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Sandplay Therapists of America® (STA) is a non-profit professional organization whose purpose is to promote education, training, and research in sandplay therapy. STA is the US affiliate of the parent organization, International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST), which provides an international meeting ground for the exchange of knowledge and experience in Sandplay. Trainings & Events Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) offers national training opportunities and supports regional and international training through our events listing. The listings are updated often. The Journal of Sandplay Therapy® (Joyce Cunningham, Editor) is published twice yearly by Sandplay Therapists of America®. The Journal of Sandplay Therapy (JST) publishes domestic and international clinical articles, symbol focused articles and sandplay therapy research. The JST is a peer reviewed journal. Email - sta@sandplay.org Learn about levels of membership and how to train as a sandplay therapist. We also welcome associates who may not pursue certification but who want to be part of our community. Find a sandplay therapist who can provide personal sandplay process, individual or group supervision, or guidance about becoming a trained and certified sandplay therapist. Sandplay a Psychotherapeutic Approach to the Psyche (New Edition) by Dora Kalff September 25, 2022: ISST has extended the period of exceptions for online training and supervision due to the COVID-19 pandemic to July 31, 2023. Read the full ISST statement.

Dora Kalff in front of her house in Zollikon Dora Kalff developed Jungian-based sandplay therapy, out of her work with Margaret Lowenfeld, British child psychiatrist and developer of the World Technique and her own analytic training. Kalff was also influenced by Buddhist traditions. Lucia Chambers, who studied sandplay therapy for many years with Mrs. Kalff, wrote this remembrance. It seemed as if I had slipped into another dimension when I stepped over the threshold of Dora Kalff’s home in Zollikon, Switzerland. Perhaps it was the vibes of all the human souls who had lived in that old stone house for 500 years. Or maybe it was the Tibetan scroll hanging on the wall (at the time I didn’t know that was what it was), or the brass bells on the table or maybe the elegant painting of a chicken on the wall!  When Dora came to meet me, she seemed so comfortable and … at home. Sometimes the most ordinary comments would seem like a question. “It is such a lovely day?” Or, “You have come very far?” Or “You would like to make a sand picture?” Or in the room with the sand tray, “You would like to look a little, ja?” Downstairs in the room with the trays filled with sand and the hundreds of little figures, I lost a sense of the walls and the limits of the room and was in a space of incredible possibilities. So many places to go with all the worlds and energies those little figures spoke from. It offered up the whole archetypal, experiential world to me and I was entranced and participated totally. It wasn’t always open, exploring space with Dora Kalff. Sometimes [...]

Dora Kalff’s miniatures shelves When we go through the door of a sandplay therapy room, we enter a symbolic world. The raw materials of sand and water, the plethora of miniatures from the real and imaginary worlds, all carry symbolic meaning. They have the potential to touch our psyches and offer healing at a deep unconscious level. Through the images on our shelves, a client has a unique opportunity to relate with his own psychic material that might include anything from a simple neurotic complex, to an experienced trauma, to a numinous manifestation of the Self, and more. The focus is not on understanding the precise meaning of a chosen symbol, but rather on the process as a whole. One of the primary reasons that the sandplay process is so potent is because the client is given an opportunity to actively engage with the symbols of transformation that Jung wrote an entire volume about. It is a testament to the power of the symbol that it is difficult, if not impossible to put a figure in the sand unless it is “right.” A client may select the image from the shelf, but it never quite makes it into the tray unless it carries the required symbolic meaning. The purpose of the symbolic process is to help the psyche mature and heal, to move the client through the individuation process in order to confront the necessary conflicts, connect with the deepest layers of the Self, and return to life transformed by this hero’s journey. It is not a journey for everyone, nor for the faint of heart. But sandplay therapy offers a container for the voyage like no other—a solid container where one can [...]

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