What is Sand Tray Therapy?
Have you ever sat on a beach and built a sandcastle complete with tunnels and moat or felt the joy of ocean water running through your fingers? Most of us have a childhood memory in which we were able to create freely using sand or crayons or paint and now perhaps, it has been a long time since we played with that kind of abandon. Play is an essential part of our human repertoire of behavior and the expression of imagination is critical to our psychological health.
Sand Tray is a non-verbal form of psychotherapy that uses miniatures and sand to allow a client to create and express inner images. Sand Tray is predicated on the idea that we have within us an innate tendency to heal and to evolve toward an inner wholeness. This inner growth is encouraged and fostered through the vehicle of our imagination within the context of a safe and protected space.
The sand is placed in a wooden tray that is traditionally 25.5” by 19.5” by 3” deep. The bottom of the tray is painted blue like the ocean and then urethane is applied so that it can hold water. Wet sand allows the client to sculpt and mold his/her world. Then, through the use of miniatures and symbolic play, the client is able to access unconscious material that might otherwise remain hidden. This material often proves vital to the healing process.
The client who can be either an adult or a child or even a couple, is invited to play. They are reminded that there is no right or wrong sand tray and that each tray is unique to the person who creates it. The function of the therapist is to witness the client’s play with loving attention and non-judgment. This attitude allows the child in each of us to feel safe and secure in exploring and expanding our inner world. The sand provides a non-threatening medium for an aesthetic and soulful awakening of an instinctual knowing. Through a healing regression, the client retrieves energy that was previously unavailable to consciousness and, in so doing, moves toward an experience of completion and wholeness.
