Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

How Does the Sand Tray Help Clients in Play Therapy?

• Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S • Episode 97

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When kids can’t find the words, the sand tray speaks for them in play therapy sessions.


In this week’s podcast episode, we’ll look at how sand tray therapy taps into the implicit memories stored beneath language — 


The attachment patterns, emotional imprints, and unspoken stories that surface symbolically before they ever become verbal.


If you’ve ever felt goosebumps watching a client create a scene that “says everything without saying anything,” this one’s for you.


✨ Let’s nerd out together about how neuroscience helps play therapists understand how healing happens inside that little wooden box filled with sand and miniatures.


Join me and I’ll share how your theoretical lens using neuroscience and attachment theory points the way toward deeper understanding of the power of the sand tray in play therapy. I’ll also discuss three ways using the sand tray in play therapy helps children heal.

Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.

Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work.

I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.

Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills

Cathi Spooner:

Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy. A weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services. We'll explore all things play therapy. To elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play. I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives. So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families. Hey there. Welcome. Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, where we talk about all things play therapy. And today we are gonna be talking about one of my favorite modalities to use in play therapy, and that is how we are using. The sand tray in play therapy and more specifically, we're gonna talk about a specific theoretical lens for using sand tray in play therapy, and why does that make a difference? Why does your theoretical lens makes such a big difference in how you're using the sand tray in play therapy to help your clients heal? So if that is of interest to you, just keep on listening and I would love to know who's here. So if you would post your name in the comments where you're from, what population do you work with, um, where are you watching from? So let's get started for today. All righty. So if you're a play therapist, or maybe you're a child and adolescent therapist and you've been using the sand tray, the miniatures in the sand, in your sessions with clients, you've probably had this experience that most of us have had when we're using the sand tray, and that is, watching your client be able to access in the sand tray, what you haven't been able to, um, help them use access outside of the sand tray. I find this a lot with adolescents and adults. I find this happen a lot. With the kids that I work with as well, where they just seem kind of transfixed in the sand train, or maybe you notice that they are moving the sand and pouring the sand and you can just see their whole body just kind of relax and go to a different. Regulated state, not a dissociative state, but more of a, more of a regulated, relaxed state. And when I see this happen, that's when I know that the sand, the sandre and the miniatures are working for my clients. And so today I wanna talk about. How, why that works and I wanna use a neuroscience and attachment lens. So that's what we're looking at together today. How does the sand tray therapy process in play therapy help your clients heal? All righty, so feel free to join the conversation. Feel free to, um, pop in a question if you're listening, or sorry if you're watching the livestream or maybe even watching the livestream replay. Go ahead and participate in the conversation if you're listening to the podcast episode. Um, pop over to Instagram. Send me a message at renewing Hearts Training. I would love to hear from you. Love to hear your thoughts. Are you using sand tray and how is that going for you? So the first thing that I wanna lo, so today's topic is how does sand tray, how does the sand tray help children in play therapy. And the first thing that we need to look at is really your theoretical lens, because your theoretical lens changes everything. And here's the thing I. I talk to a lot of play therapist, aspiring play therapist, child and adolescent therapist, regular therapist in a variety of ca capacities. And one of the things that I hear all the time, especially when providing consultation, is that people get a little lost in the play therapy process and they're not, you know, maybe they, they make a decision about what they're doing in the playroom, and then it, it doesn't really go so well and it doesn't go so well a few times, and then they start feeling a little, um, lost start, second guessing their decisions about maybe they're not cut out to be a play therapist. You know, we all have bad days. Um, and the thing that I find when we talk about it, especially like we talk about this a lot in Play Therapy Academy and also my new play therapy membership, that's a little bit different than Play Therapy Academy. We talk about this as well. When we're consulting about cases and, and that is like what theoretical model are you using and, and then why does that matter? Well, it matters because it helps you make sense of what's causing the problem that's going on with your client and how to help them heal. So I like using a neuroscience and attachment lens. And I love using