Dr. Dee’s Reflection:
Goals
Let’s consider the goals for training and then a few criteria for a range of types of training.
Is the training to introduce the technique, potential to integrate with current therapy approaches, how it may be is useful for a wide range of client needs? This would be a brief introduction, but not include in-depth skill development.
Do staff want in-depth thorough training to cover specific skills and sensibilities including immersive experience?
Is the training an enhancement of staff’s expressive therapy expertise such as with drama therapy, art and play therapy?
Would a hybrid course with virtual, in-studio immersion, and case consultations work best?
Scheduling
Any schedule of training will be tailored to meet the goals and situation of the clinic.
Caution
We should be careful with training in the use of symbols to protect the client and the therapist. There is pervasive misunderstanding about the clinical use of symbols in sand. Popularized and marketed as a useful technique for youth and adults, there has been an oversimplification of the technique, problems with therapist’s using sand with little to no training, therapists using behavioral approaches to “extract” client trauma stories, there have been misunderstanding and harm experienced by clients/ families, there is the risk of re-traumatizing clients, potential misuse of therapist power to manipulate clients, and exposure of client photos of their sand scenes precipitating judgment and shame for what clients revealed in their sand scenes. These are a few of the problems. It is not just new therapists alone that carry the weight of learning a projective process. As with integrating any new technique, seasoned clinicians are also in discovery and vulnerable to risks.
No matter one’s approach to sand, Sandplay, Sandtray, Narrative Sand, Sand Therapy, we are engaging with a complex projective approach that requires process. We are not “fixing” a problem or problem-solving. There are other therapies for efficient problem-solving. Clinical work with symbols in sand is a process that, when safe, allows clients to represent untold stories, memories, emotion, traumas embedded in the brain and body, lived experience for which they do not yet have words, unconscious activity, interpersonal, cultural, and existential experience.
The Empowering Side
Beyond the risks and problems there is much that sand therapies can provide clients and therapists. Part of the power of sand is the center of non-verbal experience. Stories may be shared, or not. Silence is a significant part of the process as well as ways to validate the client without controlling them or their process. The therapist is a witness, and potentially a collaborator in imaginative exploration. There are specific skills for each approach with sand. It is helpful if therapists on staff have a foundation in psychotherapy as a process, with cautions about risks as well as the powerful potential healing, and the necessary skills and sensibilities.
Group Size
A Foundation
A virtual lecture on core ideas, suggestions for use, and ways to understand and respond to clients and their sand scenes may have many therapists in attendance. Virtual presentations are helpful in introducing different theories, clinical attitude to work with projection and process, risks and case material, ways to stay within one’s scope of practice, and address questions for client populations and challenges.
Skills & Feedback
For skill development and practice it is important to have time to integrate the experience. Immersion should be done in small groups over a series of sessions. For example, small groups of 6 to 8 clinicians can ground their experience and delve into specifics most relevant to their practice. Immersion is the experiential component, an exploration of new techniques, with time for reflection, safety for discovery in depth, and at the same time keeping within one’s scope. Even an established staff needs time to develop a different type of cohesion and distinguish ways to process depth safely.
Symbol work is powerful and meaningful, and the process often brings up grief, small groups enhance safety for authenticity, safety to share or not share. Immersion helps therapists understand their client’s experience and heighten their awareness of countertransference. There is much to learn and discover.
Staff Training
Every clinical group training will depend on the time available, funding, expressive therapy experience, client population, group goals, current approaches or theoretical leanings, and commitment to the process. Stepping into the use of sand, for oneself and for clients, is a challenging, exciting, remarkably repairing, and rejuvenating experience.