Sandtray-worldplay

1. Introduction

Version followed: Gisela Schubach De Domenico's Sandtray-Worldplay (trademarked by her), as set out in her three-volume Sand Tray World Play: A Comprehensive Guide to the Use of the Sand Tray in Psychotherapeutic and Transformational Settings (2000; publisher given as Vision Quest Images in Schadler 2023's reference list; now out of print), with her six-phase session sequence as two practitioner papers report it from her writings. Source status. The volumes and De Domenico's journal papers are cited here through secondary reports, not from her own text [uncertain]. The six phase names and what happens in each come from Fraser (2023, pp. 3–5, citing De Domenico 2002, The Sandtray Network Journal 6(1)) and Schadler (2023, pp. 1–8, paraphrasing her child and adult introductions from the guide, pp. 34–38, which Schadler cites as 2020). "The Springer chapter" below is Elaine Wittmann's "Post-Jungian Directive Sandtray in Play Therapy", ch. 2 of Directive Play Therapy: Theories and Techniques, edited by Elsa Soto Leggett and Jennifer N. Boswell (Springer Publishing; the publisher's page gives 2016, a library catalogue 2017). De Domenico's training base was Oakland, California (Vision Quest Into Symbolic Reality and the Sandtray Network). Not confirmed from her own text: when directed experiences are used, her rules for joint experiencing (including touching figures), her recording format, and current certification [uncertain]. Where the sources are silent, guidance is marked [synthesis] or [uncertain]. [source: Grayson 2023; Fraser 2023; Schadler 2023; Springer chapter and Springer Publishing book page; Homeyer 2023 abstract]

Sandtray-Worldplay (SWP) is an integrative sand-tray method. Its roots are in Margaret Lowenfeld's World Technique (see tab 151). Its theoretical base is Jungian depth psychology, but it borrows practices from other schools. The Jungian ideas serve as a way of understanding what happens, not as a set of techniques. [source: Springer chapter; Grayson 2023] De Domenico's doctoral research (1986, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology) studied the sand-tray play process of children without clinical problems using Lowenfeld's World Apparatus. [source: Knoetze 2013 reference list]

How change is thought to happen: the tray and its miniatures act as a nonverbal bridge between the builder's inner reality and the outer world. The figure collection is a miniature universe in which the builder takes the role of creator. De Domenico's adult introduction presents the collection as a personal vocabulary of images for telling one's own story. Its premise is that everyone thinks in images and that complex thoughts and feelings are hard to put into words. Symbolic images become concrete, and insight reaches consciousness through the play itself. The builder's psyche leads the process, and the therapist witnesses and facilitates it. [source: Grayson 2023, quoting Vols 1–2; Schadler 2023, p. 4, paraphrasing the guide, p. 37; Springer chapter]

What sets SWP apart from approaches that interpret the finished world is its attention to every moment of building and to the shared experience of the world, not only to the final product. [source: Grayson 2023]

How this differs from the neighbouring tabs:

Tab 151 (World Technique): Lowenfeld's original method.
Tab 152 (Sandtray therapy): generic and humanistic sandtray models.
Tab 154 (Sandplay, Kalff): Kalff's Jungian sandplay, with its silent, non-interpretive "free and protected space".

This tab does not repeat their procedures.

Professional frame. SWP is not a regulated profession and has no statutory title. It is a technique used inside an existing licensed clinical role (psychotherapist, counsellor, psychologist, play therapist). Training is taught experientially: participants take the roles of client, observer and therapist in turn. [source: CACPT workshop listing; Grayson 2023]

For work with children, credentials from play-therapy bodies are the relevant frame:

UK: BAPT or PTUK registration.
USA: APT Registered Play Therapist.

[synthesis] Do not use SWP with children, families or groups unless you hold a clinical licence and have had supervised sand-tray training.

Training and certification. De Domenico taught SWP from Oakland, California, through Vision Quest Into Symbolic Reality and the Sandtray Network. The Network published The Sandtray Network Journal, with issues indexed from 1997 to 2004. [source: Sandtray Network Journal index] The index lists a paper on adults in "level one Sandtray-Worldplay training", so the training was taught in levels. Schadler (2023, p. 1) calls her "a prolific trainer". [uncertain] The content and requirements of the levels, whether an SWP certificate is issued, and whether the programme still runs are all unconfirmed. The World Association of Sand Therapy Professionals publishes the journal that carries the Grayson, Fraser and Schadler papers. Its current training offer is not confirmed here. [uncertain]

2. Framework

Two modes of work. [source: Grayson 2023, describing Vol. 3]

