How To Set Up The First Sandtray Session

In my last blog I wrote about Sandtray Therapy (http://www.ccpa-accp.ca/blog/?p=4171) and how I find it is such a wonderful therapeutic technique to help heal traumatic events and related mental health issues. I sometimes hear therapists that are new to using Sandtray say that clients look at a tray of sand and tiny figures and feel the idea of playing in the sand is “weird” or childish. So I wanted to outline what a Sandtray session looks like and present tips on how to present it to clients.

For those of you who know little about Sandtray Therapy, Picture it…you walk into a room that has two comfortable chairs and a small table between them. On that small table is a tray or large bowl with sand in it. On a nearby table or placed on shelves are hundreds of tiny figures. These figures are a combination of everyday items that are miniscule ex. A house, chairs, animals…these figures also include mythical ones ex. mermaids and unicorns…and small sculptures that are more abstract. Some of these figures will fascinate you and some will feel odd or meaningless.

Continue reading →

My work as a therapist has included working with clients that are present with abuse histories, and often complex trauma. I find this can take years to heal and is hard emotionally and spiritually on both the client and the psychotherapist. So enter my training in Sandtray therapy!

Sandplay is a wonderful technique that taps into the unconscious to access deep emotions and experiences that can then be healed in a gentle way.  What I love about this technique is that the natural healing centre chooses unconsciously what and how deeply a person needs to heal something, sometimes surprising them. It can be used in a single session or every session until a person has met their goals.  It is great if a client has expressed feeling “stuck”.  It is also a way to connect with the elements and heal without talk as the central modality.

Using figures of a person’s choosing and the arrangement of the sand in the tray, your client becomes the “world builder,” and watches whatever reveals itself.  It can be transformational helping to process grief, past hurts or help to identify and process what is causing or maintaining depressive and other mental health symptoms, enabling recovery. It provides the possibility, to set up a world corresponding to the clients’ inner emotional state. Through free, creative play, unconscious processes are made visible in visual form.

Continue reading →