How To Start Sandtray Therapy: Training, Tools, and A Complete Guide for Child Therapists

Last Updated: March 4, 2026

What Is Sandtray Therapy?

If you’ve ever asked a child to build a world with miniatures in a box of sand, you’ve glimpsed the absolute magic of sandtray therapy. Also called Sand Therapy, this modality allows clients—children, teens, or even adults—to create scenes in a tray filled with sand (or other sensory materials) using a variety of miniature figures and objects. Each choice, placement, and movement can reveal deep subconscious and emotional experiences and become an invitation for healing.

And Sandtray Therapy? It happens to be one of my most favorite modalities to use with kids and teens. It’s also why you might find tiny grains of sand all over my office. Literally in everything. 

Sandtray is also one of the modalities I often recommend in Play Therapy Consultation and when combining Play Therapy and EMDR.  Why? Because Sandtray Therapy isn’t just “playing around with toys in the sand” and is so much more than gathering miniatures, getting a container of sand, and telling clients to make a world. 

It’s one of the most powerful ways to access thoughts, feelings, and experiences that are often too complex, painful, or overwhelming to express verbally. The process invites clients to externalize internal conflicts, explore relationships, and process trauma in a safe, creative environment.

Sandtray vs. Sandplay: What’s the Difference?

While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there’s a significant distinction in the two modalities. Sandplay is a specific Jungian modality, originating from Dora Kalff, with structured rules, interpretations, and tray size, often tied to analytical psychology.  Sandplay is a non-directive process where the therapist is often a witness, rather than directing or interpreting during creation.

Sandtray Therapy, on the other hand, is more flexible and can be adapted to many therapeutic approaches, including child-centered play therapy, cognitive-behavioral play therapy, Adlerian play therapy, and EMDR with children. With Sandtray therapy there is more flexibility (depending on theory) to use directives or more actively engage in the process. There are also greater levels of flexibility regarding tray size and shape and how interpretation is used. 

The major difference lies in theory and application: the therapeutic approach you bring to the tray—how you observe, process, and discuss the world your client creates—depends on your training and your modality.

Before using sand therapy in your practice, you need to be crystal clear about what modality you are using, your underlying theory, and the specific materials you need. 

Why Every Child Therapist Should Be Trained in Sandtray

Sandtray is more than a sandbox with miniatures—it’s a therapeutic tool that can transform your practice. 

1. Accessing the Subconscious and Unconscious

The choices clients make in the tray often reflect deep, unconscious material. The positioning of figures, what’s included or excluded, and how a scene evolves can reveal profound insights and expressions of the self, perspectives, experiences, and the world. Many therapists, including myself, have seen clients’ trays uncover feelings and experiences that were never verbally expressed or figures that were never intentionally selected —but were crucial to healing. 

The most important part about this? The ability to bypass defenses leads to significantly greater levels of insight, processing, and healing. 

2. Promotes Hemisphere Integration

The brain’s right hemisphere manages emotions and visual-spatial understanding (the pictures and the visuals), while the left handles logic, reasoning, language and problem solving. Sandtray therapy encourages the integration of both hemispheres by translating internal experiences into visual, tactile forms. 
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When clients can actually see a problem or difficulty laid out in the tray often leads to deeper insights and integration that talking alone can’t achieve.

3. A Powerful Tool for Resistant Clients

Some children and teens are reluctant to verbalize emotions or engage in traditional talk therapy. Which is fair, because many kids and teens don’t ask to come to therapy and for some kids talking about the big things, their feelings and behaviors, or trauma is the absolute last thing they want to do. 

Sandtray offers a safe way to express themselves in a way that is externalized from their issues, difficulties, and life. It’s a way for kids and teens to do the deep work without becoming overwhelmed or flooded. Clients can communicate as much or as little as they feel comfortable with, and create worlds about anything they want, making it one of the most effective tools for resistant or non-verbal clients.

4. Makes Therapy More Engaging for Kids and Teens

Therapy doesn’t have to feel like a lecture or like doing homework. Sandtray is naturally engaging, playful, and fun— all qualities that increase participation, processing, and healing. In my practice, Sandtray is one of the most frequently requested interventions - whether it’s part of EMDR, Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy, or Child Centered Play Therapy. 
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And higher engagement? Well that  leads to deeper insight, better retention, and more meaningful growth.

5. Sandtray Can Easily Be Adapted To Your Theory

Think about it this way - Sandtray is a tool that can be added to your clinical toolbox. Sandtray doesn’t require you to learn a whole new theory, way of working with clients, or conceptualizing cases. It can be integrated within your existing clinical theory to deepen your work with clients. 

Is Sandtray Therapy Evidence-Based?

There is a wide body of research that supports the effectiveness of Sand Therapy for children and adults with a wide variety of mental health concerns. It has also been shown to be an appropriate cross cultural intervention.

