Sandtray-worldplay

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Gisela Schubach De Domenico · 2000 · Oakland, California

What it is

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…

Format

• 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.
• 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.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

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

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Scapegoating through figures, members feeling exposed, and contagion of distress.
• Distress at leaving the world behind. Use the photograph as a bridge to next time.
• Builders who do not want a world kept. Respect that and record it in notes instead.
• A collection with gaps, such as no figures resembling the client, can limit what a builder can show.
• Children censoring themselves in front of parents. A parent taking the world as an accusation. Any disclosure (see 4.16).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.