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What Kind of Sand Tray Miniatures Are Best · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy, a weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services.
• 0:14
  Cathi Spooner: We'll explore all things play therapy to elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
• 0:23
  Cathi Spooner: I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives.
• 0:34
  Cathi Spooner: So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
• 0:49
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:54
  Cathi Spooner: Today I want to talk about sand tray miniatures.
• 0:59
  Cathi Spooner: As a play therapist, you've probably heard about sand tray therapy and the question that comes up all the time when I'm doing trainings is, what kind of miniature should I get?
• 1:13
  Cathi Spooner: And if you are watching live, you may notice my background has changed a little bit.
• 1:23
  Cathi Spooner: Typically in the video you can, uh, if you're watching by the video, the live stream video or the live stream replay, probably seen all of the miniatures in my background.
• 1:38
  Cathi Spooner: I actually have now have a new sand tray training space in St.
• 1:44
  Cathi Spooner: George, Utah.
• 1:46
  Cathi Spooner: So I moved over the weekend.
• 1:48
  Cathi Spooner: I moved all of my sand tray miniatures to my new space, so that I can do a lot more in person sand tray trainings and I like to keep my sand tray trainings a little on the small side just so we can really get a chance to get in hands dirty deep down into the processing and identifying themes and how do you process those themes.
• 2:20
  Cathi Spooner: And I'm going to talk a little bit more about my upcoming training for those of you who are interested.
• 2:27
  Cathi Spooner: I have a training coming up next month in July.
• 2:32
  Cathi Spooner: And, um, so you'll want to stick around for that.
• 2:36
  Cathi Spooner: But I have changed my background a little bit.
• 2:40
  Cathi Spooner: You can see, um, I typically have in the, in the past, I've had all my miniatures so you could see how I organize them and how I display them on the shelves.
• 2:56
  Cathi Spooner: I'll talk a little bit more about that as well.
• 2:59
  Cathi Spooner: And today I really want to focus on the miniatures and helping you figure out what kind of miniatures you need for your sand tray collection.
• 3:13
  Cathi Spooner: If you're a play therapist, then you, you've probably heard of sand tray therapy and you may have already started using it yourself or wondering about it and wondering about those miniatures.
• 3:31
  Cathi Spooner: Like I, I always had people walk into my office where I had all my sand tray miniatures cause I had my play therapy space and my office were all the same.
• 3:42
  Cathi Spooner: I didn't have a separate playroom.
• 3:45
  Cathi Spooner: Um, at the time and people would look at my miniatures and, uh, take a step back and go like, Whoa, because it, it looks like I have a bunch of little figurines and I like, I have like this unhealthy attraction to collecting miniatures.
• 4:07
  Cathi Spooner: And then I usually would have to explain all those are for sand tray they have a specific therapeutic purpose.
• 4:13
  Cathi Spooner: Just like If people are kind of looking at your playroom, wondering why a grown up has a lot of toys in their office, we like to explain about play therapy.
• 4:26
  Cathi Spooner: And the thing about play therapy is as a play therapist, you're choosing your toys intentionally.
• 4:37
  Cathi Spooner: Whatever toys and supplies you have in your playroom, they have a specific therapeutic purpose.
• 4:45
  Cathi Spooner: So when play therapist asks like what, what kind of miniatures, if they're just getting started, what kind of sand tray miniature should I have in my playroom?
• 4:57
  Cathi Spooner: It can be a little overwhelming, especially when you think about the financial investment.
• 5:03
  Cathi Spooner: So it makes a lot of sense why ask this question?
• 5:08
  Cathi Spooner: Because you know that just like the toys in your playroom have a specific therapeutic purpose, you know the sand tray miniatures also have a specific therapeutic purpose.
• 5:24
  Cathi Spooner: So you want to choose them intentionally.
• 5:29
  Cathi Spooner: One to save yourself some money in the beginning because it can be a little expensive and a little overwhelming in the beginning, but also just to save some time making sure you get sand tray miniatures that are going to have that therapeutic value for your clients.