a neuroscience and attachment lens with when I'm using the sand tray in play therapy because it helps to frame the way that you are making sense of what's going on in the sand tray and why does it even help. So when you're explaining how does sand tray therapy help or how does play therapy help? Then being able to use your theoretical lens helps to ground what you're doing and helps you know how to explain that to maybe parents or other professionals or even to yourself or even in your play therapy progress notes or your treatment plan or your case assessment, your theory model is going to influence how you make sense, and so. When we're using a neuroscience and attachment lens, if we're looking at it from an interpersonal neurobiology lens or we're looking at it from an attachment theory lens, or maybe we're even looking at it through the lens of mentalization, which is neuroscience and attachment. Um, then it, then it explains what's going on. So here's what I mean by that. When we're looking at, uh, using like, I'll say interpersonal neurobiology, attachment and neuroscience, then we're looking at the i the role of integration and why integrations helps to create healthy, stable functioning and helps to. Um, heal. I'm trying to think of the right words. How, how does it help heal the meaning that we've made of things and then our response, right? So if we're looking at. CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. We're looking at the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Well, let's go a little deeper with that, using neuroscience and attachment theory, and now we're looking at where those thoughts came from and why those behaviors got activated. And the emotions that got activated because we're looking at integration and we're looking at those mental models that we've created using those mirror neurons and those resonance circuits of how we have. Perceived and made meaning through those interactions and how we're attuning with the other people in our lives and our clients. Right. We're looking at all of those things. So if we're, if we're using that lens, then how does, how does play the, I'm sorry. How does sand tray therapy when you're using play therapy, how does it help. Why does it matter, right? Or are we just pulling things out of the air and making things up to explain what's going on in the play, therapy? Of course, we're not. It's grounded in theory, right? And so if we're using that neuroscience and attachment lens, then here's how we're understanding the role of using the sand tray in play therapy. How that makes a difference and how are we helping clients to heal? So the first thing is, if we're looking at three ways, that's what I wanna talk about today. We're talking about three ways the sand tray helps children heal, and we're using, we're explaining that through that neuroscience and attachment lens. So the first thing is that it gives the nervous system a voice when words aren't ready. So what do I mean by that? It means that we're, we're looking at that sand tray making experience as a sensory experience and how that the sand helps to connect that mind and body to access what's. So implicit experiences, but also how that helps to ground and regulate or dysregulate if kids are or people are kind of overstimulated by the use of the sand. We're looking at how that sand helps to regulate their nervous system. I can't tell you how many times that I have seen kids. Come in and just like take their hands, put 'em in the sand, and push the sand. Or take a container and pour the sand and watch, pour it over different miniatures in the sand tray, or even just pour it in the sand. Just how I'd seen their bodies just relax through that sensory experience of the sand, creating a sense of safety, which is critical for the therapy process because what we know from neuroscience and attachment theory is that children, people can't engage in the therapeutic change process fully. Unless they feel safe. So they've got to deactivate those threat circuits, right? That neuroception circuits, those have to be deactivated in order for the social engagement circuits to be activated. And in order to engage play circuits, they need to be able to engage those social engagement circuits. So providing that experience. And, um, in the play therapy room and, and the sand tray with the sand, and I would say even the miniatures is one way in which children can develop a sense of safety. I remember years and years ago, this happened so many times where like older kids, uh, well say middle school. I would even say high school, but like that middle school age is kind of the in-between age where, you know, they're, they're not quite teenagers, but they're not kids anymore, so they're kind of in that in-between stage. And sometimes we have kids who like to talk and I can't tell you how many times I've had kids who want to talk. And they j about what happened that's going on, and they'll just use the sand to regulate themselves while they are talking about whatever it is that's gone on. And that ability to use the sand tray helps them to internally regulate and self-soothe. In order to have a conversation with me about what's been going on in their life. And so that's one of the ways that the sand tray can be beneficial, is it helps children to calm their nervous system and develop a sense of safety in the sand tray. Also, we have to be mindful though, for some kids it can be overstimulating. So you, you do have to keep that in mind. In mind. And the second thing is, um, co-regulation and being able to re repair attachment experiences. So here's the thing about play therapy that sets it apart from other play therapy. I'm sorry, from