Clinical guide for therapists

Everything you need to start using MiniaturZ with your patient

When to use each technique

Clinical indications and selection criteria

Step-by-step protocol

Clear structure to conduct each phase

Ready-to-use phrases

Templates to propose and guide the patient

Real examples

Three clinical vignettes, one per technique

What is MiniaturZ?

MiniaturZ brings to online therapy projective techniques that until now could only be done in person. A 3D environment shared in real time with your patient, with over 420 figures and built-in video call, to work where words don't reach. Designed for Play Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Social Atom.

What sessions look like

Three examples so you see how the tool works in session. Not recipes — just possible ways to use it.

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Elena is 42. Her GP referred her: months of insomnia and a sustained low mood with no clear reason. We've had six sessions and we're going in circles — she talks about work, about being tired, back to work.

In the next session I propose doing Play Therapy. She makes a face: "I don't know about that..." I tell her we try for ten minutes and see. She starts placing figures in silence. In the center, a woman alone. Around her, several human figures at very uneven distances. In one corner, a dog. I ask about it. She goes quiet for a long while and says "that's Luna." Her dog had died six months earlier and no one at home had paid much attention — her partner didn't get it, and she didn't allow herself to make it important either.

What six sessions of talking hadn't brought out, one figure did. I didn't have to do much — I gave her back what she herself had placed. In the following session she brought, unprompted, a photo of the dog on her phone. The figure revealed the grief.

When to use each technique?

There's no ideal patient profile. Each technique fits a different clinical moment.

When to use it

When there's a topic that doesn't quite come out in conversation, or when the patient has been "going in circles" for a while without the material moving forward.

  • •Sustained verbal block across several sessions
  • •Analytical patient who rationalizes a lot and words fall short
  • •To externalize an internal conflict or explore family dynamics indirectly
  • •Introverted person who shuts down in dialogue
  • •Grief without narrative elaboration

When not to use it

There are moments when opening the board does more harm than good. Better to hold with words.

  • •Acute crisis, active suicidal ideation, or unstabilized psychosis: the priority is to contain, not to open
  • •Severe dissociation without prior grounding work: remotely you can't somatically co-regulate
  • •Unstabilized complex trauma: the figures can bring up things there aren't resources for yet
  • •Severe alexithymia without prior emotional education work: the technique feels empty
  • •Patient with very rigid cognitive structure: symbolic ambiguity can trigger anxiety
  • •Patient who experiences the board as infantilizing even after good framing: don't insist

What might be holding you back

The most common resistances to using these projective techniques online aren't about lack of knowledge — they're emotional.

Fear of "losing" the patient

That they'll get bored, not take it seriously, or leave.

This usually comes from your own insecurity about using it. Try the tool yourself or with a colleague before using it in a real session.

Fear of falling into pseudoscience

Are these serious, evidence-based techniques?

These techniques have solid scientific evidence backing them.

Lack of specific training

When you don't know how to use any of the techniques.

This guide doesn't train you in the specific techniques. It teaches you how to use the tool. If you come in without specific training, don't attempt IFS — it's the most complex and you might not know how to conduct a session with it.

"This isn't serious"

You might think miniatures are only for child therapy.

Therapy with figures is especially useful for adults to provide narratives, open unexplored worlds, and heal wounds.

Before you propose it to a patient

Play with the tool in a test session

Try it alone, or with a colleague who's also curious. Open a room, share the invitation link, and place miniatures as if it were a real session with your patient. Watch how the camera moves, how an emotional halo or bond is set, how a board screenshot works, etc.

Template to propose the session

Text you can send by email or WhatsApp before the session.

For our next session I'd like to suggest something different. We're going to use a visual tool where we can work with figures on a shared board, plus our usual video call. Why? You'll see that sometimes it's easier to make sense of things visually than with words, and I think in your case it could be very revealing — trust me. You don't need to install anything or register. I'll send you a link before the session and you join from your computer (bigger screen is better than phone).

The tools at your disposal

MiniaturZ gives you a wide variety of resources to work with.

1Move, rotate & scale

At any point during the session

The patient can freely move, rotate, and scale any figure. The act of reorganizing the space is already therapeutic — notice which figures they bring closer, push away, or make larger without asking yet.

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2Emotional halos

To represent associated sensations

Ask the patient to put a halo in the color that each figure conveys to them. Don't interpret what red or green means — ask them. Reveals affect without needing to verbalize it.

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3Bonds

To visualize relationships

Connect with a line the figures that share an important bond. Use colors or thicknesses to represent different types of relationships.

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4Labels

Only if the patient wants to

Let the patient be the one to write "Mom." Don't suggest it. If you want, you can add a name only visible to you.

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5Top-down view

To visualize the system from above

Looking "from above" decenters and allows seeing the complete system, plus the distances between figures.

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6Snapshots

To see before and after

Save the current board state and restore it later in the same session. Useful for comparing before and after, or going back to a previous point if the patient wants to redo.

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7Face to face

To explore a figure in depth

Bring a miniature into the foreground. Particularly useful for dialoguing with it or when it carries significant emotional weight.

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8Observer mode

To refocus attention

Locks the patient's interaction and refocuses attention on what you want. Safety net.

Active
Observer mode active
9Screenshots

Download the board view

The video call stays out — you won't appear in the screenshot. Only the current view of the 3D environment will be captured.

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How to conduct the session

A step-by-step structure that works. Adapt it to your own style.

1

Setup and warm-up

~5 min

Copy the session link and send it to your patient so they can join

  • •Check that you can see and hear each other, and that when you move the camera the other person sees the same movement on their screen.
  • •Ask how they're doing today.
  • •Briefly explain what you want to work on today and why you'll be using MiniaturZ.
  • •If it's the patient's first time, explain how to choose miniatures, how to move, rotate or scale them before starting. This way they get familiar with the controls. If they freeze later, you'll know it's not because they can't find the right button.
  • •If they arrive very activated, don't start the technique yet: begin with conversational therapy.
2

The prompt

Brief and specific.

