Sandplay, Claywork and the Young Child’s Inner World
In Jungian Sandplay Therapy and Clay Therapy, children often create images before they have words.
A child may place a dragon in the sandtray.
Another may bury a small figure beneath the sand.
A child working with clay may press, squeeze, tear, smooth, or shape the clay until something begins to appear.
At first, it may look like simple play.
But sometimes, something deeper is happening.
The child is not only making an object.
The child may be giving form to an inner experience.
This is where an image begins to become a symbol.
What Is the Difference Between an Image and a Symbol?
An image is something that can be seen or made.
A house.
A snake.
A cave.
A bowl.
A wall.
A monster.
A symbol is different.
A symbol is an image that carries emotional, psychic, or unconscious meaning beyond its literal form.
A house may simply be a house.
But in the sandtray, it may also carry the meaning of safety, family, belonging, loneliness, protection, or the child’s inner self.
A cave may be only a cave.
But it may also carry something of hiding, retreat, danger, protection, or the hidden inner world.
A clay vessel may be only a bowl.
But it may also become an image of containment, emptiness, holding, body, mother, wound, or transformation.
The object itself does not decide the meaning.
The meaning emerges from the child’s relationship to the image.
When Does an Image Become a Symbol?
An image begins to become symbolic when it carries emotional energy.
This may be seen when:
- the same image repeats across sessions
- the child becomes emotionally focused on the image
- the image changes over time
- the image holds opposites, such as danger and protection
- the child cannot explain it but seems to “need” it there
- the image becomes part of a larger emotional story
For example, a child may repeatedly place a wall in the sandtray.
At first, it may appear to be simple building.
But over time, the wall may begin to carry deeper meaning. It may protect something vulnerable. It may keep danger away. It may divide one part of the tray from another. It may become a boundary between what feels safe and what feels unsafe.
The wall has moved from object to image, and from image to symbol.
Symbols Often Begin in the Body
This is especially important when working with young children.
A young child does not always begin with a clear idea. The child may begin with a body sensation, an impulse, or a feeling.
The child may dig, press, bury, throw, smooth, push, or tear.
In sandplay, this may appear as:
- digging holes
- burying figures
- flattening the sand
- building walls
- flooding the tray
- repeatedly moving animals or objects
In claywork, this may appear as:
- squeezing
- pressing
- rolling
- tearing
- hollowing
- enclosing
- breaking and repairing
This is not yet fully symbolic in the verbal sense. It may first be body-based expression.
The body speaks before words.
Slowly, the movement becomes form.
The form becomes image.
The image may become symbol.
This is one of the most important ideas in working with young children:
In young children, the symbol often begins in the body before it becomes an image.
How This Happens in Sandplay
In Sandplay Therapy, the child chooses from miniature figures and places them in the tray.
The image already exists as an object: a lion, a house, a bridge, a monster, a tree.
But the symbol emerges through the child’s use of that object.
We observe:
- Where is it placed?
- Is it alone or with others?
- Is it protected or exposed?
- Is it buried, hidden, central, or placed at the edge?
- Does it repeat across sessions?
- Does it change over time?
A dragon placed in the centre of the tray may carry a different meaning from a dragon locked away behind a wall.
A baby figure lying alone may carry a different emotional quality from a baby protected inside a house.
The symbol is not only the object.
The symbol lives in the relationship between object, space, emotion, and process.
How This Happens in Claywork
Claywork is different from Sandplay because the child does not only choose an image. The child physically forms it.
Clay begins as formless matter.
The child’s hands press into it.
The body shapes it.
The form emerges slowly.
This makes claywork deeply embodied.
The process may move like this:
body sensation → hand movement → form → image → symbol
A child may begin by squeezing clay tightly.
Then a hollow appears.
Then the child says, “It is a cave.”
Later the cave becomes a hiding place.
Then something vulnerable is placed inside.
The clay form has become symbolic.
In clay therapy, we must observe both:
1. The final form
What was made?
A bowl.
A cave.
A house.
A creature.
A vessel.
2. The making process
How was it made?
Was it pressed, torn, smoothed, hollowed, enclosed, broken, repaired?
Sometimes the process itself is symbolic before the final form has a name.
A child who repeatedly breaks and repairs clay may be working symbolically with damage and restoration.
A child who makes containers may be forming an image of holding.
A child who closes a vessel completely may be expressing protection, secrecy, or emotional withdrawal.
Why This Matters in Trauma Work
For children who have experienced trauma, the body often carries what words cannot yet hold.
A child may not be able to say:
“I feel unsafe.”
“I feel overwhelmed.”
“I feel broken.”
“I need protection.”
But the child may show it.
In sand, the child may bury, hide, separate, or build walls.
In clay, the child may press, tear, enclose, or repair.
These actions can be understood as early symbolic attempts to organise overwhelming experience.
This does not mean every image proves trauma.
A wall is not automatically trauma.
A cave is not automatically fear.
A monster is not automatically abuse.
But when images repeat, carry strong emotional energy, and change across sessions, they may help us understand how the child’s psyche is trying to process experience.
The Therapist’s Role
The therapist must be careful not to interpret too quickly.
We do not say, “This means fear,” or “This means trauma.”
Instead, we observe.
We ask inwardly:
- What is repeated?
- What carries emotional intensity?
- What is protected?
- What is hidden?
- What is changing?
- What is becoming more organised?
- What is moving from body action into symbolic form?
The therapist’s role is to hold the space so that the image can develop into symbol naturally.
Meaning should not be forced.
It should be allowed to emerge.
Symbolic Development in the Young Child
For young children, symbolic development is often a gradual movement:
sensation → action → form → image → symbol → transformation
This means the child may first express distress through the body.
Then through repetitive movement.
Then through a form.
Then through an image.
Then through a symbol that carries meaning.
And over time, that symbol may transform.
A monster may become less frightening.
A wall may become a home.
A cave may become a safe place.
A broken form may be repaired.
A vessel may begin to hold something precious.
This is how the psyche begins to organise itself.
Final Reflection
An image becomes a symbol when it begins to carry the child’s inner world.
In Sandplay, the child places the image.
In Claywork, the child forms it with the body.
Both processes allow children to express what words cannot yet say.
The therapist watches for emotional charge, repetition, placement, transformation, and relationship.
The symbol is not something we decode quickly.
It is something we accompany over time.
In the protected space of Sandplay and Clay Therapy, the child’s inner experience slowly becomes visible.
And once it becomes visible, it can begin to change.
Suggested Call to Action
If you would like to learn more about Jungian Sandplay Therapy, Clay Therapy, or symbolic work with children, you are welcome to visit:
https://rinalouwclinical.co.za/why-children-cannot-talk-about-trauma-before-they-can-regulate/: When an Image Becomes a Symbol.