Sandtray Therapy for Trauma in Children and Teens: 5 Reasons Play Therapists Should Use It

4/24/2024

Last Updated: March 27, 2026

Why Trauma Work is Essential in Play Therapy

If you work with kids, you absolutely work with trauma.

Trauma comes in all forms and can have profound impacts on a child’s wellbeing, sense of self, relationships, connection with the world, and everyday functioning. So, it’s no surprise that most therapists are looking for ways to heal trauma with the therapeutic powers of play!

And at the same time, you are likely asking yourself - is this too fast? Too much? Is the child ready for this kind of work? Am I pushing them too far?

Many trauma therapies for children and teens are highly structured, like TF-CBT, while others, like EMDR, offer more flexibility (my favorite!). Pairing trauma-informed approaches with play therapy techniques can provide powerful, age-appropriate interventions. One of my favorite modalities for this is sandtray therapy.

Why I Love Using Sandtray for Trauma

Sandtray therapy is not just a fun activity (even though this is one of the most requested interventions in my playroom) —it’s a powerful therapeutic tool that allows children to express, process, and organize complex emotional experiences safely.

Sandtray is also a clinical tool that can be adapted to fit your specific theory and modality of practice - which is one of the reasons that my tray gets opened in EMDR sessions, Child Centered Play Therapy sessions, and Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy sessions.

RELATED RESOURCE: Check out more about the neuroscience behind the effectiveness of sandtray therapy.

5 Benefits Of Sandtray Therapy for Trauma

Here’s why sandtray therapy is so effective with kids and teens experiencing trauma:

1. Non-Verbal Expression

Some children may not be ready to talk about their trauma. With a sand tray, they can communicate without words. Even if you ask some processing questions (aligned with your theory), clients aren't required to share verbally to make this intervention therapeutically powerful. Some of the most powerful sessions? They can happen without any words at all. This makes sandtray therapy especially powerful for children who are avoidant, dysregulated, overwhelmed, or aren’t yet ready to put words to their experience.

2. Projecting Subconscious Material

Sandtray allows kids to externalize thoughts, feelings, and experiences they might not consciously recognize. Even if a child isn’t ready to speak about the trauma, the tray often reveals underlying emotions and themes in a safe, contained way. An extra benefit? Some traumatic experiences take place preverbally - this is typically referred to as the years of birth to three (and sometimes even in utero). A child will never have concrete language or understanding of these experiences because they are implicitly stored in their body.

The power of the tray? It can allow children to express these implicit experiences and preverbal trauma!

3. Containment and Safety

The four walls of a sand tray act as a boundary, allowing traumatic material to be contained. Miniatures, boxes, or fences in the tray can further contain overwhelming experiences, giving children a safe space to explore difficult emotions without becoming dysregulated. Containment can also happen with tray depth by allowing clients to bury objects or materials. Additionally deeper levels of containment can be achieved by putting a lid on or covering part of the tray.

4. Creating Distance from Trauma

Sandtray provides natural distance between the child and the traumatic material. By creating the world with miniatures in the tray allows for space between the trauma and the self. If a tray becomes intense, it’s easy to pause, step back, observe from a distance.

5. Empowerment and Control

Children have full autonomy over their sandtray world. They choose how to organize their miniatures, what resources to include, and how to resolve challenges. This sense of agency supports resilience and promotes healing.

Practical Tips for Using Sandtray in Trauma Work

Before integrating sandtray into your trauma work make sure you have a solid foundation of theory and a foundational training in sandtray
Make sure you have a wide variety of miniatures to help clients effectively represent themselves, traumatic materials, and resources and resilience
If your foundational trauma training did not cover dissociation or post traumatic play - get additional training so you can recognize these dynamics and intervene appropriately
Use small trays for children who feel overwhelmed by a larger tray
Consider dual trays for comparing “then vs. now” or time orientation

Ready to Get Trained in Sandtray Therapy?

Having the tools is one thing, knowing how to use them therapeutically is what creates real transformation.

My online course, Creating Worlds: An Introduction to Sandtray Play Therapy, walks you step-by-step through:

Setting up your sandtray without overwhelm
Using prompts vs. staying non-directive
Interpreting themes in client trays
Adapting sandtray for children, teens, and families

Whether you’re new to sandtray or want to integrate it with trauma-informed play therapy and EMDR, this course is your roadmap to confidence and effectiveness in the playroom.

Click HERE to start your training today and bring the transformative power of sandtray to your trauma work.