Free, spontaneous play is the default. The builder uses the sand, water and figures however they are drawn to.
Directed experiences are offered when the therapist judges them appropriate. Volume 3 sets out when and how. Grayson's review does not give those conditions, and neither Fraser (2023) nor Schadler (2023) describes them. The Springer chapter has a "Directive Sandtray" section followed by "Safe Place" case examples [source: Springer Publishing book page], but its directive procedures are not reported here. [uncertain]

Session phases (version followed). De Domenico's session has six phases. Two practitioner sources report them under slightly different names. Both names are given below, and this guide follows the six-phase sequence. [source: Fraser 2023, pp. 3–4, citing De Domenico 2002; Schadler 2023, p. 1]

Introduction (introduction to the medium). The witness introduces the tray, sand, water and miniatures and invites the builder to make a world with any of them. Missing items can be found or made. (4.2)
Building (free and spontaneous play). The builder uses the materials in whatever way feels right. The witness observes quietly and may take notes and an occasional photo. (4.4)
Builder experiencing. The builder experiences the finished world and takes the witness on a tour of it. The tour starts wherever it starts and goes where the builder directs. (4.5)
Joint (builder–facilitator) experiencing. The witness asks to join the builder on their side of the tray. Together they get to know the world more closely, through curious questions that stay inside the metaphor and the emerging themes. (4.6)
Reflection. The builder considers whether the emerging themes fit their questions, and may connect them to life outside the tray. The builder is always invited to photograph the world and may give it a title. (4.6a, 4.7)
Clearing ("the Sacred Undoing" in Fraser's wording). The world is dismantled, either by the builder or by the therapist after the builder has left, with respect for what emerged. (4.9)

Schadler (2023, p. 7) adds that the phases can flow into one another or happen at the same time. Fraser (2023, p. 5) notes that builder experiencing can run over several sessions, with no set timeframe.

Other versions. The Springer chapter gives four stages: building and observing, experiencing and reflecting, joint experiencing, and photographing. It leaves out the introduction and the clearing, and treats photographing as a stage of its own. [source: Springer chapter] Grayson (2023) reports that Volume 3, section four, covers "the phases of a Sandtray-Worldplay session". De Domenico's own wording may differ from both reports. [uncertain]

Formats. SWP is used with individual adults and children, couples, families and groups. Volume 3 gives considerations for each format. [source: Grayson 2023] Related papers by De Domenico: couples (1991), individuals, couples and families (1992), group SWP (1999). [source: Grayson 2023; Wiley table of contents]

Session count and length. The sources cited give no typical number of sessions. [uncertain]

[synthesis] For each session, budget enough time for all six phases: often 50–90 minutes for individuals, longer for families or groups. Never cut short reflection or clearing. De Domenico's adult introduction includes a five-minute warning before stopping, unless the builder says first that they have finished. [source for the warning: Schadler 2023, p. 5, paraphrasing the guide, p. 38]
[synthesis] Treatment length follows the overall therapy contract. SWP is usually one modality among several, not a fixed-length protocol.

Moving between phases. The builder leads. The tour in builder experiencing "continues at the direction of the builder". In Fraser's account, the builder moves on from joint experiencing once they have connected metaphors and themes. [source: Springer chapter; Fraser 2023, pp. 3, 5] Practical markers [synthesis]:

Move from building to builder experiencing when the builder says or shows they have finished, for example by stepping back or putting their hands down, or after the five-minute warning.
Move to joint experiencing only once the builder has had their own time with the world and agrees to you joining them on their side of the tray.
Move to reflection when the builder starts linking the world to their questions or their life, or when the exploration inside the metaphor has settled.
If the builder is still adding to or changing the world, you are still in building. Schadler (2023, p. 7) notes that the builder may change the world at any time, so expect the phases to overlap.

Moving between free play and directed work across sessions. [synthesis] Begin with free play. Offer directed experiences for a specific purpose, for example:

a couple's or family's shared world;
a focused theme the client has asked for;
a group task.

Return to free play when the directed work is finished.