• 5:50
  Cathi Spooner: So that is what we are going to talk about today.
• 5:54
  Cathi Spooner: If you're watching live, I would love to know who's here, where you're from, what population you.
• 6:03
  Cathi Spooner: work with?
• 6:03
  Cathi Spooner: Are you using sand tray?
• 6:07
  Cathi Spooner: What questions do you have about choosing sand tray miniatures?
• 6:12
  Cathi Spooner: Feel free to post that in the comments.
• 6:15
  Cathi Spooner: If you're watching the live replay, also feel free to Uh, post your name, where you're from, what population you work with.
• 6:24
  Cathi Spooner: I love reading the comments and for those of you listening on the podcast, honestly, feel free to post questions or to email me or I and I would love if you would leave a review I like to get the feedback make sure the topics are helpful and I just kind of a nerdy that way.
• 6:50
  Cathi Spooner: I like interacting with my play therapy people can be in my community.
• 6:56
  Cathi Spooner: So If you find the information helpful, also, please feel free to share it and pass them along to your colleagues who might also be interested?
• 7:06
  Cathi Spooner: So, today, um, alrighty, my, so full disclosure for those of you watching the live stream, my husband has now left for work, and the likelihood I'm going to have some dogs in my office pretty soon is probably very high because he just opened the door to let them in.
• 7:28
  Cathi Spooner: So, um.
• 7:29
  Cathi Spooner: So they don't scratch.
• 7:32
  Cathi Spooner: So you may see usually what you can see in the background is you'll see my bigger dog, Luna.
• 7:38
  Cathi Spooner: You'll see her little tail.
• 7:40
  Cathi Spooner: It's like a little flag.
• 7:41
  Cathi Spooner: You might see her in the background.
• 7:43
  Cathi Spooner: Sometimes I see that when I'm doing some video edits to chop these videos up.
• 7:50
  Cathi Spooner: Anyway, so, um, sand tray miniatures.
• 7:55
  Cathi Spooner: So first, um, what?
• 8:03
  Cathi Spooner: What's the purpose of sand tray miniatures?
• 8:08
  Cathi Spooner: The purpose of the sand tray miniatures is that they're actually symbols.
• 8:14
  Cathi Spooner: So, they allow access to your client's unconscious, I would also say from a neuroscience and attachment standpoint, they allow access to those implicit memories, those memories and experience filled with emotions and thoughts and responses, those if we're looking at it from a union standpoint, we're looking at the complexes around those archetypes, um, really accessing those areas that need healing.
• 8:52
  Cathi Spooner: So, the theory, the theory model is given the free and protected space, clients have an intrinsic desire for healing and wholeness.
• 9:04
  Cathi Spooner: So given that free and protected space, clients will move towards healing and wholeness.
• 9:09
  Cathi Spooner: So the sand tray miniatures are the symbols that they use to work through whatever it is that they're working through.
• 9:22
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and they can use these miniatures to manipulate them in ways that are meaningful, um, to help them engage in that deep healing.
• 9:35
  Cathi Spooner: It's kind of a way of bypassing, I call it, a way of bypassing those frontal lobes, those cognitive areas that need to fully understand before we can do anything I have to cognitively articulate to you.
• 9:56
  Cathi Spooner: And that's hard to do, especially for children because they haven't necessarily developed depending on the age of the child, which we're talking more about adolescence, um, it's hard for children to articulate those deep meanings.
• 10:15
  Cathi Spooner: Think about it.
• 10:16
  Cathi Spooner: It's hard for grownups to do that.
• 10:19
  Cathi Spooner: I've worked with tons of grownups.
• 10:21
  Cathi Spooner: If I'm working with grownups, I'm typically also using the sand tray because, especially if there's trauma and attachment wounds, because I, I find it's a really good way to, um, explore that to get at those in a deeper way.
