Sandplay and Therapeutic Sand Tray

Sandplay uses a tray of sand and a collection of miniature figurines with which the subject spontaneously stages symbolic configurations depicting their inner world, subsequently elaborated with the therapist. Lowenfeld sees in it a medium for the expression of pre-verbal and pre-symbolic contents; Kalff gives it a Jungian foundation and stresses the free and protected space as a matrix of regression and reconstruction of the Self. The method became internationally structured through the ISST (1985), with a later penetration in France, carried by Jungian analysts, child psychiatrists and art therapists.

This therapy is covered in detail (principles, indications, protocol, level of evidence) in Volume 6 of the Mémento des Psychothérapies. See the volume.