Play Therapy Class Sandtray Therapy

(Mercer Play Therapy Student)

My reason for taking this play therapy / sand tray therapy class was very simple. Since I have been interning at Peachford Hospital, I have had to opportunity to work with children and adolescents.

I have found that some kids don’t really like talking about the things that they are having problems with, so therefore traditional talk therapy isn’t as effective for this group.

My hope is that I will uncover some ideas on how to get kids to feel safe and open up about their issues. I think that Play Therapy will teach me many useful things to explore with the children and adolescents that I come in contact with.

Before this class, I did not know much about sand tray. The first night of class, Dr Stangline spoke of it many times, and a couple of students seemed to know what she was talking.

Dr. Stangline explained sand tray and honestly, I didn’t get it. I did not understand how this would help with therapy for children. We even did a demonstration in class, and I still was very uncertain about this tool.

Our homework assignment was to build our very own sand tray. I was very nervous about this. I didn’t know what I wanted my sand tray to reveal and I didn’t think that it would be significant enough to share.

One of my reasons for feeling this way is that, I didn’t have any miniatures that “choose me”. I didn’t have any miniatures that held any special meanings for me. I felt as if I was just picking items to put in a box full of sand.

After viewing the video, I got a better understanding of the concept. I understand it to be that the miniatures don’t have to have meaning on their own, but you put the meaning on the miniature.

In my sandbox, I have two blue birds sitting on and around pine cones. The two birds represent my husband and me. To our right and our left, we are surrounded by family.

The army men, soldiers, policemen represent our families. I surrounded us with family because our family is extremely supportive to us. They are there protective as well.

In the front of us, there are snakes and frogs, all things that I do not like, and have a fear of. They represent the fears in my life such as uncertainty of jobs, fear of failure, and my weight issues.

All things that are very much present in my life and are in front of me. The position that I am in my life, I have a lot of protection and help to face these things and I am slowly doing that.

See More Therapy Ideas Below:

How to Use The Sand Tray for Sand Tray Therapy Link:

More Ideas on Sand Tray Therapy


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