Sandplay (Kalff)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Kalffian sandplay as taught by the International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST) and its member societies (Sandplay Therapists of America, STA; British and Irish Sandplay Society, BISS). It rests on Dora Kalff's Sandplay: A Psychotherapeutic Approach to the Psyche (German original 1966; new English edition 2020, ed. Dyane Sherwood, Analytical Psychology Press). The full text is not drawn on for Kalff's book or her journal papers. Procedure below comes from ISST/STA-affiliated authors and society pages that describe her method. [source: STA review page for the 2020 edition; BISS/ISST interview; Cunningham 2024] [uncertain: the 1980 and 2003 English editions were not checked; one secondary paper cites "Kalff, 1966/2003"]

Sandplay is a non-directive, Jungian-based psychotherapy method. The client makes images with sand, water and miniature figures in a standard tray while the therapist watches as an attuned witness. Dora Kalff (1904–1990), a Swiss Jungian, studied with C. G. Jung and with Margaret Lowenfeld, the London paediatrician whose "World Technique" used a sandbox and miniatures. Kalff kept Lowenfeld's materials and added analytical psychology. She named the result "sandplay" (from German Sandspiel) to set it apart from Lowenfeld's work, and she later used it with adults as well as children. [source: BISS/ISST interview; de Little 2020; STA FAQ] For the Lowenfeld method and non-Jungian sand-tray approaches, see the companion guides 151 World Technique, 152 Sandtray therapy and 153 Sandtray-worldplay in this family. This guide covers only what is specific to Kalffian sandplay.

How change happens, in the school's own terms (these are Jungian theory, not established fact): inside a "free and protected space" made by the relationship and the tray, unconscious material takes shape as images. The client is supported and contained, not interpreted to, so the process unfolds in its own time as a "transformation of energies" (Kalff's abstract). [source: Kalff 1991 abstract, JST 1(1)] Kalff saw positive transference as protecting the client and helping the process go deeper. It was meant to help "enhance the constellation of the Self" (Mitchell & Friedman 1994, p. 80, quoted in de Little 2020). The Self is Jung's central, organising archetype. [source: Cunningham 2024; de Little 2020] Current ISST teachers add a neuroscience reading: the sensory, bodily work in sand acts "bottom-up" and the verbal work around it acts "top-down". This is one teacher's hypothesis. [source: BISS/ISST interview]

2. Framework

Kalffian sandplay has no manualised phases or fixed session count. It is an open-ended process within ongoing psychotherapy. The phase structure below is a practical arrangement of what the sources describe [synthesis]; where a source exists it is tagged.

Phase 0: Training and set-up before first use. Do not offer sandplay until you have trained in it and had your own sandplay process. ISST certification requires a personal process with an ISST-certified therapist, and the ISST president warns that the method can harm when used inappropriately or by inadequately trained people. [source: BISS/ISST interview] Professional frame:

ISST was founded by Kalff with 13 founding members from six countries and inaugurated in 1985. It is based in Zürich and acts as an umbrella for regional societies (15 at the time of the interview, with developing groups in a further 20 countries). The ISST Board and General Assembly set minimum membership standards, and regional societies may add their own. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
STA (USA) levels: Associate (open to anyone); Registered Sandplay Practitioner (RSP); Certified Sandplay Therapist (CST); Teaching Member (CST-T). RSP and CST both require a postgraduate degree, licensure in a mental-health field and malpractice insurance.
- RSP: personal sandplay process, 36 training hours, 15–25 consultation hours, 2 references.
- CST: 100 hours of analysis, psychotherapy or personal sandplay; 120 training hours; consultation of 40 hours before candidacy then 80 more; an advisor; a first symbol paper; an advisory interview (after which the applicant is a Candidate); a second symbol or theory paper; and a final case paper.
- CST-T: two years as a CST, plus a further case study, co-teaching, conference attendance, and a presentation or publication. [source: STA certification process page]
BISS offers modular training for the UK and Ireland. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Sandplay is not a regulated profession in itself. It is a specialist method used by people already licensed or registered as psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, play or arts therapists. Your core registration and its ethics code govern your practice. [synthesis, inferred from STA prerequisites]

