Become A
Qualified Sandtray Therapist
Australia’s only Registered Training Organisation (RTO) accredited to deliver the nationally recognised course 11242NAT Graduate Diploma of Sandtray Therapy.
Sandtray therapy is a healing process which helps people work through any painful conscious or unconscious memories.
Sand play enables people to unconsciously process an issue by representing it in sand, by manipulating miniatures that represent daily activities, people, buildings, movement, nature, spirituality and more.
As a whole brain activity clients learn to explore their internal feelings, emotions, bodily sensations and images expressed in ‘sand worlds’ by parts of the brain that have no verbal language.
Sandtray Therapy graduates work in areas of disabilities, NDIS, with Indigenous children, early childhood, private practice or within government or private institutions.
Fiona is one of Australia’s leading clinical Sandtray therapists and Professional trainers who’s passion for Sand therapies is contagious.
Fiona is the lead trainer at Opengate Institute which is a registered training organisation delivering a very high level of sand therapy training. Fiona began her career in mental health as a registered Counsellor after completing her Bachelor degree. Fiona then went on to train as a Sandplay therapist with STANZA an affiliate of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST), her trainers included many highly esteemed international Sandplay analysts and therapists. She also studied with Marg Garvin, Sandplay Australia. Fiona then went on to develop her own training program that takes the best of Sandplay and Sandtray Therapy to develop a training program with the only government accreditation in Australia – 11242NAT Graduate Diploma of Sandtray Therapy.
Fiona has also written two books – A Parents Guide to Psychological Well-being for Children, A Therapists & Teachers Guide to Psychological Wellbeing for the Inner Child. (Volume 2).
Contact Fiona for Private Supervision Sessions.
We are Australia’s only Registered Training Organisation (RTO) accredited to deliver the nationally recognised course 11242NAT Graduate Diploma of Sandtray Therapy.
Terence McBride was a prominent Sydney Jungian and founding member of the Sydney Jungian Society. Known as Terry he was President of the Society from 1981-1993 and a prolific writer and speaker on Jungian matters and a personal and professional inspiration to many. His family has kindly donated his Sandplay collection to Opengate Institute and in his honour we have created the Terry McBride Scholarship program.
As we were driving home along a country road, we were looking about us being a bit silly about names to call the company. Things like ‘flying bird’, ‘tree leaves’ and the like. Then it was said ‘Opengate’, this triggered a series of thoughts and deep impressions of the metaphorical meanings. Think about the gates of Heaven or Hell, standing there as your fate is decided. The image portrayed of being welcomed with the gate wide open into the training centre. An Opengate as a portal to the collective consciousness where knowledge and wisdom is abound!
Sandtray Play Work to promote mental health & wellbeing in schools program.
Program Title
Sandtray Play Work for Academic Learning, Social & Emotional Skills Development.
8-week program 1 day per week x 2 hours
High School – Group work
Connections with sand worlds opening up stories within to tell and share!
This expressive therapy mental health and wellbeing peer support program is facilitated by trauma-informed highly skilled sandtray therapy professionals. Working closely with teachers in schools, wellbeing staff and families to promote the psychosocial needs through peer support to enable participants to find a voice.
Program Overview Outcomes
Sandtray Play Work for academic learning, social and emotional skills development.
These outcomes are based on research from similar expressive therapy sandtray groups
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01933920801977397
This program is delivered by highly trained sandtray therapists.
Sandtray Play Work to promote mental health & wellbeing in early intervention
Train the trainer – 3 day training program over 3 weeks
This training is only available to educators with a Bachelor Degree or higher.
This program is a three day train the trainer. The educator will learn to understand how to use the sandtray play work as a tool for co-regulation and as a transition activity for young children with attachment needs or other issues.
This intervention does not include any sandtray miniatures to be used – resources include an indoor sandtray, sand, scoops and other tools, an educator with the skills to understand how to enable children to co-regulate using sandtray play work.
Sandtray Therapy to promote mental health & wellbeing
Train the trainer – Only available to mental health practitioners with Bachelor level or higher qualifications.
Training Programs for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander therapists wanting to become Sandtray/Sandplay Therapists.
In these programs we offer bespoke sandplay training courses to suit the needs of services and stakeholders. The blended courses are guided online and classroom training from the Sandtray Therapy Training Package.
The ANZMHA member benefits have been carefully curated to provide you access to sector-leading support and offers on programs, services and courses to enhance your professional learning. Membership is free for anyone to join.
Opengate Institute are continuously advocating for our students to help with recognition as you become qualified Sandtray Therapists. We are proud to announce that in partnership with the International Institute of Complementary Therapists you can now buy insurance for as little as $1.00 (check with IICT for details until offer applies) Yes you read that correctly!
Follow this link to take advantage of this offer or other IICT Memberships you will need your student ID.
The following platforms are paid membership platforms to help you find clients and promote your Sandtray Therapy Practice. Once you have gained your qualifications and you want to start to promote yourself, we have advocated with Natural Therapy Pages for a separate section under the generic term Sandplay.
We have advocated with Psychology Today, which is a paid marketing platform, they accept your Qualification in Sandtray Therapy (Postgraduate Certificate) and your IICM insurance for setting up your profile.
