Sandplay Therapy

What is Sandplay Therapy?

Sandplay therapy creates a safe space for clients to manifest their experiences and thoughts in a 3D world of imagination.

During therapy, clients use a sandbox to build a “world” with sand, water and small objects of their choosing. The sandbox becomes a safe space for clients to reflect their innermost experiences and thoughts together with a therapist who is trained in this modality, a client can play and explore their world in an unstructured way, encouraging new ideas, thoughts and emotions to emerge. Every therapy session concludes with a discussion and analysis of the Sandplay world choices, symbolism and metaphoric meanings.

Sandplay was first developed by Margaret Lowenfeld, a British pediatrician in the early 1900s and was originally called “World Technique” or “Worldplay”. It was developed further by Dora Kalff in the late 1950s who incorporated Sandplay into her own therapeutic process informed by Jungian psychology. Underpinning this therapeutic intervention today is the view that symbolic play can be a powerful communication tool for uncovering and working through a person’s inner experiences.

The Goals of Sandplay Therapy

• Support clients with the externalization of problems around

  • Trauma

  • Attachment

  • Family Conflict

  • Mood Disorders

  • Identity

  • Grief and Loss

• Support emotional release and increase self-awareness and self-expression

• Encourage the exploration of various options and outcomes

• Help clients realize that problems can be outside of themselves and something that they can be empowered to address

• Help clients push past resistance or stagnation

• Promote healing and integration

Who Can Benefit from Sandplay Therapy?

Sandplay therapy is commonly used with children but teens, young adults and adults can greatly benefit from this more expressive approach. It is particularly effective with individuals who have struggled to open up or communicate effectively in traditional talk therapy.

Sandplay therapy can help clients who may struggle with:

• Trauma or PTSD - Sandplay therapy can help clients create a “container” for their trauma or psychological work, making it more manageable to address

• Feeling stagnant or “stuck” in the therapeutic process or for clients who struggle with intellectualization

• Feel limited by talk therapy and are drawn to play or sensorial experiences as a form of expression

Sandplay Therapy for Young Adults at The Dorm

We are thrilled to be able to offer Sandplay therapy along with our other therapeutic modalities to help support clients in their work. This treatment modality can be used on its own as the main modality of therapy or in conjunction with other therapy (such as EMDR) as a single session or a series of sessions.

Sandplay Therapy | New York City

We currently only provide Sandtray therapy as a treatment modality at our New York City location.