Phase 1: Referral, assessment, consent. Assess for suitability. The STA notes that most clients benefit but some are not ready; for them, other therapy or play therapy comes first. Clients with a history of psychosis are generally offered sandplay in recovery, not in acute phases, alongside psychiatric care and with close monitoring, because it can cause unhelpful regression. [source: STA FAQ; BISS/ISST interview] Before starting, get informed consent, including consent to photographs (see 4.1). With children, get parent or carer consent and the child's assent. [source: Tornero & Capella 2017 used guardian consent plus child verbal assent; the rest is synthesis]

Phase 2: Verbal work first. The STA says verbal therapy generally comes before sandplay. Introduce the tray once a working alliance exists. [source: STA FAQ]

Phase 3: The tray series. The client makes trays at sessions of their choosing, inside regular therapy hours. There can be talk before and after the tray. [source: BISS/ISST interview] No interpretation is given while the series is underway. The therapist records each tray, then photographs and dismantles it after the client has left. [source: Rhodes 2006; Cunningham 2024] Format: individual, usually weekly sessions of standard length (about 50 minutes in the one research protocol opened, which was not Kalffian). [synthesis; Tornero & Capella 2017]

Phase 4: Deepening and process reading. Between sessions the therapist reflects on the sequence privately, in consultation, using Jungian symbol knowledge and, in many teachers' practice, Erich Neumann's map of ego development ("from uroboric to hero"). Bobo (1997) applies this map to children's processes and warns that severely traumatised children may struggle to reach, or may never reach, the hero stage. That should temper expectations. [source: Bobo 1997 abstract; de Little 2020] [uncertain: Kalff's own stage names and criteria were not read in her text; do not treat any stage label as a diagnosis]

Phase 5: Ending and delayed review. Interpretation is delayed until after the sand process has finished. [source: Cunningham 2024] One STA-affiliated author says integration may take a year or more for adults after a series of trays, and less time for children. [source: Rhodes 2006] [uncertain: the commonly taught joint review of tray photographs at the end of therapy is not described in the sources; if you offer one, it is your clinical choice]

Criteria for moving on [synthesis]:

Phase 1 to 2: the client is not in acute psychosis or crisis, and consent and assent are in place.
Phase 2 to 3: there is enough trust and the client shows interest in the tray or the shelves. Never press the tray on a client.
Phase 3 to 5: the client stops turning to the tray, verbal integration grows, and the presenting goals have been met.

3. Guiding principles

Free and protected space (Kalff's phrase): the relationship and the tray must feel safe enough for anything to appear. Practical meaning: keep the frame steady (same room, same time, collection always available) and keep the protection reliable. [source: BISS/ISST interview; de Little 2020]
Non-directiveness: the client chooses what to make and whether to make anything. The only instruction reported is "Make whatever you like in the sand." Practical meaning: no themes, no prompts to add or remove figures. [source: Cunningham 2024; STA FAQ]
No interpretation during the process: Kalff's abstract says "Interpretation is never given", and the ISST says no direct interpretation of images is given at the time they are made. Practical meaning: no comments on what a figure "means", even if asked. [source: Kalff 1991 abstract; BISS/ISST interview; Cunningham 2024]
Active, attuned witness, not passive observer: the ISST compares the therapist to an attuned mother watching a child play, and the STA calls the therapist an "active witness and guide". Practical meaning: sit with full attention, notice your own feeling responses, and stay quiet but present. [source: BISS/ISST interview; STA FAQ]
"Being with" rather than "doing to": accept every image, follow the process without leading, and keep boundaries that suit each client. [source: Cunningham 2024]
The therapist must understand symbols: Kalff held that the therapist's grasp of symbolism is essential, even though it is not voiced to the client. Practical meaning: study symbols and archetypes, and use that understanding to guide your verbal work and your sense of where the client is. [source: de Little 2020; BISS/ISST interview]
The tray stays intact in the client's mind: the client takes the finished scene away as an inner image, so the client never watches it being dismantled. Practical meaning: photograph and clear the tray only after they leave. [source: Rhodes 2006]
Relational triad: client, therapist and materials together make the process. Practical meaning: your presence is part of the intervention, so watch your own reactions. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Individual work by default: traditional ISST sandplay is individual. Group use, such as reconciliation work or training exercises, needs clear objectives and must be kept separate from personal therapy. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Jungian concepts are the school's theory: the Self, archetypes, the collective unconscious, shadow, individuation and Neumann's stages are the theory of Kalff and the Jungian school. Practical meaning: use them as a lens for your private reflection. They are not facts about the client and not diagnostic categories. [synthesis; terms per de Little 2020]
Not an assessment test: Kalffian sandplay is a therapy process, not a validated projective instrument. Practical meaning: never infer abuse, diagnosis or a custody-relevant fact from a tray (see 4.15). [synthesis; Allen & Tussey 2012; Tornero & Capella 2017]
Training before use: practical meaning: use the method only after training and your own process, and keep it under consultation. [source: BISS/ISST interview; STA certification page]

