STANZA is a member society of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST). It is the only society in Australia and New Zealand approved by ISST to offer ISST certification for Sandplay Therapists and Sandplay Therapist Teaching Members.
Being a member of STANZA/ISST gives recognition of having completed training to recognised standard. Membership also comes with responsibilities, including those to the organisation and the method and standards we promote and uphold on behalf of the founding and current ISST members.
The requirements for certification are outlined here and are in line with ISST requirements.
STANZA/ISST Certified Sandplay Therapist (CST)
A Certified STANZA/ISST Therapist ( CST) has obtained their certification through ISST either as an individual member (IM), as a certified member of STANZA, or a certified member of an international member society .
The requirements for certification include:
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
A university education or equivalent.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Certification as a Sandplay Therapist does not by itself provide a qualification to practice psychotherapy or counselling. It is expected that applicants have a current membership of a professional association of Counsellors, Psychotherapists, Art Therapists, Mental Health Practitioners, Social Workers, Medical Practitioners, Jungian Analysts or other recognised mental health profession OR licensed OR insured to practice in a mental health profession where required by any local legislation or authority.
PERSONAL PROCESS
- Completion of Personal Process in Sandplay Therapy with a certified STANZA/ISST CST.
The personal process therapist may not be a trainee’s advisor, supervisor or symbol paper/case paper reader. As a guide, a minimum of 20 sandplay trays completed with the same personal process therapist is recommended.
THEORETICAL TRAINING
- Completion of a minimum of 100 hours in training seminars in Sandplay Therapy in the tradition of Dora Kalff and based on the principles of the psychology of C.G. Jung.
All theoretical training is to be certified by STANZA/ ISST Teaching Members (CST-T).
Certification in Sandplay Therapy is more than just accumulating the required number of seminar hours within a certain time frame. One’s personal process and individual and/or group supervision are important parts of coming to understand Sandplay Therapy processes and one’s personal relationship to depth psychology.
Online Theoretical Training (as agreed by ISST of 1st July, 2026)
- From 1/2/2020 until 31/12/2023 (Covid-19 Exception period): all training and supervision hours that met ISST requirements completed during this period will be counted as in-person hours for the purposes of certification.
- Effective January 1, 2024, up to 50 hours of the 100 hours of theoretical training required for ISST certification may be completed online, as long as the online training is synchronous, meaning live and interactive. (ISST Regulations Sep 2023).
- Exception to (3) is: The Fundamentals of Sandplay Therapy (12 hrs online training co-ordinated by Heather Lesley-Swan) can be counted as online training.
There are recommended texts and resources for becoming a certified Sandplay Therapist. These are listed under Resources.
SUPERVISION
A minimum 80 hours of Sandplay case consultation/supervision of clinical material must be undertaken with a minimum of two different STANZA/ISST Teaching Members. At least 30 of these hours must be individual.
Group Supervision: Up to 50 hours of group supervision is acceptable provided the supervisee presents their own clinical material for at least 10 of those 50 hours.
Online Group Supervision: Until November 2029, the group supervision hours can all be accumulated online if the supervisee lives too far to travel to in-person group sessions. From 2018 until 1/2/2020, a maximum of 24 hours of supervision could be accumulated online. Prior to 2018, a maximum of 20 hours could be accumulated online.
Group supervision is optional. The trainee may choose to gain all their supervision hours in individual supervision.
Individual supervision may occur online or in-person.
The applicant’s personal Sandplay Therapist cannot be one of the supervisors.
SEMINAR PAPERS
Two written seminar papers must be submitted. One of the papers must be an in-depth exploration of a symbol. The second paper may explore a different symbol, or may address any theoretical aspect of sandplay that is interesting to the applicant. Both papers should discuss the relevance of the topic to clinical sandplay practice. One of the papers must include clinical sandplay material; the other paper may include clinical material from case(s) conducted by the applicant.
FINAL CASE STUDY
The required minimum of 100 hours of theoretical teaching, applied to Sandplay practice, with ISST Teaching Members must have been completed before submitting the Final Case to Readers.
In preparing to submit their Final Case Study, the applicant is required to have a Case Advisor to whom they submit the document Appendix D. This document establishes that they have completed all the above requirements in accordance with STANZA requirements. The Case Advisor helps guide the applicant through the final stage of the process of certification.
The Case Advisor may be any STANZA/ISST Teaching Member other than the person with whom they completed their Personal process. If the Case Advisor is an overseas ISST member, they need to be aware that the applicant is applying to become a Certified Member of STANZA.
View the roles of advisers on the ISST website.
Acceptance of a final case study as per ISST guidelines (Appendix C, www.ISST-Society.com). The final case report must be read and approved by a minimum of three ISST CST-T’s who have been approved as final case readers as per ISST guidelines. At least one of the final case report readers must be a STANZA CST-T if a reader is available. Guidelines can be found here.
REQUIREMENTS FOR JUNGIAN ANALYSTS
Jungian Analysts who are members of IAAP may become STANZA/IAAP Certified Sandplay Therapists by completing the requirements for certification by Jungian Analysts as set out by ISST.