Sandplay Wisdom Understanding Sandplay Therapy

Sandplay Wisdom provides key concepts for understanding and using sandplay therapy effectively, distilling insight from more than four decades of experience. Rie Rogers Mitchell and Harriet S. Friedman provide both core principles and hard-won practical tips to deepen understanding of sandplay therapy for both experienced and novice practitioners.

The principles presented provide key insight into many important therapeutic dimensions, including childhood trauma, archetypal life stages, age and gender issues, transference and countertransference, as well as sandplay with both adults and children. The book is illustrated with case material and images from real sessions throughout and provides invaluable guidance on working with clients in a vast range of contexts.

This important book will be essential reading for all sandplay therapists in practice and in training. It will also be of great interest to practitioners, academics and scholars of play and arts therapies.

Preface

1 What is sandplay

2 How does sandplay heal?

3 Archetypal life stages

4 Childhood loss

5 Recovering from childhood trauma

6 Stages along the sandplay journey

7 Tracking themes in sandplay therapy

8 Age and gender issues

9 Transference and countertransference in sandplay

10 Sandplay and alchemy

11 Combining play therapy and sandplay therapy

12 Sandplay with adults

13 Final thoughts

Rie Rogers Mitchell, PhD, ABPP, LMFT, is Professor Emeritus in educational psychology and counseling at California State University, Northridge. She studied with Dora Kalff, the founder of sandplay, and has served as president of the International Society of Sandplay Therapy and president of Sandplay Therapists of America. She received the 2015 Kalff-Bradway Award for recognition in Sandplay Therapy.

Harriet S. Friedman, MA, LMFT, is a Jungian analyst and certified sandplay therapist practicing in Los Angeles, California. Inspired by studying with Dora Kalff, Harriet became a founding member of Sandplay Therapists of America. She is a member of the International Society of Sandplay Therapy, and received the 2016 Kalff-Bradway Award for recognition in Sandplay Therapy.