Sandplay Training: Certificate in Integrative Sandplay
Become a Certified Sandplay Therapist in five weekends over an academic year:
7/8th September 2019
16/17th November
18/19th January 2020
7/8th March
9/10th May
10.00-17.00 all days.
This is our most popular sandplay training course, leading to certification as a sandplay therapist. It is suitable for counsellors, psychotherapists and play therapists, as well as other people working in education and mental health. Overall, it is a mixture of theory, practical skills and experiential learning by doing our own sandtrays.
Accessible and affordable skills for working with children, adolescents and adults.
The cost is £1680 if paid in full before the course starts or £1750 in instalments. £250 to be paid as a deposit when you book. However, we can offer monthly payment plans.
The focus is on experiential creative learning, so you will learn our sandplay therapeutic method, with lots of practical advice and experience sandplay process in your own sand tray. We will also use music, mindfulness and meditations to nurture ourselves in a free, protected space.
Sandplay is powerful as a way of accessing unconscious memories and feelings, so personal and group process is an important and healing part of all our training. Exploring our own material supports us and helps us in our professional practice (and in life). We recommend that you are in personal therapy. In addition, there is ongoing support from the teaching staff and supervisors throughout the course, all of whom are BACP and/or UKCP therapists and supervisors.
This course is a good way of looking after yourself, in fact many students come for that reason. Moreover, you can also use it for continuing education or Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours. So, if you want the Certificate, you need to do 50 hours with a client that include sand. However, there is no time deadline on this – take as long as you need.
There is no written work on this course, although a small amount of reading is set throughout the sandplay training. In addition, students are encouraged to present client material in group sessions during the weekends. We work to BACP standards and can help you to find a suitably qualified supervisor. Also, you may be able to use your own supervisor (check with Jill) if she/he has suitable experience and qualifications in sandplay training.
Venue & Getting There
On Route wellness centre, 44-46 South Ealing Road.
2 mins from South Ealing tube – very close to Heathrow Airport and 30 minutes from central London.
There is a vegan restaurant on site and good coffees and home made cake.
The three levels of Sandplay Training
- In general, the best place to start if you are new to sandplay training, is the Introduction to Sandplay Therapy
- Then the next level is the Certificate in Integrative Sandplay Therapy, which is our main key skills sandplay training.
- After that, you can go on to the Diploma in Sandplay Therapy, which builds on and expands the skills of the previous courses.
Check this general prospect on how to become a certified sandplay therapist.
Weekend Content
Weekend One: Introduction to the group and working with sand, getting started (equipment, rooms, having confidence in what we do), BACP confidentiality, boundaries, ethics, contracting. Being present with child and adult clients. An introduction to our theoretical model. Reading and supervisors lists.
Weekend Two: Working with children in schools, NHS and private practice. Being with the child in front of you, based on work of Violet Oaklander. Practical skills and support on dealing with parents, head teachers and other colleagues, e.g. how to answer the ‘what is it that you DO?’ question. Case studies and examples of sand play with 3-11 age group. An introduction to children’s’ developmental stages and object relations’ theory.
Weekend Three: Being not doing. The creative world of Jung and the healing power of the unconscious. The union of opposites – anima (female), animus (male) and shadow parts of our clients and ourselves. Exploring potential meanings and interpretations of Archetypes, universal meanings common in sand and other play therapy creative work. Mandalas – the symbol of wholeness – in sandplay and in art. Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey in sand.
Weekend Four: Working with Teenagers and Trauma. Encouraging creativity and story telling in sandplay with adolescents. Rites and initiations: the battle between Eros (life/love) and Thanatos (death/destruction). The therapist as fellow traveller. An introduction to using sandplay with both simple and complex trauma. The work of Bessel van der Kolk.
Weekend Five: Remembering who we are. Helping adult clients to reconnect to their hearts through sandplay. Simple ways of making creative work less challenging and practical ways of encouraging clients to do sand. An introduction to the transpersonal writings of Almaas. Bodywork and mindfulness exercises and ways of supporting ourselves after the course.