The Sandtray Therapy Certificate Program consists of trainings for working with children, teenagers, and adults. One of three Training Certificates can be earned 1) Children ages 3-12, 2) Teens and Adults, or 3) Children Teens & Adults. Courses include: theory and practice for working with each of these age groups; relational sandtray work where two or more people are exploring their relationship; how to use Focusing with Sandtray; and Mindfulness and the self-awareness of the therapist. We touch on the historic roots of Sandtray, which was developed by Dora Kalff, a student of Carl Jung, and we look at various ways it is used today. Through the program, therapists learn about: the constructive ways of being with clients of all ages as they do this work; awareness of the difference between beneficial and unhelpful ways of talking with the clients during the work; how to provide a supportive presence that helps clients find their own real insights in their trays. See the Sandtray brochures for details of the various courses.

The Group Sandtray Analysis component of the sandtray program emphasizes how to be with a client's sandtray in a mindful way, so that the tray's deeper meanings reveal themselves from the inside out. Dottie was introduced to these techniques through years of study with the prolific author and Buddhist psychologist John Welwood, and she adapted these techniques to sandtray. The collective experience is both valuable and enjoyable and gives the participants an exponential increase in their understanding of metaphors. An attitude of mindfulness helps therapists notice their own projections and tame them. Then they are able to use their initial interpretations of a client's sand tray by transforming them into a mindfully discerned question or comment that may help clarify the client's own understanding of the metaphors.

The Center conducts special advanced seminars in sandtray from time to time, in which prominent authors in the field present theory and practice methods. The seminars are usually day-long events with six hours of class time. This helps therapists to be exposed to the variety of rich ways of working with this wonderful modality. Advanced seminar hours taken at other locations with authors of sandtray books may count toward our certificate.