Foundations Level 2, of course!

My belief is that people who resonate with this style of sandtray will continue their journey in a variety of ways. Excellence and ethical practice for facilitating sand therapy includes: reading, on-going experiential training, consultation, and your own practice in the sand.

Here are some ideas to explore:

Training – see what we offer

It is helpful to get a solid base in one style and then explore some other teachers when you feel comfortable in the approach. Integrating too many different styles at once can be overwhelming or even contra-indicated. In my opinion, going immediately to a directive, cognitive based approach is not recommended until a sound foundation has been built in approaches more aligned with our lineage.

We are happy to assist you with finding teachers, experiences, and resources beyond our inner ones 🙂

• Explore recommended readings & resources to develop understanding and competency. 
• Through Inner Resources you can access topical sandtray trainings, retreats, practice intensives, and reading groups. Our programming is always evolving as we integrate our own on-going journey. Join the mailing list to stay informed. We’re responsive to requests.
• There are many, many trainers that I recommend, some in a similar style and some teaching very different approaches. So many paths to explore! Please consider me a discernment resource to finding the teachers best for you.
• In addition to sandtray we provide related experiences for building competency in expressive arts; mindfulness; and self awareness through play, presence, story telling and creativity all of which are related and will enhance your capacity.

Consultation

Consultation is an essential component of ethical practice, especially in practicing with new approaches. Inner Resources provides group and individual sandtray consultation, or can help you identify other persons to support your clinical use of sandtray.

Personal Experience

Having your own sand therapy experience as a client is the 3rd essential piece for understanding and competence to use sandtray in clinical practice. We offer skill practice days, individual processes and recommendations for finding people with whom to deepen your practice.

Certification

For a variety of reasons I do not offer a specific certification program, though believe strongly in depth and breadth in learning.

There are a variety of approaches to sand therapy and many programs offering different levels of training. You do not need a specific certification in any approach to do sandtray ethically, as long as you have done due diligence in the training-consultation-experience pieces. See below.

Associations

World Association for Sand Therapy Professionals. The World Association for Sandtray was created in 2020 and has been attempting to promote sand therapy across a spectrum of theories and approaches. They have developed criteria for competency in practice and training. This has been much needed. At minimum their research has shown that 96 hours of training experience is required for competency!

Sandplay Therapists of America is based in Jungian Theory, and is the original sand therapy association in the United States. They have well established credentialing process, several regional chapters, journal, conference.