend the workshops of the center do not feel strange when telling their experiences through these objects.

Natalie Fernandez

Animals are a fundamental part of the experience of children who come to the Casita de los Picaflores.

They are part of the family, of the daily experience and life of the entire town.Natalie Fernández

In Urquillos, as in other communities, there are cases of family violence and child abuse.

But, until the installation of the Casita de los Picaflores, the neighbors did not know that there was the possibility of receiving therapy to improve mental health.

Natalie Fernandez

Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health, eight out of 10 Peruvians who need mental health care do not receive it, according to data from the Ombudsman's Office.

The Cusco region, where Urquillos is located, lacks an updated Regional Mental Health Plan.

Natalie Fernandez

The center also cares for adult patients, but above all it conducts workshops with children and adolescents every week using the 'SandPlay'.

In 2022, he worked with 61 children between the ages of 3 and 12.Natalie Fernández

Dreaming, imagining, feeling and even imaginary flying can be part of healing.

Alexander, a very fragile child, did it imagining that he was an eagle.Natalie Fernández

A chest that is used to create scenes using 'SandPlay'.

Inside it, the emotions that are shared are stored with affection.Natalie Fernández

A child touches a triangle to indicate that one of the sessions has ended.

The participation of the little ones is essential for the experience to be shared.Natalie Fernández

La Casita de los Picaflores was founded in Urquillos in 2022. Both children, parents and the authorities have discovered the benefits of having a space where mental health is cared for.

Natalie Fernandez

Throughout the country, despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health, eight out of 10 people who need attention for their mental health do not receive it, according to data from the Ombudsman's Office.

The Cusco region, where Urquillos is located, lacks an updated Regional Mental Health Plan.

Hence, the Little House of the Picaflores fulfills the modest, but crucial, role of acting in this area where alcoholism, intrafamily violence and child abuse are frequent.

And it does so through the

sand game.

This technique, created by the Swiss psychologist Dora M. Kalff (a disciple of Carl Gustav Jung) in the 1950s, consists of recreating deep emotions on sand trays using the hands and creating scenarios with dolls and other figures.

Silva, as director, has launched it in this bilingual town (Quechua and Spanish are spoken), with which she manages to bring the humanity —sometimes troubled, sometimes joyful— of the little ones to light.

Natalie Fernandez

In Urquillos, the team of psychologists has incorporated ingredients from the Andean worldview into the methodology.

Among the miniatures that children (or adults) can choose to create their

, there are condors, rural houses and llamas.

Luana Cusi Huamán, an eight-year-old girl, whose gaze expresses tenderness, chooses to place a

over a stream on the sand, similar to the one that passes through the community, and near it, a condor.

Other children who come to the place, Manuel Pfari and Moisés Vargas, choose to sow the sand with plants and flowers like those seen in the Andean fields.

For Silva, this way of developing his profession tries to achieve "a dialogue where the heart is placed in the center."

For this reason, the name of his center refers to the hummingbird or hummingbird (

in Quechua) which means the courage to undertake a journey, to revive, to open the heart, which he considers dimensions of the psychological recovery process.

A process that, in his opinion, must take into account the ecological and family environment of the human being.

“Strengthening cultural identity is a central aspect of our community psychological approach,” he explains.

Sometimes the hands know how to solve a dilemma with which the intellect has struggled in vain.

Carl Jung, psychoanalyst

The center also cares for adult patients, but above all it conducts workshops with children and adolescents every week using the SandPlay.

In 2022, it worked with 61 children between the ages of 3 and 12.

Some three dozen adults also sought care.

The most frequent pictures they present are depression, anxiety and psychological injuries caused by abuse, the psychologists list.

“Many people did not even know that psychological help existed.

They were surprised and realized that it helped them”, says Silva.

Ernesto Vargas, president of the Urquillos community, who welcomed the project in the community, thanks him in Quechua:

Or what is the same:

We are happy with the Casita de los Picaflores”.

Jung said that "sometimes the hands know how to solve a dilemma with which the intellect has struggled in vain."

That seems to happen on this workshop day in which, despite being between 3 and 12 years old, the children are not afraid to remember those who left.

They do not remember them only by putting little angels or little houses.

One of them has placed a skull, a cross and a coffin on the sand.

As if from a young age he knew that life is short.

"That familiarity with death is part of daily life in these lands," Silva specifies.

One of the children at the center chooses figures to place on the sand.Natalie Fernández

Under the mantle of the

munay

In these Andean parts, it is not uncommon for people to die when they fall from a house when they are putting some tiles, in a road accident or drowning in a river.

And that is why in this community the Day of the Dead and the Living is felt in a different way.

A custom is to serve the food that the deceased liked in the houses on November 1st.

The next day, the delicacies are still there and the relatives eat them.

“Although it no longer has a flavor, because the flavor was taken away by the deceased,” says Rebeca Quispe, the team's psychologist.

Both she and her five companions are from different parts of Cusco.

Silva met her by chance and offered to pass on her knowledge about the new psychological technique that she was interested in applying in this community.

Quispe asked her if she could bring some colleagues, and the following week eight psychologists arrived, attracted by the possibility of offering mental health to rural and vulnerable populations.

In the Little Hummingbird House, the 'munay', which means love in Quechua, is the basis of all relationships and social interactions

Everything is done under the cloak of

, a Quechua term, the native language, which means love in its broadest sense and is one of the principles of the Andean worldview and coexistence among equals.

It supposes reciprocity, it is the basis of all social relations and must be present in all interaction.

This word is painted on one of the walls of the Casita de los Picaflores, which is reached on foot along a dirt road flanked by trees.

Children, parents and authorities know that without

there is no unity or healing.

For Alexander Gutiérrez, a child with a fragile and helpless air, victim of child abuse, this philosophy and

have helped him.

Now he smiles and puts his sorrow aside a little.

In this place he feels “free and happy”.

He has even built himself an eagle suit, with which he seems to want to be reborn and fly high.

Outside and inside, up and down

Likewise, there are three kingdoms at different levels, but they are not separated: the

(the world above), the

(the world of living beings) and the

(the world below).

In the first are the gods, or animals, like the majestic condor;

in the middle, humans and land animals, such as the puma;

below, according to some, the demons, the snakes, but other versions maintain that there are also the seeds, the babies, the possibilities that something will flourish.

However, it is not something binary, since the worlds play with each other.

For this reason, the Day of the Dead and the Living is also a party, and the little ones see the end of life with a certain naturalness.

An eight-year-old boy has the ability to understand —after building a little house with a cemetery in the sand— that her aunt is no longer here, but that he will meet her again at the Hanan

.

Natalie Fernandez

In this bustle, which navigates between Andean tradition and the emotions that

brings out , children learn to understand pieces of their brief life and see possibilities for the future.

"Our work has an intercultural, ecosystemic perspective and integrates knowledge from psychology, psychoanalysis, education, anthropology and the expressive arts," says Silva.

And that heals wounds, provides other routes from one's own worldview.

Life has changed a bit for Alexander, for Moisés, for Luana, for his own parents, in this small town in Cusco, where the Andean light seems to shed some hope.

At a time of great social upheaval in Peru, Silva suggests, "we promote a meeting between Peruvians."

In the Little House of the Picaflores there is a peace that is not breathed in other cities and towns of this country, loaded with wounds, disagreements and lack of

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