• 10:43
  Cathi Spooner: See, we have a comment.
• 10:44
  Cathi Spooner: So we have Diane from Maryland.
• 10:48
  Cathi Spooner: I work as a clinical director at the Lori Center School, a special education elementary school for students with emotional behavior.
• 10:57
  Cathi Spooner: That is where I started out my, uh, not at.
• 11:00
  Cathi Spooner: Not at the center where you are.
• 11:02
  Cathi Spooner: This was back in the 1980s.
• 11:05
  Cathi Spooner: I was a special education teacher with emotional and behavioral problems.
• 11:10
  Cathi Spooner: So I was on the education side, which to be honest, is where I got introduced to play therapy and did a play therapy group with the school psychologist who was learning this play therapy thing.
• 11:23
  Cathi Spooner: And that's actually where I got hooked.
• 11:25
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, special education has come a long way since the 1980s.
• 11:30
  Cathi Spooner: And in some ways kind of still the same.
• 11:33
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, but welcome.
• 11:34
  Cathi Spooner: That's awesome.
• 11:35
  Cathi Spooner: That is a, a really awesome population to work with.
• 11:41
  Cathi Spooner: Um, I use sand tray, although my collection is still small.
• 11:45
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Cathi Spooner: And, and it'll build, it will definitely build over time.
• 11:51
  Cathi Spooner: And that's what I want to talk about today.
• 11:52
  Cathi Spooner: Cause I, I think people.
• 11:54
  Cathi Spooner: I know in the beginning I worried about this too.
• 11:58
  Cathi Spooner: Um, in the beginning we worry we're not going to have the right miniatures and that's going to impede progress and healing for our clients.
• 12:08
  Cathi Spooner: I haven't necessarily found that to be true.
• 12:11
  Cathi Spooner: So I want to talk a little bit about that as well.
• 12:16
  Cathi Spooner: All righty, so, so, um, So that's, I think it's important to understand what the purpose of the miniatures are so that when you're cultivating your sand tray miniature collection, you're, you're kind of understanding why you're getting certain miniatures that you're getting.
• 12:40
  Cathi Spooner: Okay, so full disclosure, both my dogs are now In my office, Lily, my little dog is under my desk at my feet and Luna, the bigger dog is she heard me say her name.
• 12:54
  Cathi Spooner: She's kind of hanging out.
• 12:56
  Cathi Spooner: It's Luna's in the room.
• 12:59
  Cathi Spooner: If you hear any strange.
• 13:02
  Cathi Spooner: sounds in the background that sound like something, uh, questionable might be going on in the background.
• 13:11
  Cathi Spooner: The likelihood it's Luna digging in my carpet is pretty, pretty high.
• 13:17
  Cathi Spooner: I don't know why she feels the need to dig in my carpet, but it is a regular occurrence.
• 13:22
  Cathi Spooner: or she might, what she does is she rolls around on the back and moans and then digs.
• 13:29
  Cathi Spooner: So if you hear any of that, then it might be that you're probably hearing my dog Luna in the background.
• 13:37
  Cathi Spooner: All righty, back to sand tray miniatures.
• 13:40
  Cathi Spooner: So that's the purpose.
• 13:42
  Cathi Spooner: So one of the things like I really, when I do sand tray trainings, I really love to keep it small so that people are really having access to the sand tray miniatures.
• 13:57
  Cathi Spooner: They're having access to placing them and moving them and manipulating them in the sand and that kind of, sensory experience of the whole sand tray making process with making your own sand trays in the sand with your colleagues.
• 14:17
  Cathi Spooner: And then we process those because I, I feel like you really get the purpose of the miniatures and you get the depth that occurs in, in the sand tray making process.
• 14:33
  Cathi Spooner: So that's, that's one of the reasons I like to keep my centroid training small and I like to do them in person because I feel like that, that sensory experience and that experience of how you can think you're choosing miniatures, your clients will do this too, where they're like, ah, I'm just going to put these down.
