In the beginning Sandplay Therapy was used solely in the psychotherapeutic work with children. It originated in the work of Margaret Lowenfeld who was inspired by H. G. Wells' book Floor Games, in which he gave a detailed description of dramatic imaginative scenes created by his sons using miniatures and small toys on the floor, and his realisation that his sons were working out their problems with each other and with other members of the family. Lowenfeld adapted the technique (later known as the Lowenfeld World Technique) for her therapeutic work with children, added sand and water to it, and confined the play into a metal tray. The new technique involved the client spontaneously arranging the sand and or miniatures in wet or dry sand to create an image, a fantasy or their entire world.
Dora Kallf, a Jungian analyst, who worked with Lowenfeld, further developed the tradition in the late 1950s when she adopted the World Technique into her own analytic therapy and extended the use of Sandtrays to the work with adult clients. Kallf called her new technique Sandplay Therapy. She found sandplay to activate the natural healing forces of the psyche whereby conscious and unconscious parts of the self develop a more harmonious relationship which leads in return to restructuring and strengthening of the ego.
While strongly influenced by Kallf's Sandplay Therapy I implement a variety of different methods of Sandtray work into my work with clients, adding a concrete, creative, non-verbal way to psychotherapy to express internal processes.
The contribution Sandplay Therapy can make in your life is to provide a safe and respectful environment to move through deep issues and discover new ways of being in the world.