3. Guiding principles

The builder's psyche leads. [source: Springer chapter] Follow; do not steer content, pace or meaning.
The process matters as much as the product. [source: Grayson 2023] Observe and note the order of placement, hesitations, burials and changes as closely as the final world. De Domenico's 1986 paper compared analysing a child's final world with analysing the play process.
Hold two kinds of observation at once. [source: Grayson 2023, Vol. 3] As factual observer, keep a silent, accurate mental record of what happens. As observer-witness, convey through your presence that what the builder is doing has meaning in itself. Grayson presents this stance as treating the work as closer to sacred than ordinary (paraphrased).
The world has intrinsic meaning. [source: Grayson 2023] Treat each world as meaningful as it stands. Interpretation is not required to make it count.
A nonverbal bridge. [source: Grayson 2023] Do not push for words. Words that come after the play are welcome but not required.
The builder is the creator of a miniature universe. [source: Grayson 2023] The builder chooses every figure and its meaning. You never rename what something "is".
Integrative, not a set of techniques. [source: Springer chapter] Use Jungian ideas to understand what happens, and draw on your own clinical model for the conversation.
Prepare the play area carefully. [source: Grayson 2023, Vol. 2] Tray, sand, shelving and a well-curated collection are part of the method.
Record faithfully. [source: Grayson 2023, Vol. 3; Springer chapter] Session records and photographs are part of the method.
Free play first; directed work only for a reason. [source: Grayson 2023]
The world is not evidence. [synthesis] A sand world is never proof of abuse, trauma or diagnosis.
Safety and consent come before process. [synthesis] Consent or assent covers touching the world, photographing, sharing images and involving others.

4. Intervention inventory

De Domenico's own step-by-step wording (Vol. 3) is not reproduced in the sources cited. The phase names below, and what happens in the introduction, builder experiencing, joint experiencing, reflection and clearing, come from Fraser (2023) and Schadler (2023), who report her method. The other concrete steps are the writer's working version, marked [synthesis]. Example language is illustrative throughout.

4.1 Preparing the play area and collection

Purpose / when: Before any SWP work, and whenever you review the room. In SWP the setting is part of the method. [source: Grayson 2023, Vol. 2]
What the source covers: Volume 2 deals with tray size, shape and placement, types of sand, clean-up, and a comprehensive figure list with advice on display and curation. The list and dimensions are not reproduced here. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Provide at least one tray with a blue base and sides, so digging suggests water and the walls read as sky. Keep a dry tray and a wet tray if space allows.
2. Shelve figures by category, at heights the builder can see and reach (children, wheelchair users). Typical categories: people, animals, buildings, vehicles, nature, fantasy and spiritual figures, fences and bridges, everyday objects.
3. Include figures from the cultures and family forms of the people you serve.
4. Keep water nearby in a small jug, not a tap.
5. Set up a camera position for overhead and builder's-eye photographs (see 4.7).
Materials safety: [source: BAPT Health & Safety policy 2025]
- Use washed, graded silica play sand. Its hazards are dust inhalation and eye irritation.
- Store sand dry and ventilated. Dampen dust before sweeping or vacuuming spills.
- Wipe washable figures with approved sanitiser before and after sessions. Sieve sand as needed.
- Empty, clean and refill trays each term, and replace sand fully at least once a year.
- Check for breakages before each session and remove unsafe items. Use toys that meet toy-safety standards (UK: Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, UKCA or CE marking).
- Screen for sand sensitivity. Keep food and drink away from sand.
- Encourage hand washing before and after play.
- Remove any figure a child has mouthed for cleaning after the session. Double-bag anything contaminated with bodily fluids and dispose of it.
- Record accidents and incidents.
Additional safety [synthesis]:
- For under-3s, or any client who mouths objects, remove small parts that are a choking risk, as well as glass, sharp metal and magnets.
- Keep wet sand away from electrical equipment.
- Wash sand-covered hands before handling cameras or tablets.
Watch for: A collection with gaps, such as no figures resembling the client, can limit what a builder can show.