4. Intervention inventory

Kalffian sandplay has one core intervention: a freely made tray, witnessed and not interpreted. Everything else is the frame and the therapist's work around it. Items 4.1–4.3 are set-up, 4.4–4.10 the in-session sequence, 4.11–4.14 the therapist's work outside the session and the ending, and 4.15–4.17 the safeguards that apply throughout. Example language is illustrative unless quoted.

4.1 Consent, assent and the photograph agreement

Purpose / when: before the first tray, and again whenever circumstances change (new carer, court involvement, the client turning 16 or 18). [synthesis]
Steps:
1. Explain the method in plain words: free play with sand and figures, no tests, no marks, no interpretation during the work.
2. Explain that you will photograph each tray after the client leaves, as part of the clinical record. State who can see the photos, how they are stored (encrypted, with the record, under your data-protection law) and how long you keep them.
3. Explain confidentiality and its limits, including safeguarding.
4. For children, get written consent from whoever holds parental responsibility, and the child's own assent in words they understand. Re-check assent if the child seems reluctant.
5. For adults lacking capacity, follow your jurisdiction's capacity law.
6. Record everything. [synthesis; Tornero & Capella 2017 used guardian consent plus child verbal assent and noted children reacted mixedly to the camera]
Example language (illustrative):
- To a child: "This is a special sand box. You can make anything you want, or nothing. After you go, I take a picture so I can remember it. Is that OK with you?"
- To an adult: "I won't interpret what you make while we're working. The photos are part of your confidential record."
Watch for: a carer who wants the photos or a "reading" of them. Agree in advance what feedback carers get (see 4.16). Check the client understood by asking them to repeat the limits back.

4.2 Setting up the room, trays and collection

Purpose / when: before you offer sandplay. The room is part of the protected space. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Steps:
1. Use a rectangular tray with a blue, water-resistant interior, half-filled with sand. The STA gives two size standards: European 49.5 × 72 × 7.5 cm and American 19.5 × 28.5 × 3 in. The blue can suggest sky or water. [source: STA FAQ; Cunningham 2024; Rhodes 2006]
2. Keep two trays, one with dry sand and one with moist sand, and have water available for the client to add. [source: STA FAQ; Rhodes 2006]
3. Put a large collection of miniatures on open shelves, covering the outer and inner world: people, animals, plants, stones, buildings, vehicles, fairy-tale and religious figures. [source: Rhodes 2006; Cunningham 2024]
4. Place the tray where you can sit nearby with a clear view, without hovering. [synthesis]
5. Keep the collection stable between sessions so the client can find things again. [synthesis]
Materials safety [synthesis]:
- Use washed sand sold as children's play sand, not builders' or industrial sand. Some sands carry fine crystalline-silica dust; avoid dry-pouring indoors and keep dry sand from being thrown at faces.
- Sieve the sand regularly. Replace it after contamination with blood, vomit, urine or food, after a child with an infectious skin condition or lice has played, or on a fixed schedule.
- Change moist sand and water more often, as damp sand grows mould and bacteria.
- Offer hand-washing before and after the session.
- Keep small or choking-size items out of reach of children under three. Take out or glue down figures with sharp, glass or breakable parts. Avoid lead-painted antique figures. Keep magnets and button batteries out of the collection.
- Ask about allergies, eczema and sensory sensitivities.
- Protect the floor and keep a clear walkway to prevent slips on spilled sand.
Cultural care: religious and culturally sacred figures belong in a respectful collection. Store them with care and never use them as props for jokes. [synthesis]
Watch for: a collection so large it overwhelms, or so sparse it limits expression; adjust after consultation. [synthesis]

4.3 Introducing the tray (the invitation)

Purpose / when: once a working alliance exists (verbal work usually comes first) and the client shows interest, or when words are not reaching the material. [source: STA FAQ]
Steps:
1. Show the trays, let the client touch both kinds of sand, and point out the shelves and the water.
2. Give the single open instruction. Cunningham reports it as "Make whatever you like in the sand." [source: Cunningham 2024]
3. Say the tray is optional this session and any session.
4. Then step back.
Example language (illustrative): "These are here whenever you want them. You can use the sand, the water and any of the figures. There's no right way."
Watch for: performance anxiety or a sense that this is a test. If so, say again that there is no right way and that you will not be judging it. Adults may feel it is childish; see 5.

