The powers of Sand Tray Therapy

kmorrowcounseling
Aug 13
3 min read

Most people have heard of Sand Tray Therapy but very few know how this unique approach works. Sand Tray Therapy taps into a person’s creative processes to express themselves, specific situations, conflicts, fantasies, and countless other aspects of their reality through the use of figurines and miniatures in a tray of sand. Essentially, the send serves as a blank canvas for people to express themselves. It is for people of all ages, young to old, and even works for couples, families, and groups.

There is no need for words in creating a Sand Tray, which is important because some things are beyond words. For Trauma survivors, for example, words cannot convey the deep pain or fear they feel because the Broca’s area in the frontal lobe of the brain, where speech is produced, was deactivated during the trauma event. Pre-verbal experiences and implicit or non-conscious memories can be uncovered in Sand Tray Therapy as well. Counseling often attempts to bring past experiences to light because core beliefs, imbedded in early life, drive current behaviors and patterns in a person’s life. In Sand Tray, the unconscious can become conscious. The right hemisphere of the brain, where creativity is activated, is also where trauma is initially processed and stored. In fact, all emotions are mostly processed in the right hemisphere. By utilizing the right side of the brain in creating a Sand Tray, clients are able to process their emotions and then achieve closure or insight by sharing it with a trained, non-judgmental therapist. The sharing and therapeutic process incorporates the left hemisphere of the brain which is responsible for logic. This integration is how troubling emotions are fully processed, contextualized, and put in the past. This is the healing power of Sand Tray Therapy. It is a unique approach that can help clients explore feelings and situations (past, present and future), find meaning in their experiences, and possibly discover solutions or new perspectives.

Some common experiences and reflections by clients are:

It’s enjoyable and relaxing. Working in the sand is a soothing activity and it is fun choosing, placing, arranging, and even playing with the miniatures in the tray.

It’s helpful. Playing out your life with the miniatures helps make connections you can’t always make when you are in your “left brain”. Allowing yourself to feel things you have been suppressing or denying is freeing.

It’s powerful. Being able to “make things happen” the way you want gives you a sense of agency and control you don’t always get in “real” life. It’s a feeling that can stay with you even after you leave. It’s an experience that can build confidence about a decision you have been trying to make.

It brings relief. Sometimes just sharing your tray with a completely impartial, non-judgmental therapist in a safe setting brings tremendous relief to you if you have been keeping something inside. The beauty is that the therapist does not even have to understand the tray for this to work because it’s the process of self-disclosure through objects that is enough.

It brings a sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction. In the Sand Tray, there is no “right” or “wrong”. It feels good to accomplish a goal or bring thoughts to life in the Tray.

Research has supported that Sand Tray promotes:

Self-Regulation (behavior)

Emotional Regulation

Time Management

Relational Tolerance

Increased Self- Esteem

Independent thinking

Integration of Parts of Self

Trauma, grief, anger processing

Closure/acceptance

Willingness

Exploration and open mindedness

While anything at all can be created in a sand tray, some common themes are: good guy vs. bad guy, aggression, death, loss, power, seeking, separation, betrayal, addiction, nurturing, self-nurturing, failed nurturing, abuse, burying and drowning, fixing, breaking, bridge building, instability, cleaning, sorting, safety and containment, rescue, inadequacy, love and desire, escape, exploration, mastery and success, fantasy, & sexualized behaviors and curiosity.

Below are some sand trays I created as a sampling of what a person might create to depict a situation, conflict, or experience. The first three are examples of a child tray and the subsequent four are adult trays.

1. School anxiety 2. Parental separation 3. Coping with the school bully