A sandplay therapist works with a tray of sand and a collection of small figures, which the person arranges into scenes with very little instruction and very little talking required throughout the process. The approach grew out of Jungian psychology and is used with both children and adults, though it is often particularly valued for reaching material that sits before or beyond words.
Reaching what is hard to put into words
Sandplay suits material that is genuinely difficult to put into words, including early trauma and preverbal experience from a time before a person had the language to describe what was happening to them. It can also reach people who tend to freeze or shut down in more conventional, conversational therapy, offering a way of expressing something without having to narrate it directly.
An addition to core training, not a standalone qualification
Sandplay is best understood as a specialist addition to a core therapy training rather than a qualification that stands entirely on its own. A practitioner offering sandplay will typically already hold a primary qualification in psychotherapy, psychology or a related field, with sandplay training added on top of that existing clinical grounding.