“A symbol has the potential to link the known to the unknown, to unblock energy, and to reconcile what cannot be reconciled. A symbol leads us back to our original totality, healing our alienation from life.”  

 -Dyane Sherwood

Understanding and resolving anxiety or depression often starts with recognizing the dualities at war within us. Our present may be doing battle with our past; our fear of the future may be laying siege to our experience of the present. Sometimes one force threatens to strangulate the other. Our thinking side, for example, may become so powerful that we suffer intrusive thoughts and find ourselves endlessly spinning in a vortex of cognition. Meanwhile, our feeling side is repressed and desperate for its chance to thrive. Or we may be mired in the practical details of life, while our intuitive side—which loves to roam freely in the realm of ideas and possibilities—starves quietly in a closet or lockbox. Ask yourself: are you thinking, but no longer emoting? Are you engaged with the physical world, but find that you no longer have access to your dreams? If elements of our lives feel one-sided, the same is likely true for our psyches. We are in need of balance, a restoration of what we have lost alongside maintenance of what we have worked to build. 

Sand tray therapy is a means of linking our inner dualities—a chance to build a bridge between what seems irreconcilable. On first glance, it is simple: peruse shelves of miniatures, choose the ones that speak to you, and arrange them in the sand. But sand tray therapy is a profound exercise in healing. The nature of sand itself is symbolic of the joining of opposites; sand exists where the sea meets land, and it is no coincidence that it appears in hourglasses which speak of both chronological time and something deathless. The creation of a sand tray scene is kinesthetic, yet intuitive; it also serves to cross the chasm between our left and right brain, inviting not just cognition but emotion into the field of play. What ideas, memories, or desires have spent years vagrant and unknown may surprise us by setting down stakes in the sand. What emotions cannot be expressed in words may manifest themselves in the silent interactions of miniatures. For many, these sand scenes serve as an act of integration, therapeutic in and of themselves. The tray is a safe and protected space where we can express ourselves through metaphor, cut through the quagmires of intellectualization or rationalization, and access what lies buried in our unconscious minds. 

It is said that for many, a sand tray scene can reveal not just one’s internal struggle or problem, but the existence of inner resources that may yield a solution. The “problem” is often a conflict, deficit, or unresolved trauma barricading someone from fulfillment. The “solution” might be imagined as a kind of redemption via integration. When a sand tray scene constellates both a question and a possible answer, we experience the empowerment of revelation—and the birth of hope.  

At Within Holistic Counseling, we offer sand tray therapy as part of our integrative approach to healing. We are here to answer any questions you may have about this modality. As always, our goal is to help you heal so that you can enjoy the fullest life possible.