• 14:55
  Cathi Spooner: And then as you're processing it and learning to identify themes and what's going on, we go a little deeper in the trainings and, um, then we would necessarily with our clients, but you really get a sense of how that unconscious or if we're using neuroscience, then how that those implicit memories and that mentalization process unfolds in the sand tray.
• 15:25
  Cathi Spooner: It's really powerful.
• 15:28
  Cathi Spooner: So that is the purpose of the sand tray miniatures.
• 15:34
  Cathi Spooner: So let me just do an overview of the different categories that you probably want to focus on.
• 15:43
  Cathi Spooner: And, um, just like in the playroom, there play therapists are going to get specific kind of categories for the therapeutic value of the toys and supplies.
• 15:56
  Cathi Spooner: It's the same thing with the miniatures.
• 15:58
  Cathi Spooner: There are certain categories that we're looking for that have therapeutic value to them to access those therapeutic powers of play, which can be access to the unconscious kind of reworking and, um, challenging some cognitive distortions, really problem solving all of those things, especially if you're doing some directive activities with your clients, you can use that to do a lot of that restructuring and kind of looking at changing those distorted beliefs, um, examining what's in there, the unconscious, what is in there, reworking it.
• 16:47
  Cathi Spooner: So having certain categories of miniatures, um, is really useful.
• 16:54
  Cathi Spooner: And here's the thing.
• 16:55
  Cathi Spooner: There's a lot of categories.
• 16:57
  Cathi Spooner: There's a lot of miniatures.
• 16:59
  Cathi Spooner: If you can choose at least a few from each category, then that will at least give you kind of a starting point with your clients or just start with a few categories and build onto that.
• 17:18
  Cathi Spooner: The reality is your clients will get what they need.
• 17:21
  Cathi Spooner: They will figure out how to get what they need in the process while you're building your collection, so don't really stress out about that.
• 17:33
  Cathi Spooner: Um, All right.
• 17:35
  Cathi Spooner: So the first category is really people.
• 17:38
  Cathi Spooner: I, I tend to not recommend getting the, what would I call them?
• 17:44
  Cathi Spooner: They would be like the kind of vocational people, the people that are realistic in terms of different jobs that you can get those later.
• 17:56
  Cathi Spooner: Kids don't use those as much.
• 17:59
  Cathi Spooner: But what they do use are pirates, they use medieval knights, they use babies, they use brides and grooms.
• 18:08
  Cathi Spooner: If you can get the brides and grooms separate, that's even better.
• 18:14
  Cathi Spooner: You know how like the cake toppers, I don't know if they're still making cake toppers this way, I'm assuming they are, but they would have the bride and the groom kind of connected.
• 18:23
  Cathi Spooner: But if you can get those separate, then that's even more, um, helpful because when you're working with children whose parents are divorced, brides and grooms are typically symbolic of parents for children.
• 18:39
  Cathi Spooner: For adults, it might be something different, but for children, it typically represents parents.
• 18:46
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're working with children whose parents are divorced or separated.
• 18:51
  Cathi Spooner: Or maybe they were never married and they've always lived in two different households.
• 18:55
  Cathi Spooner: It's helpful to see how children use those miniatures.
• 19:00
  Cathi Spooner: Um, getting, getting babies, superheroes and villains.
• 19:06
  Cathi Spooner: A lot of the Disney characters, like right now the big miniatures coming out is the whole, um, Inside Out 2 movie.
• 19:14
  Cathi Spooner: So I love seeing those posts of posts on social media of play therapists who, who are going out and purchasing the, the uh, Inside Out.
• 19:30
  Cathi Spooner: I feel like play therapists keep the Disney and Pixar as far as like their, their promotional and their like little toys they sell.
• 19:38
  Cathi Spooner: I feel like we keep them, we keep them in business as much as the kids.
• 19:44
  Cathi Spooner: So, uh, the other thing is, You always want to make sure that you have a representation of different cultures.