other expressive arts modality play therapy. Um. Play therapy is an expressive arts modality, and what sets play therapy apart from those other expressive arts modality is how we use a theoretical model within the context of a safe therapeutic relationship to access. These are key. This is what sets it apart, the therapeutic powers of play, and so the therapeutic powers of play are therapeutic aspects of play that we kind of harness for the, the therapeutic work that we do for children. And Charles Schafer identified several therapeutic powers of play. He wrote a book that was published back in 1993 called The Therapeutic Powers of Play in 2014, Dr. Charles Schafer and Dr. Athena Drews. Updated the therapeutic powers of play and kind of categorize them into four categories. And so those, those are. Those are what we go by in terms of how is play therapy healing? Well, play therapy is healing because we're accessing those therapeutic powers of play and in the sand tray, we're accessing those therapeutic powers of play. So when, so when we're helping the nervous system to regulate, then we are accessing positive emotions, right? In order to feel safe. We really need to experience positive emotions. Also, it could be, um, like an indirect teaching, meaning I can, I can talk about what's going on while I'm also creating, I mean, um, regulating using the sand tray. I had one client, we used it as a direct teaching meaning. That was part of like, they got their own little sand tray. They got the same sand, like I had specific sand that they really, really, really liked. So mom went over to Jurassic Sand website and ordered the sand that this particular client. Really needed because he was going through some really hard things at the time. And so this was part of the homework. This was part of the calming coping strategies that they used. And we brought Mom in and we had that whole conversation. So we were accessing these different therapeutic powers of play. And so another one, uh, another way in which we use the sand tray for healing. I mean, sorry for yes, for healing in play therapy. Is that idea of co-regulation, to repair attachment experiences. And so we are through that play therapy process and using the sand tray, we are showing up therapeutically. And Bonnie Badnock talks about this a lot in her book, being a Brainwise therapist. Actually in play Therapy, elevation Circle, we have a book club, um, as part of um, play Therapy Elevation Circle. And so the book that we're reading is being a Brainwise therapist. And so we just read chapter six and seven and chapter seven. Talked a lot about that there. Uh, this is my paraphrase, the therapeutic use of self. And how we are tapping into resident circuits for attunement for, and now I'm also gonna quote Daniel Siegel, 'cause I'm reading his book to brainstorm, which is interpersonal neurobiology. And he talks about the three S's being seen, soothed and safe. Right? So we're we're accessing that using the sand tray in play therapy being seen that felt sense of being seen and heard. That therapeutic presence of attunement, tapping into our resident circuits to fully attune and kind of even share our regulated state with our client. That's the co-regulation. This is also what we wanna teach parents. We wanna teach parents how they can be that co-regulating. Presence for their child and fee. Teaching parents how to help their child feel seen, soothed and safe. Right? And. Using the sand tray provides the ability to do that through the sand tray, so you can use non-directive prompts, you can use directive prompts. If you're using child-centered play therapy, you're not using any prompts and you're fully attuned and present with your client so that they feel seen, soothed and safe. In that play therapy session while they're using the sand tray. And then the third way that the um, sand tray therapy process in play therapy helps is like that symbolic play kind of rewiring neural integration. Through exploration of explicit experiences and being fully present as that ro co-regulating force as they're using the sand tray to regulate their nervous system, but also using the sand tray and the miniatures to access implicit experiences in a way that feels safe and feels seen. Um, so that they can reprocess those distressing implicit experiences and re regain or establish, depending on the age of the child, establish. Neural integration because Daniel Siegel talks about this a lot, that idea of integration, and Bonnie Badnock talks about this a lot in her book, being a Brainwise therapist, the role of integration in terms of, um. Healthy development and the meaning that we make of ourselves, uh, of, of situations, and how that influences our beliefs about ourselves. And I, I would even add the way in which we show up in relationships because of the way that we made sense of others and the meaning that we've made. There are some people, I know you have this, like some people, you've observed them over time, their behavior, and you've made certain, uh, you, you've believed certain things and you formed certain opinions or beliefs based and based on the intention that you've assessed about that person's actions. And so because of that, you've made certain decisions. About the way in which you will or will not have a relationship with that person, right? This is all happening even below the surface sometimes because of the, the meaning that we've made even in the past, like some of those early attachment experiences. Now we're influencing. Current, and I would even say future relationships and let's just say some of those early attachment wounds and or maybe even traumatic experiences, the meaning that we've