4.2 Phase 1: Introduction to the medium

Purpose / when: Opens every session and sets up free, spontaneous play, the default mode. [source: Grayson 2023; Fraser 2023, p. 3] De Domenico wrote one introduction for children and another for adults and adolescents. The content below is paraphrased from Schadler's report of the guide, pp. 34–38, which Schadler cites as 2020. [source: Schadler 2023, pp. 3–5]
Steps, child version [source: Schadler 2023, pp. 3–4]:
1. Invite the child to touch the dry tray and the wet tray and to move the sand however they like.
2. Point out that the blue base can be water, and that a pitcher is there for wetting the sand or making a flood. Show the towel and where to wash.
3. Explain that the objects on the shelves, in baskets and in drawers can be used in any way the child needs. If they cannot find something, you will tell them where it is or make or substitute it. They can ask for help reaching things.
4. Say that you will sit quietly and watch, write notes and take photos now and then, and that they may talk while they work.
5. Say that what they build is entirely up to them, and that they will know when it is right.
Steps, adult and adolescent version [source: Schadler 2023, pp. 4–5]:
1. Name the method as sand tray play or world play. Explain that although it is called play, it is treated as work. The word "play" signals spontaneous, uncensored expression, not something childish.
2. Give the rationale: complex thoughts and feelings are hard to put into words, everyone thinks in images, and the collection is a vocabulary of images for telling one's own story.
3. Say that it is not a test. There is no right or wrong way and nothing to fail.
4. Offer the dry or wet tray, and point out the blue base as water and the pitcher. Invite them to choose objects that speak to them and arrange them in any order, guided by their own sense of what is right, without worrying about meaning.
5. Say that you will sit, sketch, take notes and photographs and stay available. Talking is optional. You will give a five-minute warning before stopping unless they tell you first that they are done. Afterwards you will look at what emerged and talk about it.
Additional steps [synthesis]: Agree what will happen to the world afterwards (see 4.9) and get consent for photographs (4.7). Then become quiet. Schadler (2023, p. 4) adds that De Domenico often encouraged builders to trust their heart and mind and not to analyse or censor their work, repeating this during building as needed.
Example language (illustrative): "You can make anything you like in the sand, with as many of these as you want, or just the sand. There's no right or wrong. I'll sit here and watch, and when you're done we can look at it together."
Watch for: Builders who ask "what should I make?": return the choice to them gently. Some builders go straight to the tray before any introduction (Schadler 2023, p. 6). Let them, and give the essentials as needed. If a builder freezes for a long time, consider a directed experience (4.3).

4.3 Directed experiences

Purpose / when: Structured sand-tray tasks the therapist offers when they judge it appropriate. [source: Grayson 2023, Vol. 3] The conditions and suggestions in Volume 3 were not available. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Name the task and its reason.
2. Keep it open within its frame.
3. Offer, never require.
4. Let the builder change the task.
5. Then follow the same phases as in free play.
Example language (illustrative): "Would you be willing to make a world about how your family feels right now? You can change that however you want."
Watch for: Directed tasks about trauma themes can flood the builder. Pace them as exposure work (see section 5). Ask for assent from children.

4.4 Phase 2: Building (free and spontaneous play)

Purpose: The builder uses the materials in whatever way feels right to them. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 3] The therapist holds two layers of observation: factual observer and observer-witness. [source: Grayson 2023, Vol. 3; Springer chapter] Schadler (2023, p. 7) adds that the therapist treats the builder's choices as meaningful and validates their movement.
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Sit to one side, not opposite, at a distance the builder is comfortable with.
2. Keep a silent or near-silent presence. Do not comment, praise or interpret.
3. As factual observer, note the following (on paper, or memorise and write up later):
  - sequence of placement;
  - figures picked up and put back;
  - burials and uncoverings, use of water;
  - areas left empty;
  - changes of pace, sounds and speech.
4. As observer-witness, stay attentive, warm and unhurried, conveying that what is happening matters.
5. Wait for the builder to signal that they have finished.
Example language (illustrative): Mostly silence. If the builder checks in: "Take all the time you need." Or: "I'm here."
Watch for: Your own urge to interpret. Rapid destruction, or repeated burial and unburial (note it, don't stop it, unless it is unsafe). Signs of dissociation (see section 5). Working: the builder becomes absorbed, and the world develops a structure of its own.

4.5 Phase 3: Builder experiencing

Purpose: The builder experiences the world they made and takes the witness on a tour of it. The tour begins wherever it begins and goes where the builder directs. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 3; Springer chapter] In Schadler's case example, a child noticed how heavy an elephant's load was, the kind of moment this phase opens up. [source: Schadler 2023, p. 7] Linking the world to life outside belongs mainly to reflection (4.6a). How De Domenico guides the tour in detail is not reported in these sources. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Invite the builder to look at the whole world, then from different sides of the tray, standing or seated.
2. Invite them to tell you about it, or to imagine being in it, or being one of the figures.
3. Follow their words. Use their names for figures.
4. Ask open, present-tense questions inside the metaphor.
5. Avoid linking the world to real life unless the builder makes the link.
6. Leave silences.
Example language (illustrative):
- "Would you like to tell me about your world?"
- "If you were somewhere in this world, where would you be?"
- "What is it like to be the fox there?"
- "What's happening here?"
- "What might happen next?"
Watch for: Intellectualising, which you can redirect to looking and sensing. Overwhelm, which you can step back from by using distance and the edge of the tray. Working: the builder finds new meaning, shows emotion in proportion to the material, or spontaneously connects the world to their life.