• 19:54
  Cathi Spooner: I feel like now with a lot of the, um, things coming out and some of the, um, cartoon type movies, we do get a much better representation of different cultures in the stories being told.
• 20:11
  Cathi Spooner: So it's nice having those different representations of culture.
• 20:16
  Cathi Spooner: The other is animals.
• 20:18
  Cathi Spooner: And so, and I always say, if you're just getting started, uh, like people get the different people, like pirates.
• 20:26
  Cathi Spooner: Yep.
• 20:26
  Cathi Spooner: You can hear Luna behind me scratching.
• 20:29
  Cathi Spooner: Um, get the, get those kind of representations that your clients would probably use.
• 20:38
  Cathi Spooner: Also animals, um, zoo animals, jungle animals, farm animals, animals, domestic animals of, and if you can even get animals of different, like, like lions get representations that can be used for family, like a, uh, like the parent animal size and then baby animal size.
• 21:05
  Cathi Spooner: Children will, that's an even, um, I, for lack of a better word, even a better way to keep some psychological distance while, uh, for your, your clients to work through some of those issues that may be going on for them, like attachment issues or, or trauma issues, things like that.
• 21:30
  Cathi Spooner: You want to get some insects, some sea life, things like that.
• 21:34
  Cathi Spooner: If you can get some, I call it vegetation, like trees or bushes.
• 21:40
  Cathi Spooner: A lot of times, like with the animals, You get jungle animals, you can get those, um, like kits of animals where they'll have trees and maybe some fences as well.
• 21:52
  Cathi Spooner: So the packs of different animals that comes with trees.
• 21:58
  Cathi Spooner: Trees are a little harder to get.
• 22:00
  Cathi Spooner: You may want to go on Amazon to get a pack of those.
• 22:04
  Cathi Spooner: Um, maybe some bush, if you're in, uh, get cactus.
• 22:08
  Cathi Spooner: If you have access to those, flowers.
• 22:11
  Cathi Spooner: Things like that and buildings, at least a couple of houses to start with.
• 22:18
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you can get something representing a school, especially if you're working with kids or a hospital or something like that, maybe a light house, something like that, at least a couple of those.
• 22:32
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, a castle, a fort or teepee or a church or some kind of religious building.
• 22:38
  Cathi Spooner: If you can get one or two of those, that's always helpful.
• 22:42
  Cathi Spooner: Um, getting some fences and signs.
• 22:45
  Cathi Spooner: So getting some fences, if you, um, get some construction people, oftentimes that will come with some barriers and some signs.
• 22:55
  Cathi Spooner: Those are useful.
• 22:56
  Cathi Spooner: Getting some fantasy or mythical, like wizards or fairies, dragons, things like that.
• 23:05
  Cathi Spooner: Spiritual, um, if you're, if you're, it depends on your popu, like if you're just getting started and you're like, ah, I can't get all of these.
• 23:16
  Cathi Spooner: Um, You, you can hold off on getting the spiritual unless you work with a population where that's a very important thing.
• 23:26
  Cathi Spooner: If that's the case, you might want to at least, at least get one or two things that represent the religious practice of the clients that you serve.
• 23:37
  Cathi Spooner: Vehicles and transportation like cars and trucks.
• 23:41
  Cathi Spooner: Um, police, if you work with a population, that is court involved and maybe justice involved with like police or maybe they you work with clients who are domestic violence population the likelihood they've encountered police or your population you serve a lot of children from from families that where parents or family members may struggle with addiction and they may have some legal issues due to their addiction, then it's always helpful to get maybe a couple police, a police car, or firefighters and maybe a firefighter truck or something like that.
• 24:25
  Cathi Spooner: Um, creepy and scary.
• 24:28
  Cathi Spooner: If you can get creepy and scary, that's always helpful.