made of things. Now we're not fully perceiving things as accurately and now that's influencing our relationships. And what we would say is that neural integration is not, um. Uh, this is my terminology. The way that I kind of make sense of it is it's not fully, um, working like a finely tuned machine, right? Like your car engine. If some of those. Circuits in your car get clogged up, then you know, maybe your spark plugs aren't working properly or, um, maybe something's clogged in your engine. I'm trying to think of all the car metaphors that I can. Remember from car problems in the past, um, your car doesn't work to its full maximum capacity. I kind of think of our neuro circuitry in a very similar way when something's kind of clogged up in there. It's not working to, its, its most optimal. Capacity. And so being able to use the sand tray to access those sensory experiences of those stored away implicit experiences and how those implicit experiences have influence the beliefs that we've made about ourselves, others, and relationships, then. Then we can use that sand tray making process in play therapy to help rework or rewire some of those neural connections and gain more optimal integration, neural integration. And, and, um, so to me that's, that's one of the most, Hmm, what's the right word that I wanna use? I dunno. That's like the thing that I love about sand tray is it does access those implicit experiences and, and that's why, so I have a training coming up, it's called Using a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens. With sand tray in play therapy, and I've done this one before. It, it's coming up again. Registration is actually closing soon, so if you're interested, you def it's in person only and I'll talk a little bit more about it at the end. So you'll wanna stay tuned for that. But, um, one of the things in, in facilitating this training, which I only do in person, and here's why I can't tell you how many times therapists have come and we've, we've, we do two, two days. There's some, you know, didactic theory part of it, and some practical application things that we do. And then there's a lot of sand tray making. There is a lot of sand tray holding, learning how to make sense of what's in the sand tray. And one of the reasons I like to do them only in person is because what I witness. When therapists get their hands in the sand and choose the miniatures, and arrange the miniatures, how powerful that is as they've, if they've realized, oh my gosh, I've accessed this, this way back when, implicit memory that, and I've accessed another layer of it. And using that sand tray process to rework that a little bit. So we learn. Plus we also get to do a little bit of our own work. That's what I love about sand tray trainings myself. Um, 'cause you can get in there and do some deep, deep things. And what I think is powerful about doing it in person is you recognize. How powerful it is when you get your hands in the sand, that sensory aspect of it, that co-regulating aspect, the difference of different sand and how that feels and what that activates, and the different color of the sand with the specific kind of miniatures. How all of that symbolism in the sand can go back and access implicit experiences and help provide that opportunity for creating new connections or doing rewiring in there for more optimal integration. And so, um. That is three ways that the sand tray process, sand tray making process in play therapy can be helpful to our clients. And, and we understand that if we're looking at them using that neuroscience and attachment lens, because if we're using Adlerian play therapy or Gestalt play therapy, or even child-centered play therapy, then we're looking at this with a different lens. And when we're using a neuroscience and attachment lens, then we're looking at it through that lens and. How is it helping our clients heal? And how are we making sense of what our clients, what are the themes in that sand tray? And so that is how sand tray in play therapy helps children heal. So let me do a, a, a quick recap. So the topic is, how does the sand tray help children heal using play therapy? And your play therapy theoretical lens does make a huge difference. A greatly influences how you make sense of what's going on. And I would even say what you do or what you don't do in the sand tray, um, and how you facilitate that healing process. And so when you're using a neuroscience and attachment lens. We're looking at neural integration. We're looking at the sensory mind body connection, how the body is influenced, how the mind helps with making meaning, and also self-regulation. How our clients are using our regulated state. To, to help them experience a regulated, safe experience, rewiring some of those attachment experiences and, um, the three ways that. The sand tray can help children heal. Would one be that it gives the neuro system a way to give voice to what can't be readily understood, but also it helps to regulate that internal state of regulation to access a sense of safety. In the play therapy process, also co-regulation, being able to use my regulated state to experience even attach, um, to even experience like, uh, attachment or relational things in a new way. And then the, this is where we are tapping into our resident circuits and we are. Kind of connecting mind to mind, um, even physiologically. To be attuned to feel, help our clients feel seen, soothed and safe, as Daniel Siegel would say. And then also it allows access to the implicit, those things that we can't give voice to because they don't have words stored away with them. I can't make sense of them in my frontal lobe area, my higher levels of