22 & 23 Mar 2025 | 2-day Sandplay Training Workshop | In-Person | FULLY BOOKED

Join us for this two-day training weekend where experiential use of the sand trays and figurines will join theory to inform our work as therapists. Whether you are an art, drama, play or other therapist, sand tray work offers infinite opportunities to experiment, enact, dream and reconfigure experiences.

Using the sand tray as a container, you will have the chance to explore, play, reflect and learn while remaining open to the possibilities inherent in a range of figurines/symbols. The experiential nature of the workshop will allow participants to explore this medium as a mirror of different aspects of themselves in a safe space.

An introduction to the skills, models and approaches to sand tray work will also be presented. We will explore how varied theories, including those relating to child development and attachment, apply to working with both child and adult clients. We will also give some time to use the sand trays as a dynamic supervision landscape to reflect on our own projections and fantasies around client work.

By the end of the weekend participants will have:

• Experienced the use of figurines and the sand tray as a containing space
• Considered varied theories relating to symbolic play and their application
• Developed an understanding of the use of Sandplay with clients
• Explored how to use sand tray work to complement and as an adjunct to other therapy work
• Learnt about using the sand tray in supervision, as supervisor and supervisee.

Because the nature of Sandplay is pre-verbal and symbolic, the greatest emphasis lies in the experiential component of this weekend workshop. As part of a small group of six, there will be the opportunity to work in pairs as both creator and silent witness, coming together to reflect upon the sand pictures. The work will be treated sensitively; the world creators will be given space to allow for the growth of their self-awareness. Therefore, we prefer only fully qualified arts therapists (of any modality), or final year trainees to be accepted into this training. Please email trainings@arttherapycentre.com if you need to clarify.

Facilitator:

Taylor Smart qualified at Goldsmiths in 2015 and has worked as an Art Therapist ever since. She has experience working in private practice, for the NHS, in educational settings and for the third sector with children, young people and adults. Both her clinical work and supervisory practice incorporate integrative approaches, including Sandplay. She delivers training to Art Therapists, students and other allied health professionals on a variety of themes, and has managed the administration of the training programme at London Art Therapy Centre since 2021.

“Feeling creative and inspired after a weekend experiential workshop using the sand tray to play, reflect and learn, the sand acting as a medium to mirror different aspects of the inner world within a safe external container. I was really struck by the healing power of the sand tray and the way it allowed embodied and unconscious feelings to surface during non-verbal exploration….It made me think how powerful the use of sand tray can be when working with clients that have pre-verbal trauma and within the landscape of supervision, to reflect on our own projections and phantasies around client work.” Art therapist (April 2024 weekend).