4.4 Choosing wet or dry sand and adding water

Purpose / when: each tray. The two kinds of sand allow different expression. [source: STA FAQ]
Steps:
1. Let the client choose, and let them add water as they wish. [source: Rhodes 2006; Cunningham 2024]
2. Don't steer toward one or the other. [synthesis]
3. If flooding is putting the tray or room at risk, set a calm practical limit on how much water can go in (for example, a jug of fixed size). [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Either tray is fine."
- If setting a limit: "The water stays in the tray; this jug is what we have today."
Watch for: note the choice and how the sand is handled (smoothing, digging, burying, mounding, uncovering the blue) in your record. These are things you observe, not meanings to tell the client. [synthesis]

4.5 Silent attuned witnessing during construction

Purpose / when: throughout tray-making. This is the core of the method. [source: BISS/ISST interview; Rhodes 2006; Cunningham 2024]
Steps:
1. Sit quietly, near but not intruding.
2. Follow closely with full attention and notice your own bodily and feeling responses.
3. Don't suggest, praise, question meaning, or touch the tray or figures. [source: Cunningham 2024; Rhodes 2006]
4. If the client talks, respond briefly and reflectively without interpreting.
5. Keep the frame. Kalff herself could hold a firm "no" when it was needed. [source: Chambers, "Working with Dora Kalff", STA]
Example language (illustrative): usually none. If the client speaks: "Mm." "You're taking your time with that one."
Watch for:
- Signs it is working: absorption, a change of pace, spontaneous sighs, relief or surprise, scenes that change across sessions. [synthesis]
- Signs of trouble: dissociation, panic, or the client checking your face for approval; respond as in 5.

4.6 Recording the process

Purpose / when: during or straight after each tray. The record lets you track the series. [source: Rhodes 2006]
Steps:
1. Note the order in which figures are chosen and placed. [source: Rhodes 2006]
2. Note the client's emotional state and your own. [source: Rhodes 2006]
3. Note any dialogue. [source: Rhodes 2006]
4. Note which tray was used, whether water was added, how the sand was moved, what was removed or reconsidered, and how the client left the tray. [synthesis]
5. Use a simple sketch map to label positions if that is your habit. [synthesis]
6. Write discreetly, so that recording doesn't break the client's absorption. [synthesis]
Watch for: your notes drifting into interpretation. Keep observation ("placed snake in centre") separate from hypothesis ("?shadow figure"). [synthesis]

4.7 Talking before and after the tray

Purpose / when: the client may speak before and after the play. This gives room for verbal reflection, and the therapist's verbal work can be guided by what the tray shows. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Steps:
1. When the tray is finished, let the client look at it for as long as they want.
2. Invite, don't require, anything they want to say about it.
3. Use their words, not symbolic labels.
4. Don't offer meaning. If you link the tray to something, link it to life themes the client has already voiced, and only if it fits your understanding of the process. [source: BISS/ISST interview; Cunningham 2024 on delayed interpretation; steps 2–4 synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Is there anything you'd like to say about it, or would you rather just look?" "You called this one 'the quiet place'."
Watch for: the client asking "What does it mean?" (see 5). It is working if the client shows curiosity, feels ownership, and connects the tray to their life on their own.

4.8 Photographing the tray after the client leaves

Purpose / when: after every tray. The photos keep the series for later reflection and consultation. [source: Rhodes 2006]
Steps:
1. After the client has gone, photograph the tray from the client's side and from above. Add detail shots if needed. [source: Rhodes 2006 for timing; angles are synthesis]
2. Label each photo with a client code, date and tray number, and store it as part of the confidential clinical record. [synthesis]
Watch for: a client who wants to photograph it themselves. Decide your policy in consultation and keep to it. [synthesis]

