Sandtray Therapy in the Playroom – Part 1

Sandtray therapy is effectively used in the playroom. Sandtray therapy is kinetic and it eliminates need to verbalize. It is very helpful in case of trauma because verbalizing traumatic events can re-traumatize the client. Sand tray becomes an instrument to express and resolve the intense feelings surrounding trauma. Sand play comes naturally to the children. It is inviting by nature, sensory and tactile.  Playing in the sand is a unique therapeutic experience for a child or an adult.

Sandtray miniatures need to represent all aspects of real life. They should also facilitate imagination of a child. 

Typical sandtray miniatures include:

 Landscape items – trees, rocks, marbles, flowers, crops

People- boy, girls, mom-dad, couple, doctor, nurse, firefighters, army men

*People should represent various ethnicities

Action figures – Ninjas, super-heroes, villains, power rangers etc.

Buildings- huts, small houses, tall building, mansions, school, hospital, bridges,

Animals – wild animals (tiger, lion, elephant, dinosaurs), pets (horses, cat, dog, fish), Water animal (fish, shark, whale, dolphin, turtle), birds, farm animals (chickens, goats, pigs)

Holiday miniatures- Santa Claus, witch, ghost, Easter eggs, menorah, candles etc.

*Keep in mind multicultural holidays

Animated miniatures- Disney movie related- Gene- Aladdin, the Incredibles family, the Mermaid, the Snow white, etc.

Vehicles- Cars, trucks, boats, airplane, helicopter

Benefits of sandtray therapy:

1. Sandtray therapy provides a safe medium for expressing non-verbalized emotional issues. If play is the language of childhood (and of anyone who is unable or unwilling to verbalize), then the miniatures are the words.

2. Sandtray therapy has a unique kinesthetic quality providing for the need of a sensory experience for clients in distress or crisis.

3. Sandtray therapy serves to create a necessary therapeutic distance for clients as they experience emotional release through symbolization and sublimation through projection onto the tray and miniatures.

4. Sandtray therapy naturally provides boundaries and limits, which promotes safety for clients. Even though these boundaries are intentional, they promote freedom for expression.

5. Sandtray therapy provides a unique setting for the emergence of therapeutic metaphors, the most powerful of which are created by the client and interpreted solely by the client as well.

6. Sandtray therapy, because of its non-threatening and engaging qualities, can captivate the involuntary or uninterested child or adult due to the fact that sandtray therapy provides a means of communicating which diverts the fear of verbal conflict.

7. Sandtray therapy provides a needed and effective communication medium for the person with poor verbal skills.

8. Sandtray therapy cuts through verbalization used as a defense mechanism. 

9. Sandtray therapy creates a place for the child, adolescent, or adult to experience control as opposed to the loss of emotional, psychological or even physiological control. 

10. Deeper intrapsychic issues may be accessed more thoroughly and more rapidly through sandtray therapy.

Source:Homeyer, L.E., & Sweeney, D.S. (1998). Sandtray: A practical manual

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This is a very brief introduction of the sandtray therapy.

 For more information please visit-

http://www.junginla.org/education/what_is_sandplay

Or read

Sandtray: A Practical Manual by Daniel Sweeney and Linda Homeyer