[GenCat]

So I tried out sand play therapy. For those of you that have never heard of it I suggest you research it. Anyway I didn't even know my therapist was qualified to do this until she brought it up one day. I had heard about it before and I was excited to try it. Heres how that session for me went:

1. Walk into the room and I was overloaded by the amount of toys, mostly small, in separate baskets separating the types of toys and the actual sand tray place in the middle of the room on a stand. There must have been over 30baskets filled to the top. There also were shelves full, too high for me to reach some toys that I could not even see closely that were on the top shelf.

2. I continue to stand and look around her small room at all the sensory overloading toys consisting of thousands of colors, shapes, textures, and types for what felt like 20 mins while she was talking to me.

3. I was still looking around when I finally noticed she had moved to a different part of the room to sit down and watch me. I started to get nervous, as she was just staring at me like I knew what the hell I was doing.

4. I tried to pretend like I was not nervous and started trying to think what to pick to put in the sand tray.

5. I started to feel rushed as my eyes felt like they had to look over every individual object that was in that room. Also T just starring at me, with a no emotion look and the occasional pen to notebook journaling quickly.

6. I start frantically choosing toys and objects and grouping them in the sand tray or lining them up without me really noticing at this point. T starts to write, and I begin to analyze what I just did. Yes the groupings and placements are very important it seems.

7. After I choose all my objects I start to ask myself, "What the hell do I do with them? Do I actually play in the sand or do I make a scene by placements and recreations?" "What to do, what to do?" I look up at T across from me...still watching me. I make nervous chitchat and continue to act like I am doing something in the sand tray.

8. I start to calm down and actually think of what to do with the toys and objects. It had only been 40 mins!

9. "I think im finished...or am I? T said I would know when I was finished." "But it looks too empty. Empty like my life. Yes I am finished." Looked up at T and said I was done.

10. T gets up and smiles. Then asks me if I want to talk about it.

11. I talked about it, sorta, I mean did I really know what the hell I just did?

12. T starts taking pictures of the sand tray. I took a picture also, just because.

13. I look at the clock, its been over an hour? Why did it feel like time was quicker than normal?

14. "Oh yeah, because I changed into my inner child the moment I stepped into the room and actually had some fun? No. Yes? I think I forgot how to do everything an adult does. Did I actually drive here? Oh yeah, I am 20 years old and I just played by myself with toys in a sand box."

15. "When was the last time I 'played'? "I hate being grown."

that sounds a lot like my first experience doing a sand tray. i felt so stupid, i didn't know what i was supposed to do, and t just sat there on the arm of the couch watching and not talking. it was maddening!! I kept saying but what am i supposed to do? she said you'll know. Just start. i finally went and grabbed a cave and a little tiny person and put the cave in the sand, and the little person inside the cave, and drew stupid little whirly things in the sand because i felt so dumb. funny thing though is by the 3rd time I did a sand tray, I was skipping across the room like a little girl between the shelves with the miniatures on them and the sand tray. I LOVE doing sand trays now, when t moved out of state (we do phone sessions now) I bought a plastic litter box and a bag of play sand and made my own make-shift sand tray, and I'm collecting little things for it all the time. One time I told her I didn't feel like talking. She said, well why don't you go jump into the sand. I looked over at it, and said no the way I feel I would want to dump it all out on the floor and do it there. Without missing a beat, she said, hmm, I could find a big plastic bag to put on the floor and you can do that if you want. I didn't, of course. But it was pretty awesome that she said she would let me.

t took pictures of all of mine too. and now that i make them at home, i take pictures of them to email to her so we can talk about them. I miss her miniatures collection though - she had TONS of stuff. Everything and anything you could think to use in a sand tray, she had it on those shelves. I used to bring in stuff that I'd find here and there and just leave it on one of the shelves.

I haven't done a sand tray in quite awhile, think it's time to create one again. I find sticking my hands in the cool, damp sand so calming. I learned to find answers to questions I didn't even know I had by playing in the sand. I hope you're able to do that too! Sand play is awesome.

[Partless]

Okay that sounds fun! I wish I could give it a try.

Would you say overall it was worthwhile? My T suggested this a while back and I was very resistant (actually I was a little p***ed at him for suggesting it) but that's because I have issues around not being listened to or taken seriously back from when I was "just a kid" so being perceived as immature or childlike can be triggering for me.
I use expressive art a lot and I think that's partly why he suggested it.
Was there something specific about the sand tray that allowed you to express yourself in a way that drawing/painting/writing couldn't? Would it have been better with or without the therapist present?

Originally Posted by Echos Myron

Would you say overall it was worthwhile? My T suggested this a while back and I was very resistant (actually I was a little p***ed at him for suggesting it) but that's because I have issues around not being listened to or taken seriously back from when I was "just a kid" so being perceived as immature or childlike can be triggering for me.
I use expressive art a lot and I think that's partly why he suggested it.
Was there something specific about the sand tray that allowed you to express yourself in a way that drawing/painting/writing couldn't? Would it have been better with or without the therapist present?