Based on what we're going to work on, place the figures that call to you, without overthinking. Build whatever comes: a scene, a world, an inner landscape. It doesn't have to make sense.

If they ask "what should I put?", answer "whatever you think is right. Everything is fine." Don't suggest figures.

3

While they place

The most important thing in this phase: silence is your main tool.

  • Reflect the observable, don't interpret

    "I see you hesitated between two." / "Interesting — you haven't placed your father."

  • Validate the pause

    "Take all the time you need."

  • If blocked for more than a minute

    "Are you okay?" / "Need help with the controls?"

  • Interpret what you think a figure means

    Premature interpretation closes the projective space.

  • Suggest which figure "would be good for them"

    The choice always belongs to the patient.

  • Fill silence with explanations

    Productive silences are where processing happens.

When in doubt whether to intervene, don't.

4

When they've finished placing

We shift from creative to reflective mode. Start general and get specific.

  1. 1“Let's look at this figure up close. Do you want to say something to it?”
  2. 2“What name would you give this board?”
  3. 3“If this miniature could speak, what would it say?”
  4. 4“Why do you think there's a red emotional bond between these two?”
  5. 5“What's here that you didn't expect?”
  6. 6“Is there someone or something missing?”

For IFS: "What do you feel toward this part?" — If they respond with curiosity or compassion, they're in Self. If with judgment or fear, there's another part blended.

For social atom: "If you step into this figure's place for a moment, what does it say about you?" — Adapted role reversal.

5

Closure

Final 5-7 min
  • “How are you feeling now?”
  • “What are you taking away from what you saw today?”
  • “If you had to give the session a title, what would it be?”

If there's high activation, brief somatic closure

Before we close, take 3 deep breaths. Look around you. Name three things you can see in your room.

What to observe during the session

Signs that the technique is working. Don't abandon it too early.

  • Coherent selection pace: neither too fast (avoidance) nor too slow (paralysis). A rhythm that shifts as something emerges.
  • Productive silences: not speaking but active — moving, looking, adjusting. Different from blocked silence.
  • Body changes: posture leaning toward the screen, hands entering the frame, sighs.
  • Spontaneous verbalization: "ah… that's my mother" without being asked.
  • Surprise at their own production: "I hadn't realized I'd placed her so far away." Surprise is one of the best markers of genuine projection.
  • Free association appearing: the patient starts telling a memory, an image, a dream.
  • Imaginative absorption: loses awareness of the camera, gets into the board. Their voice changes — lower, slower.

If none of this appears after 15-20 minutes, don't force it. The technique isn't for this session or this patient. That's also clinical information.

If the patient blocks

Blocking is clinical information, not failure. Four concrete exits.

"There are many figures and that can be overwhelming. Let's make it easier: choose only from these categories. Whichever calls to you first."

"Stop for a moment. Let's not add anything else. Look at what you've already placed. What do you see?" — Switch to top-down view here. Sometimes the block comes because they've already said what they needed.

"Going blank is very common. You don't have to fill anything. What if the next figure represented exactly that: not knowing what to place?" — Turning the block into clinical material.

"Okay, today isn't the day for this. That's normal, it happens sometimes. Let's leave it here and keep talking instead. What happened?" — Going back to conversation is sometimes the best option. What happened during the attempt is often more useful than a finished board.

Without these prepared exits, it's easy to panic when a patient blocks and never use the tool again.

If it doesn't work with this patient

Knowing how to exit gives you the confidence to enter.

Transition back

"I can see this isn't working for you today and that's fine. It's not for everyone or every moment. We go back to what we know. If at some point you feel like trying again, just tell me." — Don't propose it again in the next sessions.

What you've gained regardless

Information about defenses and cognitive style: how they relate to the ambiguous, the playful, the symbolic. Material for the therapeutic bond: talking about what happened or why it doesn't fit opens topics about control, shame, exposure, etc. And all of that guides you for the following sessions.

What gets built when you let go

The patient experiences that you can propose something and let it go without pressure. That builds trust. If it never fits, that's fine. Don't turn it into a battle.

After the session

The session doesn't end when the screen closes. Projective techniques keep working in the subconscious, and what emerged needs a place in the following sessions.

Revisit what came up

Wait for it to come up spontaneously or introduce it when there's room: "what you're telling me reminds me of the little witch miniature you placed two sessions ago." Visual memory is strong; most patients remember their boards in detail months later.

Don't make it routine

If you turn MiniaturZ into "what we do on Tuesdays," it loses its effect. The technique works as a clinical event, not a habit. One powerful projective session can fuel multiple sessions of verbal processing.

Watch for the incubation effect

Given the nature of projective techniques, many patients bring elaborated material between sessions — dreams, memories, associations — related to what they placed on the board.

Use screenshots as a resource

If you took a screenshot during the session, you can bring it back in later sessions. Seeing the image of what they built can reactivate the material without repeating the exercise.

Redo the same board later

Repeating a social atom or parts map at 3-6 months, comparing it with the previous one, is one of the most powerful and underused applications. The patient sees their own process.

Not everyone needs the same thing

Some patients want to talk about the chosen miniatures and how they were arranged during the next session. Others need space. Ask directly: "Have you thought about anything from what we did with the figures?" and respect the answer.

Ready to try it with your patient?

Everything you need for your first online session with miniatures.

  • 420+ 3D miniatures
  • Encrypted sessions
  • No installation
  • Works on any device
  • Built-in video call
  • Patient joins via link

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14-day trial. No credit card required.