Indeed, there are many ways for a sandtray to be utilized therapeutically to support clients, but one way that isn’t often explored is the use of the sandtray itself as a means for regulation and co-regulation.

At this online workshop, participants will explore the link between sand and the activation of the autonomic nervous system while discovering how to turn their trays into a regulation tool that can deepen both the client’s experience and their own healing.

Because Sandtray Therapy is able to access the right part of the brain while providing connection to the left side, it allows us to work with the WHOLE brain, allowing for the right and the left to “talk” to each other.

Using sandtray therapy activates that right part of the brain where the trauma, negative thoughts and feelings are stored. Pictures, images, stories drawn in the sandtray by our clients stimulate memories and feelings associated with their traumas. This allows for the left side of the brain to see those feelings in a three-dimensional representation. When we are able to bring up those experiences through images and stories drawn into the tray, then our left brain can put words to what we are feeling. This is when breakthrough moments occur in the therapeutic journey.

Through sandtray therapy, we can help our clients to move from split-state confusion into a deeper and cohesive understanding of their lives and events that have shaped them.

Designed to help therapists think outside the “sandbox”, this workshop is designed to support clinicians in their ability to increase integration and re-patterning of the client’s nervous system activation through the use of the tray. This powerful method is thus able to uncover aspects of the self and issues that may not be accessed only with cognitive talk therapy.

Drawing from interpersonal neurobiology and principles from Synergetic Play Therapy, in this highly experiential workshop, participants will have a chance to learn and experience the power of the sand tray as a regulation tool through demonstrations and their own experience in their own sandtray.

Specifically, we will cover the following topics:

• The sand tray as a regulation device in the therapy room
• The essential regulation tools for a sand tray
• Sand play as a way to access various centres of the brain
• Exploring projection and “The Set Up/The Offering” in Synergetic Play Therapy 
• Understanding a client’s nervous system states through their use of sand
• Accessing parts of a client’s brain that are sometimes missed in therapy
• Re-patterning a client’s dysregulated states while they use sand in their sessions

It would be helpful for participants to have the following items available during the training when they attend online:

• Sand tray (can substitute a plastic bin with 2-3 inch sides)
• Therapy sand (please do NOT bring sandbox sand)
• Funnel
• Turkey baster
• Scoop
• Bucket or cup
• Sifter
• Assorted sand tray symbols/miniatures

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