Therapeutic Play
Playing can be very therapeutic for children struggling with life experiences. Getting away from a difficult situation or giving a child the opportunity to process the scenario that’s been difficult by acting it out in play will support a child’s mental development and health. If your child is stressed or acting out their trauma in play, don’t try to fix it or guide it in a certain direction, let them play it out. Eventually they will master or resolve the issue on their own through play. During play therapy, the clinician will provide exploratory play and guide the child into in-acting and solve the problem or just simply act it out.
Sandplay Therapy
Sandplay therapy is a nonverbal, therapeutic intervention that makes use of a sandbox, toy figures, and sometimes water, to create scenes of miniature worlds that reflect a person’s inner thoughts, struggles, and concerns. This form of play therapy is practiced along with talk therapy, using the sandbox and figures as communication tools.
When It’s Used
Sandplay therapy is often used with those who have suffered some form of trauma, neglect, or abuse. Although sandplay is especially well suited for working with young children, who often cannot express their inner feelings in words, it is also a technique that is helpful for some teens and adults who are having trouble expressing themselves and who may have suffered some form of severe trauma.
What to Expect
Sandplay therapy takes place in box-like containers referred to as sand trays. The trays are filled with sand that clients use, along with miniature toys, to create a play world that reflects some aspect of real people and real experiences in their own lives. The client chooses from a large collection of toys and builds a small “world” in the tray that reflects what is going on in their lives. The therapist observes the choice and arrangement of toys without interruption, allowing the person to find answers within themselves. After sandplay is completed, the client and therapist analyze and discuss the client’s toy choices, their arrangement pattern in the sand, and their symbolic or metaphoric meanings. Upon discussion, the client often chooses to make changes to the world they have created in sand. Sandplay therapy may consist of a single session or last as long as several years.
How It Works
Sandplay therapy was developed in the late 1950s by psychologist Dora Kalff, who combined several techniques and philosophies to come up with her own therapeutic approach. Kalff learned what became known as the World Technique from pediatrician and child psychologist Margaret Lowenfeld, who developed the original sand-tray intervention. Kalff incorporated the use of sand trays into her own form of therapy, which was based on her Jungian training and Eastern philosophical beliefs. With the help of sand trays, clients, guided by the therapist, begins to understand the connection between the world they created in sand and their own inner world. By making changes in their make-believe world, clients are often empowered to make similar changes in their real world. Today, some therapists and counselors choose to modify Kalff’s parameters for sandplay and incorporate a similar technique into their own therapeutic process.
References
- Sandplay Therapists of America website.Accessed April 14, 2017.
- International Society for Sandplay Therapy. website. Accessed April 14, 2017.
- Bradway K. What Is Sandplay? Journal of Sandplay Therapy. 2006;15(2):7
- Southwestern College and New Earth Institute website. Sandplay Therapy at SWC. Accessed April 14, 2017.