functioning. Because I don't really have words for them yet, and so maybe I need to process and give symbolic representation so that I can make sense of what's going on. Or as a play therapist, I'm allowing children to access those therapeutic powers of play. To facilitate healing. So they don't necessarily need to cognitively explain to me they can use that play therapy process, accessing those therapeutic powers of play to facilitate healing. All righty, so that is it for today. Um, if you're interested, I do have a two-day in-person training coming up in December. It's called using a neuroscience and attachment lens. With play therapy, uh, sorry. Using a neurosci, using a neuroscience and attachment lens with sandtray in play therapy. It's a two day in-person training where we go over some of the theoretical foundations to, um, to help you formulate your case conceptualization, using that theoretical model of neuroscience and attachment theory. How are you making sense of what's going on in there? How are you planning what you're, you know, how you're using the sand tray, what are you doing? What are you not doing? But also how are you holding that sand tray making process? We are gonna do a lot of sand tray making a lot of sand tray holding and a lot of using that process to know what to look for. And how to make sense of what's in the sand tray in terms of like play therapy themes. So you're gonna get a lot of practice doing that with a ton of support. Because this is a really small group. I keep these very, very small, maximum 12 people, usually like eight to 10 people. So it's also kind of like, I look at it as kind of like a retreat light experience. Where you can come, learn how to use sand tray, but also get some support for yourself in terms of getting a reset and just taking a minute to step back and slow down and process through some things and learn as well as, um, get that reset for yourself. So if you're interested in that training, then you're definitely gonna wanna pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. That's rh play therapy training.com. So renewing hearts, play therapy training. Go on the training page and you'll, you'll see, um, more information about that and, and registration. The early bird price is closing this week. So if you want that early bird price, then um, you'll definitely wanna register soon. If you're also interested, I have a couple of openings in Play Therapy Academy. Play Therapy Academy is like my online play therapy consultation program. Um, this is like really high support. And what I mean by that is we do, we meet twice a month, there are case presentations. We have dedicated time to get support and feedback for whatever it is that you are, um, needing help with. So you get my almost 35 years of experience, plus all of the shared wisdom, knowledge, and insight and resources. Of the other members of Play Therapy Academy, and I would say that's really where the magic is. It's all of us together kind of supporting each other, but also how do you do that? Case conceptualization? How do you apply your play therapy model? How do you make sense of what's going on in the play therapy process? How are you. Integrating parents, what some ideas for what to do when you feel stuck or when you're second guessing yourself because you've had a bad, excuse me, because you've had a bad play therapy session. We just talked about that recently. Um. There are courses in there to help with your learning. There's a group chat feature to get support in between sessions. There's other kind of, uh, bonuses in there as well. If you're interested in play therapy Academy. Then pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. Go to the supervision page, scroll to you see Play Therapy Academy. Click on that page and then you can read a little bit more about it. Schedule a 30 minute video with me to see if it's a good fit. Um. If it's not a good fit, then we'll, we'll say no, it's not a good fit. If Elevation Circle maybe is a better fit, then we can figure that out as well. Right now I don't have, uh, enrollment is not open for Elevation Circle, but you can get on the wait list. So if you're interested in Elevation Circle, which is more of like a community membership where we, we do staff cases once a month. We do a book club in there. There are other resources in there. So it's geared for people who really want some support, but they don't really need Play Therapy Academy. Um, but they are tired of doing it on their own and they would really like a place of like-minded professionals to get some support to, to kind of, um, make sure that they're. Doing a great job with play therapy. So anyway, hop on a video call with me and we can sort that out. Is Play Therapy Academy a good fit for you? Or maybe Play Therapy Elevation Circle is a better fit. So schedule a 30 minute video call with me. And that is, and um, we'll also put the links in the comments, so you can either pop over to my website or you can look at the links. In the comments, I have other trainings coming up. I just started planning my 2026 calendar, so I have some other things coming up. There's other resources on my website, so just pop over my website, check it out, see what's there, and I will see you next week. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information. Remember. Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth. Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work in relationships. If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Heart's Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources. Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy. Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.