4.9 Dismantling the tray (therapist, after the session)

Purpose / when: after photographing. The client keeps the tray as an inner image between sessions, so they should not see it dismantled or take part. [source: Rhodes 2006]
Steps:
1. Return each figure to its usual shelf place. [source: Rhodes 2006]
2. Smooth the sand and check for damaged or soiled items. [synthesis]
3. Allow time between clients so the next client never sees the previous tray. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative), to a child who wants to tidy up: "You don't need to tidy this one. I'll take care of it after you go."
Watch for: your own reactions while dismantling. Note them; they can be useful countertransference material. [synthesis]

4.10 Holding limits inside the free space

Purpose / when: whenever play threatens safety, the materials or the frame. For example: throwing sand at people, breaking figures on purpose, taking figures home, or making the therapist a player. [synthesis; Cunningham 2024 notes boundaries suited to each client]
Steps:
1. Name the limit briefly, without shaming. [synthesis]
2. Offer a contained alternative, such as pressing, burying or smashing within the sand. [synthesis]
3. If the behaviour continues, end the tray for that session. [synthesis]
4. Keep the limit consistent across sessions. Kalff's firm, undiscussed "no" is one model of this. [source: Chambers, STA; rest synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "The sand stays in the tray. You can be as rough as you like with it in there." "The figures live here, so they'll be here next time."
Watch for: the limit being taken as rejection. Afterwards, check the relationship with a brief, warm comment. [synthesis]

4.11 Between-session symbolic reflection and consultation

Purpose / when: after sessions. This is where the therapist's symbolic understanding, which Kalff held to be essential, is built up and kept from the client. [source: de Little 2020; Rhodes 2006]
Steps:
1. Look at the photographs in sequence.
2. Note the themes that recur and change, the use of space, the figures and how the sand is handled.
3. Write down possible meanings using Jungian amplification, but hold them open until they prove meaningful over time. [source: Rhodes 2006]
4. Take the series to consultation with an ISST/STA-certified consultant. Consultation hours are part of certification. [source: STA certification page; Rhodes 2006 shows tray discussion with a colleague]
Watch for: fixing too early on one meaning; projecting your own material onto the series. Your personal sandplay process is the guard against this. [source: BISS/ISST interview; rest synthesis]

4.12 Process reading with a developmental map (Neumann)

Purpose / when: as an orientating lens in your own reflection, never as a measure given to the client or used in reports. [synthesis]
Steps:
1. Using Neumann's map of ego development as taught in sandplay training (from uroboric beginnings toward the hero), think about where the series seems to be. [source: Bobo 1997 abstract]
2. Treat any sense that the Self is constellated, a centring image for example, as the school's hypothesis to hold quietly, not a claim to state. [source: de Little 2020 citing Mitchell & Friedman 1994; keywords of Kalff 1969/2007 list centering and ego development]
3. With severely traumatised children, expect that the process may stall before the hero stage. Set your goals realistically. [source: Bobo 1997 abstract]
Watch for: stage labels turning into expectations you press on the client. [synthesis] [uncertain: Kalff's own stage terms and criteria not read in her text]

4.13 Integrating sandplay with verbal therapy

Purpose / when: throughout. The images may guide the therapist's verbal work by showing the client's stage and issues beneath the surface. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Steps:
1. Run verbal sessions and tray sessions in the same therapy, in whatever mix the client chooses. [synthesis]
2. Let what you understand from the trays shape your pacing and your choice of topics, for example slowing down when trays look disorganised. Do not reveal the tray-based reasoning. [synthesis; BISS/ISST interview for the principle]
Example language (illustrative): "We've been working hard on this lately. It might be a week to go gently."
Watch for: splitting, where the tray becomes the only place feelings go. Gently invite words, but don't push. [synthesis]

4.14 Ending and delayed interpretation

Purpose / when: when the therapy is ending or the tray series has clearly finished. Interpretation is delayed until after the sand process is complete. [source: Cunningham 2024]
Steps [synthesis unless tagged]:
1. Agree the ending in advance, with the number of sessions remaining.
2. Allow a final tray if the client wants one.
3. If you and the client choose to review the photographs, do it after the series is over and at the client's pace. Let them say what they notice first. Offer your understanding tentatively and in everyday language.
4. For adults, allow time for integration; one author suggests a year or more. [source: Rhodes 2006]
5. Decide in advance whether the client may have copies of the photos and how they will be released.
Example language (illustrative): "If you'd like, we can look back over the pictures together. What do you notice?"
Watch for: a review used to sum up or close down the process too early. Grief at ending can surface in the final trays; acknowledge it. [synthesis] [uncertain: the formal end-of-therapy photo review is common in teaching but not described in the sources]