4.6 Phase 4: Joint (builder–facilitator) experiencing

Purpose: Builder and witness get to know the world more closely together. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 3; Springer chapter] The clinician asks to join the builder on the builder's side of the tray and does not judge the world. [source: Schadler 2023, p. 7] Questions are asked with curiosity and stay inside the metaphor and the emerging themes. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 3] For grief work, Fraser (p. 5) adds that the witness must have processed their own grief first. De Domenico's own rules are not reported in these sources, including whether and how the therapist may touch or move figures. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Ask whether the builder would like you to join them. Then move to their side of the tray, so that you see the world from where they built it. [source: Schadler 2023, p. 7]
2. Share your own responses briefly and tentatively, as your experience rather than a fact about them.
3. Ask permission before pointing closely at, touching or moving any figure. If you move one, put it back exactly.
4. Let the builder correct you.
Example language (illustrative):
- "Would it be all right if we looked at it together for a while?"
- "When I look at this corner, I find myself feeling quiet. I wonder what it's like for you."
- "May I point to this one?"
Watch for: Your contributions taking over the builder's meaning. Children who comply with your view to please you. Working: the builder adds to or disagrees with what you offer.

4.6a Phase 5: Reflection

Purpose / when: After joint experiencing. The builder considers whether the emerging themes fit the questions they brought, and may connect them to life outside the world. The builder is always invited to take a photo, and the world may be given a title. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 4, citing De Domenico 2002] In Schadler's child case, themes such as loneliness were explored and later discussed with the parents, using the tray or some teaching. [source: Schadler 2023, pp. 7–8]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Invite the builder to step back and take in the whole world again.
2. Ask whether anything in the world speaks to what brought them to therapy, or to their life now. Accept "no" as an answer.
3. When they make links, use their words. Do not supply links yourself.
4. Invite a photograph (4.7) and, if they wish, a title.
5. With children, agree with the child what, if anything, may be shared with parents before any parent conversation (4.16).
Example language (illustrative): "Looking at it now, does anything here connect with what's been going on for you?" Or: "If this world had a name, what would it be?"
Watch for: Pushing for insight before the builder is ready. A title is optional. Working: the builder makes their own connections, or names resources they want to keep, as in Fraser's (2023, pp. 8–9) case example.

4.7 Photographing and titling

Purpose: Records the world. In the six-phase sequence, photographing is not a phase of its own. The facilitator takes photos now and then during building, as the introduction tells the builder. The builder is always invited to photograph the world in reflection, when it may also be given a title. [source: Schadler 2023, pp. 4–5; Fraser 2023, p. 4] The Springer chapter lists photographing as its fourth stage. [source: Springer chapter]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Ask consent (and assent from children) to photograph.
2. Take an overhead shot of the whole tray, the view from where the builder sat, and close-ups the builder asks for.
3. Offer the builder the chance to take or direct the photographs.
4. Store images in the clinical record under your data-protection rules (for example UK GDPR), never on personal devices.
5. Do not share images with parents, schools or courts without a lawful basis and the builder's and guardian's informed agreement.
6. Leave faces and identifying features out of the frame.
Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to take a photo so we can remember this world. Is that OK? Where would you like me to take it from?"
Watch for: Builders who do not want a world kept. Respect that and record it in notes instead.

4.8 Recording the session

Purpose: Volume 3, section three, covers recording sessions. [source: Grayson 2023] The format was not available. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Write up the sequence of building (from 4.4), the builder's words, which figures were used, and the stage-by-stage course of the session.
2. Record your own responses separately, labelled as yours.
3. Link the notes to the photographs.
4. Keep factual description apart from hypotheses, so that records cannot be read later as findings of fact about the child's life.

4.9 Phase 6: Clearing ("the Sacred Undoing") and ending the session

Purpose / when: At every session end. This final phase may happen with or without the builder in the room. Sometimes the builder puts the miniatures away. At other times the witness dismantles the world after the builder has left, with deep respect for what emerged. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 4, citing De Domenico 2002] Schadler (2023, p. 8) calls it the clearing phase. She describes the therapist sitting with the world after the client leaves to gain further insight, and notes that the phase is often skipped. A witness who has been activated by a world may keep it longer and undo it later, even the next day. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 5] Fraser gives "the Sacred Undoing" as the phase's name. The name is not confirmed from De Domenico's own text. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Agree at the start what will happen.
2. Give a five-minute warning before the end. [source: Schadler 2023, p. 5]
3. After photographing, invite a brief closing reflection.
4. Offer the builder the choice of leaving the world intact or taking part in clearing it.
5. If you clear the world yourself, do it after the builder has left, and first take time to sit with it. [source: Fraser 2023, p. 4; Schadler 2023, p. 8]
6. Wash hands together at the end.
Example language (illustrative): "We have a few minutes left. Is there anything you want to add or say to your world before we finish?"
Watch for: Distress at leaving the world behind. Use the photograph as a bridge to next time.

