Sandtray Therapy Ashley Adams, BSN, RN Saint Louis University Nursing 5510- Mental Health of the Family in Primary Care

1. Sandtray TherapyAshley Adams, BSN, RN
Saint Louis University
Nursing 5510-Mental Health of the Family in Primary Care
Krugel, M. (2017). Sand tray therapy. Retrieved from http://meredithkrugellcsw.com/sand-tray-therapy/

2. History of Sandtray Therapy
 Margaret Lowenfeld
• British pediatrician, the first to use sandtray as therapeutic technique
• Developed World Technique in 1930s
• Influenced by H.G. Wells’ Floorgames (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)
 Dora Kalff
• Studied under Lowenfeld
• Incorporated Jungian theory and World Technique into sand play in 1950s (Bertenthal-
Smith, 2015)

3. What is Sandtray Therapy?
 Counseling technique for all ages; facilitates healing, personal growth, and
creativity (Klee, 2017)
 Often used in conjunction with verbal therapy (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)
 Standard tray is rectangular; 30 in x 20 in and 3 in deep (Bertenthal-Smith,
2015)
 Specifically proportioned sandtray with blue interior to represent water and
sky
 Fill with colored sand, play sand, corn meal, or rice (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)
 A minimum of 300 miniature figures available for clients to create a scene
(Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)
 Miniature figures in form of humans, animals, buildings, vehicles, vegetation,
fences, signs, etc.
• Represents all aspects of life

4. How to Create a Sandtray
 Provide sandtray to to patient with access to all miniatures
 Instruct patient to place miniatures where they would like in the tray, taking as
much time as they need- non-directive method (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)
 For those feeling overwhelmed, give them specific suggestion of scene to create-
directive method; example: create a world showing how they feel when a
specific event in their life occurs (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)
 Assure patient that creativity is not necessary for this (Klee, 2017)
 Patient to let therapist know when they are finished creating their world
 Discuss their created world when complete

5. Role of Therapist
 Know your client
 Observe their creation process
• How they interact with miniatures
• Their method of creating/rearranging- intensity, organization
 Observe layout when complete (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015) and interpret meaning
• Empty world
• Unpeopled World
• Aggressive world
• Disorganized world
 Discuss their created world when they are finished (Klee, 2017), some examples:
• “Tell me about your sandtray”
• “How does your experience in the sand relate to your life?”
• “What title would you give your tray?”

6. Benefits of Sandtray Therapy
 Patients are able to express thoughts and feelings through actions in addition
to words
 Can be helpful with children since they often cannot verbalize thoughts and
feelings (Klee, 2017)
 Used along with verbal therapy in adults, can create a sort of “waking dream”
(Klee, 2017)
 Can be helpful with family or couple’s therapy (Klee, 2017)
• Families seeking therapy often struggle with communication, sandtray therapy is a
safe, non-threatening solution to encouraging communication between members
(Isom et al., 2015)
• Inclusive for family members of all ages, common communication method to create
strong family foundation (Isom et al., 2015)
 Useful with resistant or trauma patients (Bertenthal-Smith, 2015)

7. Examples of Uses for Sandtray Therapy
 The Sandtray for Interpreting Childhood Dreams (SICD) Intervention (Swan &
Schottelkorb, 2013)
• Merged humanistic sandtray model with dream work therapy to help children
explore thoughts and feelings related to dreams and how these may relate to life-
events
• Four phases: Precreation, Creation, Dream Processing, Postprocessing
• Precreation Phase: Meditation with later focus on child’s dream
• Creation: Recreate dream in sandtray
• Dream Processing: Child explains scene, reflecting thoughts, desires, feelings
• Postprocessing: Child creates title for scene that encompasses meaning of dream;
may help child remember meaning of dream

8. Examples of Uses for Sandtray Therapy
(cont.)
 Use of Sandtray Therapy with Adoptive Families (Lyles & Homeyer, 2014)
• Sandtray therapy useful whole-family intervention, trauma-informed, and
relationally safe for attachment work
• All family members can participate in creations
• Helps children explore emotions and feelings about memories from early
life/traumatic events
• Helps children explore their beliefs on how they must behave in order to belong
• Assists children in gaining self-awareness of out-dated self-concept and trust-based
fears; helps in assigning new meanings to perceptions of new, safe relationships
• Can assist adoptive parents with secure bonding while addressing history of early
life trauma
• Establishes clinician as trusted and safe base for adopted children

9. References
 Bertenthal-Smith,J. (2015). A brief introduction to sandtray therapy. Retrieved
from
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.amhca.org/resource/collection/B585DAE0-
5054-4099-B973-9EE1F0B7D69B/Sand_tray_Presentation1.pdf
 Isom, E.E., Groves-Radomski, J., & McConaha, M.M. (2015). Sandtray therapy:
a familial approach to healing through imagination. Journal of Creativity in
Mental Health, 10, 339-350. doi:10.1080/15401383.2014.983254
 Klee,M.R. (2017). Playing in the sand:what is sand tray therapy and how can it
help? Retrieved from http://www.counselingpcc.com/articles/klee-
sandtray.htm
 Krugel, M. (2017). Sand tray therapy. Retrieved from
http://meredithkrugellcsw.com/sand-tray-therapy
 Lyles, M, & Homeyer, L.E. (2015). The use of sandtray therapy with adoptive
families. Adoption Quarterly, 18(1), 67-80. doi:10.1080/10926755.2014.945704
 Swan, K.L., & Schottelkorb, A.A. (2013). Interpreting children’s dreams through
humanistic sandtray therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 22, 119-
128. doi:10.1037/a0033389