4.15 Projective and assessment caution

Purpose / when: whenever anyone, including you, a parent, a school or a court, wants a tray to show something. [synthesis]
Steps:
1. State plainly in records and reports that sandplay images are clinical process material, not test results.
2. Don't describe trays as "indicators" of abuse or disorder.
3. Report what was observed and what the child said, in their words, without symbolic inference. [synthesis]
Evidence base:
- A systematic review of controlled research found that no projective-drawing indicator or scoring system is valid enough to identify sexual or physical abuse. [source: Allen & Tussey 2012]
- No equivalent validated indicator set for sandplay is described in the sources. Treat sand trays with at least the same caution. [synthesis]
- A qualitative sand-tray study with sexually abused children identified abuse in a separate diagnostic assessment before treatment. Its authors present symbol readings (for example, digging as secrecy, the snake as phallic) only as speculation, stress each child's own meaning, and warn that a sexual-trauma framework can bias interpretation. [source: Tornero & Capella 2017]
Watch for: your own confirmation bias when you already suspect abuse. Seek consultation and a forensic referral rather than "reading" trays. [synthesis]

4.16 Work with children: parents, carers and safeguarding

Purpose / when: throughout any child sandplay. [synthesis unless tagged]
Parent or carer involvement:
1. Meet carers separately for history and regular reviews. One STA-affiliated case had a parent interviewed separately while the therapist worked with the child. [source: Rhodes 2006]
2. Give carers process-level feedback ("engaged, using the tray regularly, themes of safety"), not tray contents or interpretations, and agree this at intake.
3. Keep carers out of the sandplay room unless there is a specific, agreed dyadic reason.
Age adaptations:
- Under fives: smaller collection, no choking hazards, closer supervision, and a shorter session if needed.
- School-age: the standard method.
- Adolescents: privacy, more say over records and photographs, and an option to talk instead.
Safeguarding:
1. Know your jurisdiction's duties before the first session. Mandatory reporting laws, who counts as a mandated reporter, thresholds and timelines differ by country and by state or province, and your professional code and employer may set further duties. Keep a current local contact for child-protection services.
2. If a child discloses harm in words or in play-talk, listen calmly and don't question in a leading way. Write down the child's exact words, the date and the context. Don't promise secrecy. Then follow your local procedure, which usually means consulting your designated safeguarding lead or supervisor and making a report.
3. A tray alone is not a disclosure and not evidence (see 4.15). It may still prompt a careful, non-leading conversation and consultation.
4. Don't interview forensically yourself unless you hold that role.
Touch:
- The therapist does not touch the tray while the child is building. [source: Cunningham 2024; Rhodes 2006]
- Don't take part when invited to be buried, to have hands covered in sand, or to touch the child. Decline warmly.
- Help with hand-washing only with what is age-appropriate, in the child's sight, and preferably done by the child. Follow your service's touch policy.
- Never touch in a sexual or genital way. Never be alone with a child in a room without a line of sight or a door policy if your setting requires one. 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]
Example language (illustrative): "You can bury your own hands. I'll stay over here and watch." "What you've told me is important. I need to make sure you're safe, so I'll talk to someone whose job is to help with that."

4.17 Training, personal process and consultation

Purpose / when: before and during practice.
Steps: follow your regional ISST society's route, for example the STA route of RSP, then CST, then CST-T, or BISS modular training. Complete a personal sandplay process with an ISST-certified therapist and keep up regular case consultation. [source: STA certification page; BISS/ISST interview]
Watch for: using "sand tray" techniques after a weekend course and calling it Kalffian sandplay. Don't use the method without that training; where it is part of your core training, such as play therapy, make clear which method you are using. [synthesis; BISS/ISST interview on harm from inadequately trained use]

5. Handling problems

The sources address only a few of these problems. Each one is tagged; untagged responses are my own synthesis.