4.10 Couples Sandtray-Worldplay

Purpose / when: Couples work, with applications and techniques described in De Domenico's 1991 paper. [source: Grayson 2023, listing the paper] Its specific techniques are not reported in the sources cited here. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis], drawing on the free-play and directed modes above:
- Each partner builds in their own tray, or the couple share one tray, with or without spoken agreement during building.
- Each partner experiences and reflects on their own part first, then on the other's.
- Joint experiencing follows, with the therapist keeping turns fair.
Example language (illustrative): "Before you talk about each other's part, take a moment to look at it from where your partner stood."
Watch for: One partner taking over the other's space. Coercive control. If there is intimate partner violence, use individual sessions and safety planning, not conjoint trays.

4.11 Family Sandtray-Worldplay

Purpose / when: Family work. De Domenico wrote about individuals, couples and families in 1992 and on a child's play mirroring her father's world in 1986. [source: Grayson 2023] Specific family techniques are not reported in the sources cited here. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Agree ground rules: each person's figures are theirs, and no one moves another's figure without asking.
2. Run the phases, giving each member a voice in turn, youngest first if that helps.
3. Notice who places figures near or far from whom.
4. Use the shared world to open conversation, not to reach verdicts about family members.
Watch for:
- Children censoring themselves in front of parents.
- A parent taking the world as an accusation.
- Any disclosure (see 4.16).

4.12 Group Sandtray-Worldplay

Purpose / when: Groups. De Domenico's chapter "Group Sandtray-Worldplay: New Dimensions in Sandplay Therapy" is in the 1999 Handbook of Group Play Therapy. [source: Wiley table of contents] The training listing also includes running a group sand-tray experience. [source: CACPT listing] The chapter's procedures are not reported here. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Choose individual trays with group sharing, or one shared group tray.
2. Set rules for space, turns, touch and confidentiality.
3. Run the phases with a time limit for each.
4. In the sharing stage, members respond only from their own experience, never by interpreting someone else's world.
5. Keep group size small enough for everyone to be witnessed. Use a co-facilitator.
Watch for: Scapegoating through figures, members feeling exposed, and contagion of distress.

4.13 Community adaptation: Peace Play in Urban Settings

Purpose / when: A community healing practice for individuals, families and communities. Participants build scenes with miniatures in sand to express feelings they may lack words for. It is offered by the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute and described as adapted from SWP as De Domenico taught it. [source: LDB Peace Institute page] Its procedures are not published on that page. [uncertain]
How a psychotherapist works alongside it [synthesis]:
- Treat it as community support, not therapy.
- Refer clients who are bereaved by violence and want peer or community spaces.
- Keep clinical sand-tray work separate, and agree with the client what is shared between settings.

4.14 SWP witnessing in grief work

Purpose / when: Bereaved clients. Fraser (2023) coins "grief walking" for builder and witness making the grief journey together, and pairs each SWP phase with a grief task. [source: Fraser 2023, pp. 3–5]
The pairing (paraphrased from Fraser's table, p. 5):
1. Introduction: recognising grief, sometimes from the first miniatures chosen. These are confirmed as grief symbols only later, in joint experiencing.
2. Free and spontaneous play: beginning to identify symptoms and feelings. Symbols may show loss or restoration.
3. Builder experiencing: beginning to play with feelings, shared relationships and the changes in life since the death. This often runs over several sessions.
4. Joint experiencing: accepting the loss and experiencing the pain. The witness needs to have processed their own grief.
5. Reflection: acknowledging a reality without the person who died, and naming other supports.
6. Sacred undoing: photographing and dismantling the world.
Witness stance: Be ready for hard and activating stories, your own as well as the client's. Keep reflecting on your own grief. You do not need to direct the journey or predict how themes will appear. [source: Fraser 2023, pp. 3–4]
Steps [synthesis]: Keep builder experiencing slow and present-focused. Let worlds about the person who died stay as long as needed. Offer the photograph as a keepsake. If a world activates you, hold it before clearing it (Fraser 2023, p. 5) and take it to supervision.
Watch for [synthesis]: Complicated or traumatic grief, suicidal thoughts after a loss (assess them in the usual way), and your own unprocessed losses.

