Lowenfeld on SandPlay

as now adays we perceive, the sand play can be divided into 2 mainstream. the first category is by Lowenfeld, and the 2nd is by Dora kaff.

Sandplay, Sand Tray Therapy, The World Technique are all names given to a non-verbal therapeutic tool developed by Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld in London, England in the 1920’s.

Today the term Sandplay is most widely used to denote this method of the use of sand and water in a tray in which toys or miniatures are placed.

The scene or "world" gives both the maker and therapist a sense of what is going on intra-psychically.

Lowenfeld began her training as a pediatrician and while engaged in research on infant feeding and the problems of child care she began to make observations which led her to recognize the significance of children’s play.

In 1928 she founded a Children’s Clinic for the treatment and Study of Nervous and Difficult Children. It was here that Lowenfeld developed a research and therapeutically oriented approach to child psychiatry and to develop "toys for reading a child’s mind" or The World Technique. The story is told that Lowenfeld placed a sample of toys before a child client who cried out in excitement, "Caw Mam, it’s a whole world to play with".



Transpersonal Sandplay Therapy Center
Sandplay, Sand Tray Therapy, The World Technique are all names given to a non-verbal therapeutic tool developed by Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld in London, England in the 1920’s. Today the term Sandplay is most widely used to denote this method of the use of sand and water in a tray in which toys or miniatures are placed. The scene or "world" gives both the maker and therapist a sense of what is going on intra-psychically. Lowenfeld began her training as a pediatrician and while engaged in research on infant feeding and the problems of child care she began to make observations which led her to recognize the significance of children’s play. In 1928 she founded a Children’s Clinic for the treatment and Study of Nervous and Difficult Children. It was here that Lowenfeld developed a research and therapeutically oriented approach to child psychiatry and to develop "toys for reading a child’s mind" or The World Technique. The story is told that Lowenfeld placed a sample of toys before a child client who cried out in excitement, "Caw Mam, it’s a whole world to play with".

In 1931 Lowenfeld’s clinic moved to a new premises in order to accommodate the ever increasing demand for child psychiatry and its name was changed to the Institute of Child Psychology. By 1935 she and her colleagues had opened the first child psychotherapy training program in England. Also that year Lowenfeld published her theoretical ideas on play entitled, "Play In Childhood", still considered a classic text on the subject. Lowenfeld saw in her unique therapy technique that play is a cognitive process which gives the therapist access to the ways in which children think.