Origins of the Sandbox
The beginning of the sandbox therapy is found in what seemed like a simple children's game starring the children of the British writer and historian Herbert George Wells, who realized that their little ones represented their problems with the figures they played with.
Child psychiatrist Margarita Lowenfeld applied this game in her therapies to help minors to expose their problems. The experience of this method and the influence of Carl Jung's analytical theory were decisive for Dora M. Kalff to decide to use this technique as psychotherapy to help overcome emotional disorders through the unconscious.
This author turned her studies, knowledge and experience with the sandbox technique into the book Sandplay
How to prepare the litter box
In a 57x72x7 box, preferably made of wood or plastic, containing sand and a set of figures with which to play and represent scenes.
​​​
Among the figurines to work there may be at least:
People: a family, characters of different races, ages and ways of life which can include grandparents, children, babies, a pregnant woman ... Some professions such as soldiers, doctors, teachers, Indians, pirates and why not, some superhero.
Buildings: at least one house, castles, bridges, walls, schools, or streetlights.
Everyday objects: furniture of all kinds, dishes, kitchen utensils.
Cars and means of transport: planes, bicycle, police car, ambulance, etc.
Nature: trees, plants, a volcano, stones, farm, domestic and wild animals such as cats and dogs but also sharks, lions, birds or insects. Assorted figures representing food or drink.
Fantasy elements: dinosaurs, monsters, ghosts, angels, vampires ...
​
With all these so diverse figures, playing and placing them in different scenes on the sandbox, the patient will unconsciously represent a symbology that the specialist will then have to interpret.
​
The sandbox for children is an ideal therapy because they are not yet able to express exactly what is happening to them and, therefore, it is often used in school contexts. The sandbox game allows children to choose characters, create scenarios and roles, and place the pieces in a certain way. All this leads them to make a symbolic representation of their internal reality without almost realizing it.
The scenes that take shape in the sandbox are comparable to the symbolic images that develop in dreams. Another benefit of this children's sand technique is that it is an activity in which all the senses participate. On the one hand, the sight is applied to choose the figures and the hands to pick them up and place them, but the mind, imagination and reason are also used. Thus, a very deep contact with the interior of the child is obtained.