Mandala Therapy

You can focus on something complex that won’t allow your brain room to drift back to your problem, or you can choose something more soothing to give yourself a break. Mandalas are perfect, being intricate enough not to be wholly mindless but repetitive enough that you can zone out a little and recharge. Mandalas use many repeated shapes and patterns, drawing or coloring one is a very repetitive activity. Psychotherapists discovered that using mandalas with kids can help them develop a better understanding of themselves and their experiences. Mandalas are helpful because they give kids an opportunity to explore their thoughts and emotions in a creative, non-threatening way.

Mandala Therapy encourages and directs the making of original circular designs in colour. The circle, the Mandala, as a symbol of self provides a ground of being on which to project symbolic relationships of conscious and unconscious dynamisms. As a projective method of centering and balancing personality, it is a meditative and relaxing procedure that reflects or anticipates stages in ego or self-integration and the individuation process.
Mandala Therapy is universally applicable. As a psychotherapeutic method, it requires the therapist to be educated and trained in Jungian analytical psychology and knowledgeable in the many allied fields of study that contribute to its theoretical basis. It is a useful means of Art Therapy in psychiatric settings, nursing homes, rehabilitation centres, and private practice. Its transpersonal aspect enriches growth-oriented centres and consciousness-raising programs.