• 24:32
  Cathi Spooner: So, uh, because these are representative of the things that like anxiety and fear, danger, the things that we're trying to work through to use a, to use a Jungian term, we're working through shadow.
• 24:48
  Cathi Spooner: So this would be really helpful to get some of, uh, at least a few of those here in the United States.
• 24:58
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and probably I know outside of the United States, a lot of other countries celebrate, um, Halloween.
• 25:06
  Cathi Spooner: So coming up, probably maybe starting in August or, um, September, definitely by October because here, um, in the U.
• 25:18
  Cathi Spooner: S.
• 25:18
  Cathi Spooner: October is when we celebrate.
• 25:21
  Cathi Spooner: Halloween.
• 25:22
  Cathi Spooner: You can get those Halloween villages with the creepy trees and the bear trees.
• 25:28
  Cathi Spooner: You want to get some of those.
• 25:29
  Cathi Spooner: Um, you could get some tombstones.
• 25:32
  Cathi Spooner: If you can find tombstones, I would definitely get tombstones because that for children who are working through grief, those are really useful to have.
• 25:43
  Cathi Spooner: Um, And then also like some natural things, if you can, like rocks or seashells, twigs.
• 25:50
  Cathi Spooner: These you can probably go out in nature and find some of these.
• 25:54
  Cathi Spooner: So these are, uh, most likely available to you for free.
• 26:00
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you can get some little crystals or jewels or something, that's also helpful.
• 26:07
  Cathi Spooner: And then finally, any, uh, like landscaping items like a bridge or a wishing well if you can get a bridge and at least one bridge and at least one wishing well that's always helpful and at least a treasure box Or and then if you can get a cannon, I mean a volcano or or fire that's always a bonus having some of, like, one or two of those in there would be useful.
• 26:36
  Cathi Spooner: So I know that feels like a lot, these categories, especially in the beginning.
• 26:44
  Cathi Spooner: Um, but if you, if you just get a few from each category, you can build over time.
• 26:52
  Cathi Spooner: So that brings me to my, my third category for today, which I wanted to talk about tips for building your collection.
• 27:01
  Cathi Spooner: Start small and build.
• 27:02
  Cathi Spooner: Don't feel overwhelmed by it.
• 27:05
  Cathi Spooner: Your clients will get what they need.
• 27:08
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so don't get discouraged because children will figure out what to use in the Sand Tray to get their needs, uh, needs met and whatever it is they're trying to work through.
• 27:22
  Cathi Spooner: And this is a lot of, um, what we, what we talk about.
• 27:28
  Cathi Spooner: In the sand tray training is really, especially the, the sand tray and play therapy with children and adolescents, which is the one I'm going to be doing next month.
• 27:39
  Cathi Spooner: We'll talk about like suggestions, how to get started.
• 27:43
  Cathi Spooner: What miniatures do you have?
• 27:46
  Cathi Spooner: Um, because a lot of times as you're building and processing sand trays in the training, you're also understanding how the different miniatures are used and the different kind of representations based on how they're being used.
• 28:03
  Cathi Spooner: So that's a lot of what we look at, how the miniatures are used, what else is used in, in, along with the, the different miniatures, all of like really learning how to look at the miniatures and how they're placed and identify the themes.
• 28:24
  Cathi Spooner: that are being represented, which also gives you an idea where your clients are in the change process.
• 28:30
  Cathi Spooner: Plus the other benefit of that is we get a little cleaning out for ourselves as, as therapists.
• 28:37
  Cathi Spooner: It's always nice to do a little bit of our own work, right?
• 28:41
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, in a safe place.
• 28:42
  Cathi Spooner: You don't have to, but a lot of people end up doing that and it's, it's really powerful.
• 28:47
  Cathi Spooner: It's so cool.
• 28:47
  Cathi Spooner: I love doing sand tray trainings.
• 28:50
  Cathi Spooner: Um, And then just be really intentional about your adding to your collection.