4.15 Projective, assessment and research uses: limits

What the sources show: De Domenico's 1986 dissertation was a methodological study of the sand-tray play process of children without clinical problems, using Lowenfeld's World Apparatus. [source: Knoetze 2013 reference list] Her 1986 paper compared analysing a final world with analysing the play process. [source: Grayson 2023] No cited source gives SWP a standardised scoring system, norms, reliability or validity data for diagnosis. [uncertain] Treat SWP as a therapeutic medium, not a test.
Rules for use [synthesis]:
- Never present a sand world, a figure choice or a play theme as evidence that abuse occurred, or of a diagnosis.
- Common themes such as burials, aggression, sexualised placement, toilets or fences have many explanations, including imitation, media exposure and ordinary development.
- Do not use SWP for forensic interviewing or custody assessment. Refer to trained forensic interviewers working to recognised protocols.
- In reports, describe what was built and said in factual terms. State that sand-tray play has no validated diagnostic meaning.
- Cross-refer: see tab 151 for Lowenfeld's own position on reading worlds, and tabs 152 and 154 for assessment claims in those schools.

4.16 Work with children: safeguarding, consent and assent, parent involvement

Purpose / when: All SWP with under-18s. [synthesis throughout; the SWP sources cited do not address this]
Consent and assent:
- Get informed consent from whoever holds parental responsibility, or under your jurisdiction's rules for mature minors (for example Gillick competence in England and Wales).
- Get the child's own assent in age-appropriate words. Re-check assent for photographing, for sharing images and for directed tasks.
- Agree a simple stop signal.
Explaining confidentiality to the child (illustrative): "What you make here stays between us, except if I'm worried someone is getting hurt. Then I'd need to tell someone whose job is to keep children safe, and I'd tell you first if I can."
Parent or carer involvement:
- Hold separate review meetings with parents or carers.
- Share themes and progress, not interpretations of the child's worlds.
- Share photographs only with the child's agreement and when doing so serves the child.
- Prepare parents for regression or intensified play.
- Where family conflict or alleged abuse is present, take care that parents are not using sessions to gather evidence.
Safeguarding and mandatory reporting:
- Duties differ by jurisdiction and profession. Know yours before starting. Examples:
  - Statutory mandated reporting across US states.
  - Mandatory reporting laws in Australian states and territories.
  - England's multi-agency safeguarding framework, which involves the local authority and the designated safeguarding lead and treats professional duty as strongly expected.
- [uncertain] Check your jurisdiction's statute and your professional body's code for the exact threshold.
- Act on the child's words, on disclosures and on observed injuries or risk. A sand world alone is not grounds for a finding (see 4.15).
- If a child discloses during play:
  1. Stay calm.
  2. Listen without leading questions or suggested figures.
  3. Record the child's exact words and the context.
  4. Photograph the world as part of the clinical record.
  5. Follow your local safeguarding procedure the same day.
Age adaptations:
- Younger children: shorter stages, more movement, larger figures, no small parts for under-3s, and a parent nearby if the child needs it.
- Adolescents: privacy, the choice not to talk, and permission to treat it as "just making something".

4.17 Touch boundaries

Purpose / when: Every session. SWP is hands-on with materials, not bodies. [synthesis]
Rules [synthesis]:
- The therapist does not touch the client during building or exploring.
- Ask before touching the client's world. The builder can say no at any time and keeps the right to correct anything you move.
- Do not do hand-over-hand guiding unless the client asks for it for disability reasons and has consented.
- Any comfort touch with a distressed child follows your agency policy, is non-sexual, is offered rather than imposed, and is recorded.
- Never sexual or genital touch, and never touch as part of interpreting a world. Physical holding or restraint only as a last resort to prevent immediate harm, under your service's policy and training; record it and inform parents or carers. [synthesis]
- Be aware of cultural and trauma-related sensitivity to closeness: offer seating at a distance and an empty-hands option.
- If a child's play becomes sexualised toward you, redirect calmly, stay out of the role, record it and consider safeguarding.

4.18 Therapist's own experiential training

Purpose / when: Before using SWP. Training is taught by experiencing sand-tray work as client, observer and therapist, alongside readings, lectures and small-group practice. [source: CACPT listing]
Steps [synthesis]:
- Build your own worlds with a trained witness.
- Practise silent factual observation and write it up.
- Take your case photographs to supervision.

5. Handling problems

The SWP sources cited do not set out problem handling. Everything below is [synthesis] unless tagged otherwise.

The builder can't start or says "I don't know what to make".

Invite them to touch, pour or smooth the sand first, or to pick one figure that catches their eye.
Offer a light directed frame (4.3).
Normalise an empty or sand-only tray as a valid world.

The builder won't build, or refuses the tray.

Respect it. Sand-tray work is optional.
Leave the shelves visible for future sessions, and continue in talk, drawing or other play.
Do not treat refusal as resistance to be overcome.

Stuck, repetitive worlds across many sessions.

