ISHI - Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal

Group Sandtray

How to Build a Group Sandtray

Participants begin by assembling in a MEETING ROOM (Diagram 1). Orientation to the work and a meeting after the session can happen here. It should be close to the sandtray room and also close to the object room. This could also be a place to do extended sandtray work through drawing, movement, or poetry. This room should be quiet and private, with a door that can be closed. Furniture should be comfortable and moveable. All rooms should be appropriately heated and ventilated so that participants can focus on listening to themselves and each other. The quality of the whole experience is meditative.

From the meeting room people enter the OBJECT ROOM where objects and symbolic toys are kept. They gather their objects in silence and continue on through a corridor to the GROUP SANDTRAY ROOM, where they wait in silence seated around the tray until everyone is there. Then they do the tray together and listen to each person share in turn. After the group has finished the tray they walk through a doorway back into the MEETING ROOM for tea and further processing.

The Object Room

This room needs to be quiet or soundproofed.

Uniform shelving from floor to 5.5' high on three walls of room.

Spacing between shelves averages 9" — varies between 6.5" to 1.33' because a few objects are large.

Shelves 8" deep. One blank wall is devoted to hanging masks, mirrors and other larger objects.

Floor area of room 11' x 9.5' — there needs to be enough space for a group of 8 people to move around in comfort.

Objects can be obtained from many sources including toy stores, flea markets, and gift and religious stores. Anything small can become a sandtray object, and most of the best ones come from retail stores or people's homes. It is also important to have a number of natural objects available (branches, pine cones, stones, crystals, etc.).

Music:
A tape or CD player needs to be unobtrusively available to play soft music during the selection of objects.

The Group Sandtray Room

Basically, this is a clean, bare room with the quality of emptiness and anticipation — a kind of waiting room! It is a place where revelation will come through for people about themselves, their work, and their life purpose. It should be used only for this purpose and be a kind of sanctuary honoring the wisdom of the unconscious mind. It is a safe place where people can listen to themselves and each other with respect.

There should be windows for ventilation and some natural light. Windows are best high in the walls in order to minimize external distractions. The floor area of the group sandtray room at Commonweal is 16' x 17.5'. However, the construction of a round room would be ideal. The room should be soundproofed. The floor could be hardwood in a mandala pattern or plain hardwood or a non-toxic textured carpet. The walls should be light in color-white or cream-with no pictures. It should be a place of peace, silence, emptiness and possibility.

Group Sandtray (must be custom built)

(Diagram 2):

Base
The base of the tray is 1/2" thick piece of plywood cut into a circle 5' in diameter.

Lip around tray
Suggest 3.5" chestnut brown synthetic "lawn liner" which can be obtained at most hardware stores. This can be cut to size and tacked to a plywood base. This will allow sand 2" deep to be contained within the circle.

Base of tray

Height of tray from floor to plywood base is 2.25'. Eight people should be able to sit around the tray with plenty of leg room. The stand could be hourglass shaped so that table legs do not get in the way of chairs. In any case, the tray will be very heavy when filled with sand, so the tray should be constructed of sturdy materials, reinforced, and bolted to the floor.

Sand
Sand should be a medium or semi-coarse grain from some place locally where there is a strong healing energy.

Lighting
Soft but bright light from an overhead track light focused on tray will give altar-like feeling without shadows.

Dividers
Eight sticks 2 ft. long are used to divide the tray into eight sections.

Seating
There are eight folding chairs for participants and two stools for "space holders"-you may also want to use straight chairs rather than folding chairs. People need to be able to sit upright-not lounge-and be close to the table.

Camera
People usually want to record the experience on the form of a photograph. We have a camera and take pictures from floor level. I have no idea how you might best do this, but ideally you would be able to take pictures from directly above the tray. Perhaps a camera could be mounted in a small hole in the ceiling. A person could also video from a hidden perch without being intrusive. The distance would need to be such that the entire tray could be photographed/videoed at once.

This would be the first installation of its kind and would be a fine way to begin to document this process. Consulting with media people in advance of building the room might be called for if you intend to incorporate this feature.

Individual Sandtray

In the object room we have a table where a person can do an individual sandtray. This is useful when one wishes to gain personal insight or inspiration. Individual trays are very helpful for staff members as well as participants seeing personal direction in life or in work.

Such trays can be purchased prebuilt. The classical dimensions of such a tray are as follows:

Sandtray inside dimensions: 1.5' x 2.25'
Tray height: 3.5"
Sand depth: 2"
Table holding tray: 2.33'h
Tray can be placed on an existing table (not custom built).

A straight but comfortable chair is needed as well.

Camera - Polaroid available for those who wish to photograph their tray.

Main light hanging directly over tray 4' above tray surface.

Track lighting with five fixtures hanging over the table, bisecting tray lengthwise 5.33' above the surface of the tray.