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An Introduction to Sandtray Therapy
Making the implicit, explicit through play
Imagine a bookshelf in your therapist’s office, filled not with books, but with small figures of every possible description: human figures of all different kinds; everyday man-made objects such as cars, houses, and household items; animals of every kind, including insects, dinosaurs, mythical figures; and natural objects of every kind, trees, plants, cotton for clouds and fog, sticks, and shells.
In front of you is a large blue plastic tray, 2' x 3', filled with about 3 inches of white gypsum sand. Using any of the objects, you are invited to create a world of your choosing in the sand. You may build a world representing some problem about which you may feel stuck, a world representing your entire life, or a world that may not have any conscious association for you. As you scan the multitude of objects to choose from, you are encouraged to not only choose objects but to allow objects to choose you, the overarching spirit of the exercise being one of play. You can also sculpt and part the sand, allowing the blue plastic of the tray to represent bodies of water if you wish. After constructing your world, your therapist helps you explore what it means to you.
Below are four photographs of one completed sand tray from a client I will call Darin.