First check whether the repetition is mastery play, which is useful, or stuck play.
In builder experiencing, invite a small shift inside the metaphor (illustrative): "If one thing in this world could change, what would it be?"
Look for changes in the building process, not just the final product (process focus).
Take the photograph series to supervision.

Overwhelm, flooding, dissociation.

Signs: a fixed stare, a flat voice, the builder freezing with a figure in hand, burying compulsively, or panicky dismantling.
Responses:
1. Pause.
2. Ground the builder: feet on the floor, a description of the room, cool water on the hands.
3. Create distance: step back from the tray, look from the edge, or cover a part of the world with a cloth if the builder chooses.
4. Shrink the focus to a safe figure or corner.
5. End with something regulating.
Do not push trauma worlds forward. Pace directed trauma themes like exposure work: get consent, agree a stop signal, build a window of tolerance first, and don't use them in acute crisis, with active psychosis or under severe dissociation without specialist input.

Aggressive or destructive play.

Allow destruction of the world and the figures within the session's limits. Protect people, the room and fragile items.
Set limits calmly (illustrative): "The sand stays in the tray; you can bury it as hard as you need to in here."
Remove breakables in advance with clients who throw.

Sand thrown, eaten or put in eyes, mouth or ears.

Stop the activity and follow first aid.
For eye irritation, flush with water.
Record the incident and inform the carer. [source for incident recording and first aid: BAPT 2025]

Ruptures.

Common causes in SWP: moving or touching a figure without permission, interpreting too soon, showing a photograph to a parent, clearing a world the builder wanted kept.
Name it, apologise, restore what can be restored (for example a figure's place, from the photograph), and agree the rule going forward.

Non-adherence between sessions.

SWP sets no homework.
For missed sessions, use the photographs to reconnect.
Review whether sand-tray work is still the client's preferred medium.

Pressure to interpret.

Clients, parents or colleagues may ask "What does it mean?".
Return the meaning to the builder.
With third parties, describe without interpreting, and explain that sand worlds are not diagnostic (4.15).

A disclosure, or suspected harm.

Follow 4.16: record the exact words, follow your jurisdiction's reporting route, and do not investigate through further play.

Court, school or custody requests for trays or photographs.

Get legal or professional advice.
Release records only under a lawful basis.
Give context in writing: the images are therapy material without validated evidential meaning.

Family and couple sessions turning into conflict.

Pause the joint stages and return to individual trays.
In families, stop if a child is blamed or shamed for their world.

Cultural or spiritual material.

Ask what a figure means to the builder.
Don't impose Jungian archetypal readings on religious or cultural symbols.
Make sure the collection represents the client's world.

Allergies, sensory aversion, disability.

Offer gloves, a tool such as a spoon or brush, dry-only sand, or a raised or tabletop tray.
Screen for sand sensitivity. [source: BAPT 2025]

Therapist fatigue or countertransference to the images.

Write your own responses separately (4.8).
Use supervision and your own sand-tray process (4.18).

Sources

Online sources:

Books and papers cited:

De Domenico, G. S. (2000). Sand Tray World Play: A Comprehensive Guide to the Use of the Sand Tray in Psychotherapeutic and Transformational Settings (3 vols; Vols 1–2 originally 1988). Vision Quest Images (publisher as given in Schadler 2023's reference list; Schadler's in-text citations give the year as 2020).
De Domenico, G. (1986). Lowenfeld World Apparatus: A methodological contribution toward the study and the analysis of the sand tray play process. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology.
De Domenico, G. (1999). Group Sandtray-Worldplay: New dimensions in sandplay therapy. In The Handbook of Group Play Therapy. Jossey-Bass. [uncertain: editors not confirmed]
De Domenico (1986), A Child's Sandtray Play Mirrors the World of her Father; (1991), Sandtray Worldplay with Couples: Applications and Techniques; (1992), Sandtray Worldplay: A Psychotherapeutic Technique for Individuals, Couples and Families. Titles as listed by Grayson (2023). [uncertain: publication venues not confirmed]
De Domenico, G. (2002). The Sandtray-Worldplay method. The Sandtray Network Journal 6(1). Cited by Fraser (2023) as the source of the six phases.
The Sandtray Network Journal (Oakland, CA; Sandtray Network), 1997–2004. Its index lists De Domenico papers including "Sandtray-Worldplay: An innovative transformational method" (6:2), "Experiential dimensions of sandplay: Sandtray-Worldplay theory and illustrated methods" (3:2) and "Sandtray-Worldplay: Using the physical body of consciousness to amplify Experiencing" (8:1). It also lists "The path of the witness: Comparing authentic movement and the phases of the Sandtray-Worldplay session" (1:3) [uncertain: author not shown].

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