By Dr Celia van Wyk

In trauma therapy, we speak often about “giving clients a voice.” But what happens when language itself becomes the barrier?
When what is hidden refuses to become spoken?
When the body remembers, but the mouth cannot?

This is where Sandplay Therapy steps forward — not as an adjunct, not as “just play therapy,” but as a structured, research-supported clinical method rooted in Jungian depth psychology, designed specifically to reach the unreachable: hidden trauma stored beyond words.

Today, more mental health professionals are realising what Carl Jung discovered nearly 100 years ago:
the unconscious does not speak in sentences — it speaks in symbols.

And Sandplay Therapy is the language it understands.

Why Jung Explored the Unconscious — and Why It Matters for Trauma Therapy Today

Jung’s pursuit of the unconscious began with a question:
Why does the psyche hide what needs healing most?

His answer changed psychology forever.

He found that the unconscious protects itself by creating symbolic distance — a natural defense to prevent emotional overwhelm. Trauma, especially early and chronic trauma, becomes sealed in non-verbal memory systems. Jung recognised this protective mechanism before neuroscience could prove it.

Today’s research validates his intuition:

• Trauma is stored in implicit, sensory, pre-verbal memory, not in verbal narrative (van der Kolk, 2014).

• Up to 80% of traumatic memory encoding is non-verbal (Siegel, 2012).

• The brain’s Broca’s area, responsible for speech, shuts down during traumatic recall (fMRI studies, Harvard Medical School).

This means one thing for therapists:

Trauma does not enter through language — and it cannot fully heal through language alone.

Jung knew this.
Sandplay Therapy honours it.

Is Sandplay Therapy Play Therapy? Absolutely Not. Here’s Why.

Play therapy engages cognitive, behavioural, emotional, and social modalities — highly effective, especially with children.

But Sandplay Trauma Therapy is different:

• It is symbolic, not recreational.

• It is non-directive, not interpretive.

• It engages deep psyche movement, not cognitive processing.

• It activates trauma healing without therapist leading, prompting, or reframing.

• It creates a free and protected space — one that allows the unconscious to reveal what it has hidden.

To a sceptic, Sandplay may appear simple.
To a trained therapist, it is one of the most sophisticated, ethically contained trauma modalities available.

Why Have So Few Professionals Heard About It?

Because Sandplay Therapy requires intensive training.
Not a weekend workshop.
Not an online module.

A minimum one-year, specialised training — recognised internationally.

Why?
Because the therapist must learn:

• symbolic literacy,

• Jungian depth psychology,

• trauma physiology,

• non-directive therapeutic stance,

• containment skills,

• field theory,

• and the ethics of non-interpretation.

This is not a “new kid on the block” — the method has existed since Dora Kalff’s work in the 1950s.

What is new is our deepening understanding of why it works.

The Neuroscience Behind Sandplay: Why It Works With Hidden Trauma

Sandplay activates regions of the brain involved in:

• sensory-motor processing,

• spatial integration,

• symbolic thinking,

• emotional regulation,

• right-brain implicit memory.

Studies show:

• Right-brain therapies reduce traumatic activation faster than left-brain talk therapy (Schore, 2020).

• Symbolic expression increases integration between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, reducing hyperarousal (Rossi, 2017).

• Non-verbal therapies like Sandplay improve outcomes in complex trauma, dissociation, and early childhood trauma where verbal memory is compromised.

Hidden trauma cannot be instructed to speak.
But it can be revealed symbolically.

Sandplay is the bridge in trauma therapy.

Why Add Sandplay Therapy to Your Trauma Toolbox?

Because:

1. It bypasses the limitations of language.

Clients no longer need to “find the words.”

2. It reduces therapist bias and leading.

The unconscious directs the work — not us.

3. It can be used across disciplines.

Psychologists, social workers, counsellors, occupational therapists, and psychiatrists can all integrate it.

4. It works powerfully with resistant, traumatised, or dissociative clients.

When talking shuts down, Sandplay opens up.

5. It complements all evidence-based trauma approaches.

EMDR, CBT, sensorimotor therapy, somatic therapy, family systems — Sandplay enhances, not replaces.

6. Clients access material faster, safer, and with lower overwhelm.

Symbolic distance = emotional safety.

7. It is deeply respectful of the psyche’s timing.

No pushing.
No forcing.
No retraumatization.

The New Year Call to Level Up: A New Language for Trauma Therapy

2026 is a year of clinical expansion.
A year to sharpen our tools.
A year to listen to trauma differently.

Hidden trauma requires a new pathway.
A new language.
A non-verbal avenue to what has remained unreachable.

Sandplay Therapy is not an alternative.
It is an advancement.

If you are a trauma professional seeking:

• mastery,

• depth,

• CPD-accredited training,

• and a way to treat trauma without retraumatizing…

Then the one-year Sandplay Therapy Training Program may be the next evolution in your clinical career.

Because sometimes, the deepest healing happens
without a single word being spoken.