It's been very beneficial for me. My drawing "skills" haha are sadly lacking, but somehow I find that my psyche expresses things from deep inside through playing in the sand. At first, I wished she wasn't watching and told her to read a magazine or something. By the 2nd or 3rd one I did, I would talk to myself out loud while I was creating so it wasn't so quiet in the room and I realized later that is why she was so quiet - so that I would talk to myself - because a lot of times things I would say brought up useful topics.

[GenCat]

Originally Posted by Echos Myron

Would you say overall it was worthwhile? My T suggested this a while back and I was very resistant (actually I was a little p***ed at him for suggesting it) but that's because I have issues around not being listened to or taken seriously back from when I was "just a kid" so being perceived as immature or childlike can be triggering for me.
I use expressive art a lot and I think that's partly why he suggested it.
Was there something specific about the sand tray that allowed you to express yourself in a way that drawing/painting/writing couldn't? Would it have been better with or without the therapist present?

Actually, I think my problem was I was trying to do something, trying to get something accomplished and when I didn't know what it was I got frausterated and anxious. But it was actually a specific toy for me that triggered me, when I found the toy, to make a scene in the sand tray and make something more 'purposeful'.

I guess sand tray is the same with drawing or painting or writing. It's a blank canvas and you have to do something with it. My problem is always I don't know where to start or what to start with. So my T actually said if I wanted to that she could tell me to make a "themed" sand tray. Like if she told me to make a tray for my mom or to make a tray that reminds me of Spring. I haven't done that yet but I think that would be easier for me.

But it's kinda weird how when your looking at all the toys and objects, you'll just know what you want or what you like and then somehow fit them into the sand tray and make something. I suppose it's that 'kid' in us.

I hope you try a sand tray! It's fun I think, a lot different tho from regular talk therapy and makes you use your brain, vision and hands which I like anyways and passes the time quicker.

[JustShakey]

This is interesting...
It would not be an option for me in my therapy right now, but I'd like to try it of only for the fact that I know it would make me incredibly angry. Sounds strange I know but I think tapping into that anger would be good for me.
Something similar happened here in a group thing at the shelter I'm staying at. It was a sort of childish craft project and I got so angry and upset. The combination of doing something childish and the adult responsibility that the topic was about set me off badly.

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[PeeJay]

I cannot even imagine what I'd do in that room. I'd probably be embarrassed ask to leave immediately.

What's the theory behind a sand tray?

My therapist does not see children but she has a bunch of toys and stuffed animals in her office. I try to pretend like they are not there. They really bother me. I should start a thread about this!

[GenCat]

Originally Posted by PeeJay

I cannot even imagine what I'd do in that room. I'd probably be embarrassed ask to leave immediately.

What's the theory behind a sand tray?

My therapist does not see children but she has a bunch of toys and stuffed animals in her office. I try to pretend like they are not there. They really bother me. I should start a thread about this!

I'm not sure if doing a sand tray has a specific purpose. My T said that it helps us sort out problems or work through them by visualization and play. It can also tap into unconscious things or even if we don't know why we made something in the tray, it all has a purpose.

For example, when I did mine, I didn't relize at the time that the largest toy in my sand tray was a horse. The horse resembled my own horse that recently passed away. So after I thought about why it was the largest, I came to believe it's still the largest issue in my life right now that I'm trying to work through, so it was the largest item in my tray. Now I can't know that for sure, nor can my T, but I think that's a good reason behind it.

[GenCat]

Originally Posted by JustShakey

This is interesting...
It would not be an option for me in my therapy right now, but I'd like to try it of only for the fact that I know it would make me incredibly angry. Sounds strange I know but I think tapping into that anger would be good for me.
Something similar happened here in a group thing at the shelter I'm staying at. It was a sort of childish craft project and I got so angry and upset. The combination of doing something childish and the adult responsibility that the topic was about set me off badly.

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I can understand that about child play yet the adult part. I think it for me models my exact life right now. I'm an adult but held back by childhood issues and unresolved emotions ect. Or that saying I'm a kid trapped in an adult body. I also like to force myself to believe im an older mature person who isnt supposed to 'play' anymore but then I wonder why I hate playing.

[lone_77]

Ooooh, now you've got me wondering if my T has a tray. She works with kids, so probably. I don't know why but that kind of therapy sounds so appealing...

[AncientMelody]

It sounds like an interesting experience!

I would be very uncomfortable with it. I do understand the reaching out to the "childhood" part of oneself as a form of healing though. For me it is playing outside with my kids. my best memories with my family were playing outside as a kid. So it's almost like doing the same with mine helps bridge the gap as it were.

But to recreate my child self in the therapy room would be different for me, I just have different needs in the therapy room. Or it could be that I'm more comfortable expressing myself through writing and interpreting music lyrics and that such thing.

[stopdog]

I do not find playing near or with a therapist a good plan for me.
Plus I would not find feeling like a child a useful thing. I did not want to be a child when I was one, I certainly don't want to do it again.