WEIRD SCIENCE

Children’s worries revealed in sand

DOG yoga and forest bathing sound bizarre enough as treatments for anxiety, but have you ever heard of sand therapy? Cheshire therapist Jane Fay believes it can heal children’s emotional wounds by helping ‘repressed issues come up to the surface’. She has set up The Sand worlds Room, giving children the chance to play with sand, the idea being that the objects and shapes they create with it are a reflection of their inner world. Therapists can then get an insight into their thoughts and feelings.

It’s not new. The term ‘sandplay therapy’ was first coined by a Swiss therapist called Dora Kalff in the 1950s.