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ABOUT TSTA

MISSION STATEMENT

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Texas SandTray Association (TSTA) is a state organization of mental health professionals serving adults, children, and families in a variety of settings, who have joined together to provide quality education and direction in support of the personal and professional development of the Sandtray therapist, while strengthening the integrity of the modality.

SANDTRAY THERAPY

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TSTA believes that Sandtray is fundamentally a nondirective approach, although directive techniques can be applied when appropriate, as guided by the Sandtray therapist’s clinical judgement and theoretical orientation. The therapeutic stance is client centered, allowing the client to lead the process and interpret his or her own work while the therapist demonstrates total positive regard. Because the client’s work is symbolic, the therapist stays in the metaphor. The sandtray is a sacred space that must be protected from all intrusions, including the therapist’s or another’s body, interpretation and/or narrative. 

Although we acknowledge the many people who have contributed to the creation and continued evolution of Sandtray, we also believe that this modality began with the World Technique, created by Margaret Lowenfeld. We believe Dora Kolff took World Technique and through her Jungian theoretical perspective made adaptations to the modality which became Sand Play. From Sand Play, Sandtray has evolved.

While we welcome different ideas and perspectives about sandtray, this is the definition of Sandtray that TSTA stands behind.
 

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FOUNDING MEMEBERS

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Karen Burke
Rebecca Roth
​Liz Heyl
Kirby Schroeder
​Elisha Tomberlin
Lacey Fisher
​Brittany Jones
​Katherine Granberry

SANDTRAY THERAPY
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UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSING

"Wow, this can help me in ways I'll never."

​Sandtray is a projective, Jungian oriented method. As Carl Jung might look at a dream, you can look at everything in the tray as representing a part of the whole person. As a child builds their world, they will choose miniatures that have conscious and unconscious meaning to them. The way they choose, place, arrange, and show interaction between items in the tray is a way to express the inner parts of themselves. This is a unique opportunity for the child to work out conflicts while being accepted. This can cause deep, internal changes that free them to be able to focus on the present. 

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