• 28:59
  Cathi Spooner: That's going to help to, um, save money and avoid time, avoid wasting time and money in the beginning with things that are not necessarily as important as maybe some other things it might not be a good investment in the beginning.
• 29:20
  Cathi Spooner: So just some tips to think about for that Um, so let me do a recap Uh what we talked about today So sand tray miniatures really do have a specific function in the playroom and they are for helping children to access those therapeutic powers of play using the sand, a sand tray and the miniatures.
• 29:44
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and the miniatures are really those symbols that children are using and we're, they're grounding those in the sand, in the container of the sand tray.
• 29:54
  Cathi Spooner: So really allows you to get a sense of the stories that are going on the beliefs about themselves, others and relationships, their life experiences and how they make sense of that and the meaning they give to it about who they are and life as they begin to figure out how to be resilient in their life.
• 30:26
  Cathi Spooner: That's the goal, right?
• 30:27
  Cathi Spooner: Developing resiliency.
• 30:29
  Cathi Spooner: So choosing the miniatures really needs to be intentional.
• 30:35
  Cathi Spooner: Um, there are specific types of categories and I went over and reviewed those categories.
• 30:42
  Cathi Spooner: Um, to think about when you're creating your, just getting your collection started and then building on to your collection.
• 30:51
  Cathi Spooner: And then the third thing is don't get overwhelmed.
• 30:55
  Cathi Spooner: Your clients will get what they need.
• 30:57
  Cathi Spooner: They will figure out how to use the miniatures in the sand.
• 31:04
  Cathi Spooner: In the concentrate to work through whatever it is they need to work through.
• 31:11
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and trust the process, trust that your clients if you provide that free and protected space, trust that your clients will be able to get what they need while you're just getting started with your miniature collection.
• 31:31
  Cathi Spooner: So that is it for today.
• 31:34
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you're interested, I do have an in person sand tray training come coming up.
• 31:40
  Cathi Spooner: It's a two day, um, sand tray training in beautiful Southern Utah.
• 31:47
  Cathi Spooner: We go over a lot of like how to make sense of What your clients are doing.
• 31:54
  Cathi Spooner: How do you recognize themes in the sand tray?
• 31:58
  Cathi Spooner: What do you do with those themes?
• 32:00
  Cathi Spooner: What do you say?
• 32:01
  Cathi Spooner: What do you not say to process the sand tray with your clients while maintaining that free and protected space so that you're not invasive and kind of challenging them to do something they're not quite ready to do?
• 32:18
  Cathi Spooner: And how do you make sense of what they've created and how do you use that information to tell where they are in the change process.
• 32:28
  Cathi Spooner: And we do that by, uh, there's some kind of, um, didactic where I, I share some information and then we do a lot of sand trays and processing sand trays over that two day period.
• 32:44
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested in the training, then pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com.
• 32:55
  Cathi Spooner: You'll wanna click on the courses page, so it's Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training, and the website is rh play therapy training.com.
• 33:06
  Cathi Spooner: Then click on the courses page and you'll, you'll see all of the information.
• 33:12
  Cathi Spooner: So I, I hope to see you there.
• 33:17
  Cathi Spooner: And I will see you next week, same time, same place.
• 33:23
  Cathi Spooner: And if you found the information helpful, please feel free to share the information across your social media.
• 33:29
  Cathi Spooner: If you're listening on the podcast, I would love to hear your review.
• 33:33
  Cathi Spooner: Bye for now.
• 33:42
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 33:46
  Cathi Spooner: I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families.
• 33:54
  Cathi Spooner: Family's heal.
• 33:56
  Cathi Spooner: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 34:01
  Cathi Spooner: Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 34:07
  Cathi Spooner: Remember, clay therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 34:12
  Cathi Spooner: Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work and relationships.
• 34:23
  Cathi Spooner: If you have any questions or topic suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 34:30
  Cathi Spooner: Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources.
• 34:42
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 34:46
  Cathi Spooner: Until next time, keep playing, learning, and growing.