Creative Therapy & Sandtray

Come-as-you-are creative counseling.

No artistic skill or experience required.

I specialize in helping non-artists and artists alike to use creative media and processes for therapy that is more than just talking.

Processing life through creative media accesses powerful parts of our brain that support deep change and healing. The creative process itself can provide a perfect balance of safety and realness to allow these to happen. Often, there is less need to talk about difficult topics, or even things that you have consciously forgotten about but still feel nagging at the edges of your mind. This can also be a great option for days when you’re just feeling less “talky.”

Some of my favorite creative counseling media (with great virtual options for each) are collage, sandtray, reflecting on photos or art, and found-word poetry. They’re my favorites because they tend to get people free from limiting ideas about what creativity should look like. I also love to incorporate your favorite songs, or discussion of TV/book/movie/game characters that are meaningful to you.

If you’re a self-identified creative or maker, then I’m ready to help you reflect on your artistic process. We can incorporate your medium in therapy and talk about your projects as much or as little as you want. Sometimes some support with the healing aspects of your current project (or one you’ve set aside) may be just what you need. Or sometimes, you might need to really break away from art-as-work by using a totally unfamiliar medium. Maybe you’d just prefer therapy with someone who thinks a bit like an artist. (FYI, my background in creating is heavily based in dance and choreography, particularly modern. I’ve always paid special attention to the personal growth and healing aspects of the creative process, and I create for my personal healing and self-care.)

Creativity can be woven into typical talk therapy here and there, or it can become a recurring part of the process, depending on what suits you. Let me know if you have questions!

Sandtray counseling

Sandtray therapy, also known as sandplay/world building, is a technique that originates with play therapy for children—but it’s also powerful and fun for adults!

It involves a tray of sand and miniatures of people, animals, objects, etc., that can be placed in it. There is a great online tool I use for virtual sandtrays in video counseling.

The sandtray technique is known to allow access to and interaction with non-conscious (unconscious) parts of the mind, through symbols. Because symbolic action still has a psychological effect, reprocessing difficult experiences and experimenting with possible solutions in the sandtray can give a sense of having taken real action, which serves as practice for making change in your real life. The great thing is, you don’t have to know what the symbols mean for all of this to be beneficial—you just need enough openness to experiment and see what comes of it. While it might seem like this is all meant as a way to read your mind, my approach to sandtray is that I don’t know what the symbols mean to you, but I know how to help us figure that out together.

Sandtray is a wonderful tool for when you don’t know what it is you need to talk about, just that you need to feel better about something. It’s also a great technique for exploring uncertainty and making decisions. Topics for reflection and things you need to consider arise naturally and easily, giving direction to the rest of a session. Then we can process what comes up in verbal or nonverbal ways, based on what suits you.

Sandtray is also a great complement to “Parts” work, because it helps make the inner world more concrete so you can get to know different aspects of yourself better. (And it’s fun, so your Inner Child will love it!)

Some people like sandtray so much that they ask to use it again and again. I’d love to help you try it out to see what your inner mind has to show you!