Sandtray is a type of play therapy. It was first used in 1928 by Margaret Lowenfield[1], a pediatric medical doctor who wondered how boys, aged 10-14, had been able to heal their war trauma. She realized that children did not have the language to describe their experiences and thought perhaps using objects to communicate might be a better way to understand them. She filled her office with small toys and instructed the children “to make a world” (referred to as “the World Technique”) in a specially constructed sandtray. This technique is still a standard approach today.  Charlotte Buhler, a child development researcher, was another important figure in the development of this type of therapy. She completed research, the first in 1951, in several countries, and her findings were that there were noticeable differences in sandtray worlds built by children who were traumatized and those who had more usual developmental experiences.

[1]Homeyer, L. & Lyles, M. Advanced Sandtray Therapy: Digging Deeper into Clinical Practice (2022). The information on the development of sandtray therapy is summarized from this text and can be found on pages 4-9. For clarification, this blog describes Sandtray therapy only. Another researcher, Dora Kalff, introduced symbolic and archetypal elements to this work via a Jungian perspective. She called her practice Sandplay, also sometimes referred to more specifically as Kalffian Sandplay Therapy.

Play therapists use miniatures (small toy like figures and objects, greenery and structures) so that a child can build “scenes” in the sand.  In this way, they don’t have to tell their story—they can show it. This is particularly important for trauma therapy.

Sandtray work is effective for several reasons. The sand tray itself is a physical and emotional boundary. It is a literal containment of the story, especially important if it is a disturbing story. The story can stay in the tray, in the playroom. The experience of touching the sand and the objects grounds the person in the present. While the story may have reminders of a scary experience from the past, the story creator is reminded where they are now, in the present, by the active involvement with the sand and the miniatures.  Using miniatures as a “stand in” for themselves or others in their life creates distance from the story, and distance creates safety. As well, the person is in control of the story and can allow or not allow anyone in the sandtray. They can also incorporate a fierce defender into the story, where there was no defender before.

Consciously and subconsciously the person (child, youth or adult) will pick and place the miniatures in a way which suits them. This can represent and reveal their inner preoccupations and wounds. At times, they will create what we refer to as a “marketplace sandtray” that is, one that concretely and literally illustrates an experience (quadding at grandpa’s farm). Even that can be instructive—it shows the therapist a slice of life, or someone or something that matters. The therapist can be curious about why the child, in this case, chose to illustrate that event.

Sandtray therapists consider the overall “feel” or impression of the sandtray and ask questions; we don’t assume meaning. What emotion does it inspire? Is it lovely, peaceful, chaotic, sparse, crowded, scary? Are there different parts? Who or what is fenced off or blocked? Who is in the tray and who is not? Which figures are together? Are they looking a certain way? How do the miniatures feel? Scared, safe, happy, mad? This discussion supports the sandtray creator in making connections to their own lives and helps the therapist understand the sandtray. We make meaning of the story together.

Sandtrays evolve. When I see someone over a period of time and we complete several different sandtrays, the elements and issues often change. Some things are resolved. For example, a person who had nightmares about bats, but contained the bats (in jail) in the sandtray, may have the bats “leave” the story in a later sandtray. When asked, the person will say “I don’t care about bats anymore”.

Whether you are an adult, youth, or a parent considering therapy for your child, I encourage you to consider sandtray therapy. Sometimes, it is healing in a way that seems nothing less than magical.