The Sand Therapy Training Institute

Questions for Reflection to Ground this Session:

• Of what value is the use of symbols in sand regarding client discovery of layers of existential, cultural, and life-story meanings?
• How does the intersubjective experience of culture and the complexity of identity become visible in a sand scene?
• How can we collaborate with a client to empower them to reclaim once alienated internal voices through their symbols?
• How can we use silence to support private processes, deepening client’s connection with their symbols?
• How do we integrate three theories, cultural psychology, narrative psychology, and existential psychotherapy, when using symbols, silent dialogue, and poetics?
• How do we engage in therapeutic facilitation and collaboration to balance power and honor cultural sensibilities between participants?

Objectives:

• Describe two ways symbols represented cultural experience for the client.
• State two clinical skills to engage symbol voices and validate the client’s cultural experience that were used by the facilitator.
• Describe one instance of permission given by the facilitator for silent symbol engagement.
• Explain two ways you saw the facilitator heighten therapist presence and balance power in exploration of cultural experience.

References:

Ewing, J., Estes, R., like, B. (2017). Narrative neurotherapy (NNT): Scaffolding identity states. In, Collaborative therapy and neurobiology: evolving practices in action, Editors, E. Beaudoin, M-N and Duvall, J. Routledge, NY.  87-99.

McNamee, S., Rasera, E. F., Martins, P. (2023). Practicing therapy as social construction. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Rogers, J. L., Luke, M., & Darkis, J. T. (2020). Meet me in the sand: Stories and self-expression in sand tray work with older adults. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2020.1734513

Schneider, K. J. (2016). Existential-integrative therapy: Foundational implications for integrative practice. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 26(1), 49-55. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039632

Schneider, K. J. (2015). Presence: The contextual core of effective therapy. PsycEXTRA   Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/e602052010-001

Signell, K. A. (1996). Silence and Sandplay. Journal of Sandplay Therapy, V(2).

 

The Sand Therapy Training Institute has not received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program.