✔️The therapeutic technique of «The sandbox»

The history of the sandbox (Sandplay) starts when H.G. Wells She wrote about observing her two children playing on the floor with miniature figures and noticing that they were working out their issues with each other and with other family members.

Two decades later Margaret Lowenfeld a child psychiatrist in London, was looking for a method to help children express their emotions. He recalled reading about Wells' experience with her two children and so added miniatures from the shelves of her clinic's playroom. He discovered that children quite naturally use symbols to recreate their inner worlds, such as when they manipulate and play with objects,

The creator of the Box technique was the Swiss psychotherapist Dora M. Kalff (1904-1990), who based his theories on the principles of analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung and the work of Margarita Lowenfeld. Dora Kalff collaborated with Lowenfeld by designing the tray and adding the sand, a means by which both children and adults can bring psychic content into consciousness through a game with a non-verbal and symbolic essence, in a facilitating environment generated by the therapist.

The first element we need is a blue painted container with sandThe sand and the blue bottom and sides offer the concrete possibility of digging to the depth or building to the heights. The box is an element that contains the psyche, painted blue it simulates the sea and the sky. Sand connects us with the earth, it has sensorial and kinesthetic qualities.

In addition, patients must have a telephone number available. small figures that include a representative sample of all animate and inanimate beings that we can find in the external world as well as in the internal imaginative world.

The categories should include: people (families of different races, professions),

Comics and movie elements, fantasy elements (dragons, minotaurs, cyclops, ghosts, skeletons…), mystical and spiritual elements (dove of peace, priest, friar, nun, angels, winged horses, mermaids…), animals (domestic, wild, prehistoric, farm, insects, sea animals, snakes…), buildings and homes (houses, schools, buildings, castles, tents, bridges, igloo…), household elements (furniture, bottles…), bridges, food, vegetation (different types of trees, plants, grass, flowers…), natural items (rocks, logs, wood…), means of transport (cars, trucks, buses, planes, trains, boats, policemen, firemen…) .

These figures, safe means of expressionserve to express their internal world symbolicallyThe emergence of this symbolic content into consciousness constitutes an important part of the therapeutic process.

The first thing we must do is prepare the roomchecking that everything is in order. Next you have to make sure that there are no buried objects. Finally you have to leave the flat sand.

Patients should be invited to that they feel the sand, allow them to play with it. You can spread it, crush it, dig it…

The slogan could be: «Do you see these miniatures? You can put them in this box and do whatever you want. You take whatever you want and do it here. I will be your assistant and I will be with you all the time. While you do it, we will be silent.”.

He psychologistwho remains present with complete attention and interest, supervises the scene without leaving the room, without directing, judging or interfering. Its function is contain without invading or abandoning, being empathetic and reflecting the emotion without interpreting or intervening, the metaphor is maintained. The process of building the box is done in silence. The therapist never puts his hand inside the box.

Once the construction is completed, the therapist Observe what is created. You can ask how it was to make the box and ask for reactions when you finish the work. They can be made open questions: “You want to talk about what you have done” “what is happening in this world,…”, “it seems that…I have seen that…tell me about…”.

If the patient does not want to talk about what he has done, do not insist.

He psychological analysis or interpretation They may occur later, in cases where it is deemed appropriate.

Provided by the tray and the relationship with the therapist, children and adults play with sand and miniatures over a period of time, and build from the concrete manifestations of their inner world.

If we can «do nothing«as Dora Kalff suggests, we can help create.

Immersed in the children's game, the children who are with their child psychologist loses the inhibitions of the conscious level, as a child would do, and enters the world of the unconscious, facilitating the uncensored expression.

The scenes that take shape in the box are comparable to symbolic images that occur in dreams.

It is an experiential projective technique that facilitates exploration of internal states and the Expression and understanding of emotional states. The goal is that the person can connect with the mental content in a subtle way and can express it by representing a scene in a sandbox where elements are added that represent different characters and contexts.

The aim is to access the patient's intrapsychic world and the understanding of its content. It allows the patient to express himself through a vehicle different from the verbal, enrich the narratives through the emergency of therapeutic metaphors and integrate dissociated parts.

Thus, this technique can function as a safe means of expressing conflicts, fears, strengths, etc. The miniatures can be considered to represent the words and the tray the grammar.

Indicators can be observed, in the different scenes created, of symptomatology anxious, depressed, aggressive, threatening and risky situations, uncertainty, insecurity, feelings of abandonment or loneliness, unresolved grief, internal conflicts and loyalties, anguish, terror, guilt, violent experiences, mistreatment or abuse.

Likewise, we can find resilient elements in the scenes through symbols that suggest strengths, generating security and protection.

On the other hand, we can find in the different scenes elements that indicate the type of attachment of the person (avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized, secure).

The sandbox technique is a highly recommended therapeutic tool on the one hand for professionals in the field of mental health field: psychologists and psychiatrists.

The diagnostic and therapeutic potential of the Sand Tray technique includes adult and child populations, especially in cases of:

On the other hand, its application is beginning to be introduced in school contextsduring tutoring hours and during sessions with the counselor. In this area, it is suitable in cases of suspected emotional difficulties in minors, also for intervention in cases of:

The tool presents a multidimensional component, since it is not only a facilitator of emotional expression but also allows for the generation of feelings of control over recreated traumatic situations, since it is the author who directs the scene and takes control over it.

Maria Victoria Sanchez She is a Psychologist specialising in Clinical Psychology and coordinator of the clinical psychology working group of the Aula Joven of the Official College of Psychologists of Madrid. Registered with number 20228, she is also specialised in therapeutic support for severe mental disorders, as well as in gerontopsychiatry and cognitive rehabilitation.

Ángel Fernández is a psychologist in Madrid. He is a specialist in childhood and adolescence and in family therapy, in its different cycles (creation, separation, divorce, support for children, mediation, etc.).