Studying art therapy, it is important to know the variety of therapies that can be used. There all different kinds of therapy that can be used to heal an individual; poetry, music, play/expressive, etc. This past week, our class learned about an interesting kind of therapy that can be used with young ages or adult ages – Sand Tray Therapy.

Within Sand Tray Therapy, there is an elongated box full of sand to give the individual an opportunity to create a narrative with props provided. After learning about this therapy seldomly, our class had the chance to submerse ourselves within our own sandbox and create our own story and reveal our own unconscious. The props given are smaller pieces, but there are many to choose from. Offered to us were figures of animals, insects, flowers, rocks, stones, buildings, and people. One by one we were able to enter the room with all of the props – that way each individual had a fair chance to get the props the want. After a half an hour of creating our sand stories in silence, the class went around and discussed what they had made and what some of the figures represented in the narrative. It was really intriguing to notice all the different stories everyone had depicted within the sand. Some used relatively the same figure, but had different meanings. Below is an example of certain objects I used – flowers, a baby figure, a creation of a house using tiles, stones, beads, and seashells.

Sand Tray Therapy was a really interesting experience and definitely something that needs to be experienced to get the full effect. I am ecstatic that my classmates and I got the chance to work with Sand Tray Therapy – as a lesson and as a participant.

Featured image: [My full narrative in the sand tray box]