Free tool
Virtual Sand Tray
A tray of sand and a shelf of miniatures, in the browser. Pick figures from the shelf, set them in the sand, move them nearer or further, bury the ones that need hiding, rake a river or a wall between them. The scene says what words will not — which is the whole point of the medium, and the reason play and trauma therapists have kept a tray in the room for a century.
This one exists for telehealth. When the client is on a screen there is no shelf to reach for; now there is. Share your screen and build what they ask for, or send them the link and watch them build.
Private by design: the world you build lives only in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded or stored anywhere; Save image gives you a picture to keep, and that is the only thing that ever leaves.
Nothing here yet.
269 figures. Tap one to set it in the sand, then drag it where it belongs. Figures sit in the order you placed them; Front and Back change who stands in front. Keyboard: arrows move, [ ] rotate, + − resize, B bury, H flip, Delete removes, Ctrl+Z undoes.
How clinicians use it
The structure most sandtray training teaches survives the screen intact: build, witness, process, close. Invite the world without suggesting its contents. While it is being built, watch and say little — over video that means watching the client's face as much as the tray. When they say it is finished, ask to be shown around: tell me about this one gets further than what does this mean. Then close deliberately: is the world finished, does it have a name, would they like a picture of it. The picture is the client's.
With children, the shelf does the inviting. Let them scroll; notice what they linger on and what they go back for. Burying a figure, fencing one off, or putting two figures as far apart as the tray allows is often the entire communication, and it does not need to be translated into words on the spot. With adolescents and adults the same tray works at a slower pace, and the fantasy and symbol shelves tend to carry more of the weight.
Pacing matters more online than in the room. Keep sessions shorter with younger or more fragile clients, keep an eye out for the stillness that means someone has gone somewhere else, and finish the world before you finish the call.
Common questions
What is a sand tray, and why would a therapist use a digital one?
A sand tray is a shallow box of sand and a shelf of miniatures. The client builds a scene — a world — and the therapist witnesses it. It began with Margaret Lowenfeld's World Technique in the 1920s and was developed into sandplay by Dora Kalff; today it is used by play therapists, trauma therapists, and many others, with children and adults alike. A digital tray exists for one reason: telehealth. When the client is on a screen, there is no shelf to reach for. This page gives you a shelf and a tray that both of you can see.
Is this a substitute for a real sand tray?
No. A real tray has weight, texture, and depth — a child's hands in sand are part of the work. Think of this as a sketch of a world rather than the world itself: it keeps the essentials (choosing figures, placing them in relation to each other, hiding and revealing) when the physical tray is out of reach. Clinicians trained in the medium will know how much of the method survives the translation and how much does not.
How do I use it over video?
Two ways. Share your screen and build what the client asks you to place — many therapists like this with younger children, who direct and you obey. Or send the client this link, let them build on their own screen, and watch their face on video while they do. Either way the scene stays in whichever browser built it; ask the client to press Save image if they want to keep a picture.
Is anything I build sent anywhere?
No. The tray runs entirely in your browser. There is no account, no upload, and no server involved in the scene at all — close the tab and the world is gone, unless you deliberately saved a picture to your own device. Favourite and recently used figures are remembered on your own device only, to save scrolling.
Who is it for?
Trained therapists, first. Sandtray and sandplay are taught methods, and the evidence for them involves a clinician in the room. Parents and clients are welcome to explore here, but the tool interprets nothing, scores nothing, and diagnoses nothing — it is a tray and a shelf, not a treatment. If building a world stirs something up, that deserves a person.
What does burying a figure do?
It sinks the figure into the sand so it is mostly hidden — one of the most common moves in a physical tray, and often the most telling. Select a figure and press Bury; press again to dig it up. Buried figures still count toward the tray's forty-object limit.
Sources
- Lowenfeld, M. (1979). The World Technique. Allen & Unwin.
- Kalff, D. M. (2003). Sandplay: A psychotherapeutic approach to the psyche. Temenos Press. (Original work published 1980.)
- Homeyer, L. E., & Sweeney, D. S. (2017). Sandtray therapy: A practical manual (3rd ed.). Routledge.
- Wiersma, J. K., Freedle, L. R., McRoberts, R., & Solberg, K. B. (2022). A meta-analysis of sandplay therapy treatment outcomes. International Journal of Play Therapy, 31(4), 197–215. Forty studies, 1,284 participants; overall Hedges' g = 1.10, with most studies in children and adolescents. Research on digital trays specifically is still thin.
- Roesler, C. (2019). Sandplay therapy: An overview of theory, applications and evidence base. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 64, 84–94.
This is a clinical aid for trained therapists and general education for everyone else — not therapy, and not a treatment for any condition. The tool does not interpret, score, or diagnose anything. Figure artwork is from Google's Noto Emoji, used under the Apache License 2.0.
Using it in session
This is a telehealth adaptation of a medium, not a modality of its own. If you are trained in sandtray or sandplay, you already know the structure: invite the client to build a world, witness without directing, then process by letting the client tour you through what they made. Over video, share your screen and build what the client asks for, or send them the link and let them build on their own screen while you watch their face. Ask "tell me about this one" rather than "what does this mean."
With children, the figure library does the inviting. Let them scroll the people, animals, and fantasy categories and notice what they linger on. Burying a figure, fencing one off, or putting two figures far apart is often the whole communication; name what you see neutrally and let the child correct you. End by asking whether the world is finished and whether they want a picture of it. Save as PNG and the picture is theirs; nothing is kept on this site.
Documentation example
Client (age 9) built a sand tray scene over telehealth using a digital tray: placed a house with the family figures inside and a wolf figure outside the fence, then buried the wolf. Client described the wolf as "the loud one" and declined to say more; therapist reflected and did not interpret. Scene saved as an image at client's request.
Limits and cautions
- Not a substitute for a physical tray. There is no tactile sand, no weight in the hand, no three-dimensional space; treat what you see as a sketch of a world, not the world.
- Not for unsupervised use with trauma. The evidence for sandplay is strongest with a trained therapist present; a child alone with a worry-laden scene has no one to help close it.
- No interpretation is built in, by design. The tool does not score, read, or diagnose a scene, and neither should a clinician without training in the medium.
- Dissociation-aware pacing applies online as in person: keep sessions short with younger or more fragile clients, and close the world explicitly before ending the call.
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