Studies highlight its ability to help clients articulate emotions, improve coping strategies, reduce trauma symptoms, and engage with therapy in meaningful ways. Combining this with a therapist’s expertise amplifies the impact of traditional talk therapy.
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And some of the most exciting new research? Studies have shown that Sandtray therapy can actually physically change the brain.  One research study showed that the sensory-rich activity in Sandtray may stimulate the thalamus, supporting healthier brain function, which could help reduce anxiety.  Additionally, research has shown that Sand Therapy encourages hemisphere integration.

Do You Need Formal Sandtray Training?

Absolutely. While it may seem simple--grab some sand and miniatures and create a world—the therapeutic power lies in how the tray is facilitated. The space you hold for clients. What you say (if anything at all) and when. 

Without proper training, it’s easy to miss critical insights or fail to guide clients safely. Formal sandtray training equips therapists with techniques for assessment, interpretation, and intervention, ensuring your work is both ethical and effective.

How To Start Using Sandtray In Your Practice

FREE RESOURCE: Ready to bring the power of Sandtray into your therapy room — but not sure where to start? Grab this completely FREE printable guide and get the exact step-by-step roadmap to confidently begin using Sandtray in your practice.

Invest in Sandtray Training:

Look for programs like Creating Worlds: An Introduction to Sandtray Play Therapy to learn the fundamentals and add foundational Sand Therapy textbooks to your library. ​

Assemble Your Sandtray Supplies:

Invest in your materials - a sandtray, sand, and a variety of miniatures suitable for your clients’ developmental needs. Remember - you don’t need to have all the fanciest miniatures or the top of the line tray for you to do meaningful and powerful work in the sand. 

Sand Tray:
First, ask the right questions to find the sand tray that is right for your practice and what size and shape sand tray you will need. Learn why you might need more than one sand tray for your office and check out some of my favorite low cost sand tray options. 

Sometimes if you have a small office or travel between offices or locations you might want to consider a portable Sandtray kit. 

If you use Tele-Play Therapy check out this free online sandtray or consider adapting tele-play sessions to use non-technology based sandtrays. 

Sand: 
Now that you have your tray selected it’s time to pick your sand! And yes, the sand that you pick absolutely matters. Learn more about the therapeutic powers of sand and how you can pick the right sand for your sand tray. 

Find out more about the sand I recommend to use in your Sandtray. And nope, the sand from your local beach probably won’t cut it. 

Miniatures: 
My sandtray miniatures list gives you 1,000+ ideas for low cost diverse miniatures to add to your sandtray collection. If this list seems a little overwhelming - no worries I got you! Start with the top 10 figures that get most used in my Sandtray sessions. 

On a budget? Check out some inspiration for low cost miniatures or learn how you can make your own sand tray miniatures. 

Feeling like you’ll never have enough? Learn why sometimes Sandtrays don’t need any miniatures at all. 

Get Sandtray Experience and Consultation:

Once you have your materials and training it’s time to start using Sandtray with the kids and teens you see! Before you get too far, make sure you have a trusted consultant or supervisor to help support you through the process and navigate through the issues and roadblocks that might come up.  

Then, learn about the three different types of sandtray sessions you might have in your playroom. Next, if it aligns with your theory check out this FREE download of my top 10 Sandtray prompts to use with your clients.

​Not sure what to do next? Check out one of my favorite questions to use when processing Sandtrays. 

Lastly, consider how you might add Sandtray to your work with trauma. 

Ready to Confidently Bring Sandtray Into Your Practice?

Reading about Sandtray is one thing. Using it skillfully, ethically, and confidently is another.
If you’ve felt that pull — that this modality could transform your work — don’t stop at curiosity.

Creating Worlds: An Introduction to Sandtray Play Therapy is my step-by-step training designed specifically for child and teen therapists who want to:

• Feel confident facilitating Sandtray sessions
• Understand the theory behind what they’re doing (not just “let’s make a world”)
• Know what to say, when to say it — and when to hold silence
• Build their Sandtray intentionally (without wasting money)
• Integrate Sandtray into their existing clinical orientation
• Use Sandtray ethically, safely, and powerfully
• 
  

This isn’t a surface-level overview.  It’s the foundational training I wish I had when I first started — and the one I now recommend over and over in consultation.
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Because Sandtray isn’t just a tool — it’s a doorway.
Into the subconscious.
Into trauma processing.
Into integration and healing.

And when you learn how to hold that doorway well, your clinical work deepens in ways that truly matter.
If you’re ready to stop wondering whether you’re “doing it right” and start facilitating Sandtray with clarity and confidence…

Join Creating Worlds: An Introduction to Sandtray Play Therapy today and start creating worlds that truly heal.

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