Client never uses the tray.
- The STA notes some clients are not ready, and other therapy may come first. Keep the trays available and keep working verbally. [source: STA FAQ]
- Don't remind the client or make it a goal. Refusal is a choice to respect within the free space. [synthesis]
Adult feels sandplay is childish or silly. Normalise it: the STA describes it as suitable for adults. Offer it as an option, and say they can just touch the sand or browse the shelves. [source: STA FAQ; rest synthesis]
- Example (illustrative): "Many adults find it surprising. You can just put your hands in the sand and see."
"What does it mean?" Don't interpret. [source: Kalff 1991 abstract; BISS/ISST interview] Turn the question back gently and say you will reflect together later. [synthesis]
- Example (illustrative): "I'm more interested in what it's like for you. Maybe we'll look back at these together further on."
Same tray repeated for weeks (feeling stuck). Repetition may be the work; hold it without pressure. Take the series to consultation. [synthesis]
- With traumatised children, accept that the process may not progress far along developmental lines. [source: Bobo 1997 abstract]
- Check outside factors (ongoing danger at home, changes in medication) before assuming it is "resistance". [synthesis]
Chaotic, flooded or destructive trays; throwing sand. Hold safety limits (4.10). [synthesis]
- If trays stay disorganised and the client seems more distressed between sessions, slow down. Return to verbal or regulating work, and consider whether the client is in an acute phase. With clients who have a history of psychosis, sandplay belongs in recovery, not the acute phase, with psychiatric care and monitoring for regression. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Overwhelm or dissociation during play.
1. Stop witnessing silently and become an active, grounding presence: name the room, the time and your presence.
2. Invite the client to feel their feet, or to feel the dry sand as texture rather than as image.
3. Leave the tray standing and end with orientation. Review safety and the support available before they go.
4. If it recurs, pause sandplay. [synthesis]
Unhelpful regression (more dependence, loss of function between sessions). The ISST president warns of this risk. Lengthen intervals between trays, increase verbal containment, involve the wider care team and consult. [source: BISS/ISST interview; responses synthesis]
Child wants the therapist to play, build or be buried. Decline warmly. Offer to watch closely and to name what you see without meaning. [synthesis] Witnessing without leading is the method. [source: Cunningham 2024]
Client wants to take figures home or keep the tray. Explain that the figures live here and the tray stays in the room. Their memory of it is theirs to keep. [synthesis; Rhodes 2006 on the inner image]
Client (or parent) wants to photograph the tray. Follow your agreed policy (4.1, 4.8). [synthesis]
- If allowed, the photo is part of the client's own record, and others' trays must never appear in it.
- Images shared on social media breach the protected space.
Disclosure during play. Follow 4.16 exactly: listen, record the words, don't lead, don't promise secrecy, and follow your jurisdiction's reporting and safeguarding procedure. [synthesis]
Requests for a tray-based report (custody, school, social services, court).
- Decline to give symbolic readings and explain why, citing the lack of validated indicators. [source: Allen & Tussey 2012; Tornero & Capella 2017]
- Give factual attendance and process information only, with consent. Refer forensic questions to a forensic evaluator. [synthesis]
Your own urge to interpret, rescue or arrange. This is common in new practitioners. Take it to consultation and your personal process; that is why certification requires both. [source: STA certification page; BISS/ISST interview; rest synthesis]
Rupture (the client feels watched, judged or abandoned by your silence). Name the frame again and ask what the silence felt like. [synthesis]
- Some clients need more verbal contact during the tray. Adapt this within the non-interpretive stance, since boundaries should suit each client. [source: Cunningham 2024 on individual boundaries; rest synthesis]
Cultural or religious offence at a figure. Acknowledge it and move the figure out of sight if the client wishes. Review your collection with cultural consultation. [synthesis]
Sacred sand practices. Don't equate sandplay with sacred sand practices such as Diné sandpainting or the Tibetan sand mandala. Don't import ceremony. [synthesis]
Group or family requests. Traditional ISST sandplay is individual. If you use sand in groups, set clear objectives and keep it separate from personal therapy. [source: BISS/ISST interview] See 151 World Technique, 152 Sandtray therapy and 153 Sandtray-worldplay for other sand and play formats.
Online therapy. Without a physical tray this is not Kalffian sandplay as described here. If you use digital tray tools, name them as a different method. [synthesis] The ISST permits online supervision only between people who have already met. [source: BISS/ISST interview]
Sand or hygiene incidents (sand in eyes, a cut from a broken figure, bodily fluids in the sand).
1. Give first aid and flush eyes with water.
2. Remove the contaminated sand and replace it.
3. Record the incident and inform carers where appropriate.
4. Review the collection's safety (4.2). [synthesis]

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