November Presentations

Dr. Preston-Dillon will present at the MACD Conference on November 11th, and will offer a workshop through the Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, Inc. on November 14th.


Friday, November 11 Sand, Symbols and Metaphors: The Depths of Wellness for Counselor and Client
MACD annual conference
John Hopkins University, Columbia Center
For information, visit http://www.mdcounseling.org where you can find a printable flyer and program listing.


Monday, November 14th
Healing Trauma Through Narrative Sand Therapy
The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, Inc.
For registration and information: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e46n2j7ce7624b85
   

Glitches

Hello Sandplay Associates and Friends!

I wanted to let you know our website at Cultureplay.com is not working at the moment, and neither is our email. If you've tried to reach us and haven't been answered, please let me know.

We are currently in hiatus while restructuring but we're still around.

Hope you are all well!
Loraine

March Announcements

A New Location for the Center for Culture and Sandplay

We are moving to Brandywine, Maryland

Dear Colleagues,

It has been a joy to work with you here in College Park for the past ten years. We are now taking the next step in our transition and moving to Brandywine, Maryland. The move will likely be in the setting-up stage during the month of May.

There have been so many meaningful sand sessions at the Center for Culture and Sandplay. For many of you there were significant moments of transformation in the sand with your colleagues. The memories of your work will be carried forward, metaphorically, in the symbols you used. Your work has been profound, bridging individual unconscious healing with transpersonal human spirit. Thank you for your presence, the gift of depth, and the honor to witness your representations in sand.

Our move to Brandywine includes a magical morph from our 4-room collection of symbols to a smaller but separate space of its own. In any transition there is grief -- a letting go - a growing forward. Once we are set up in the new space I will plan an open house and will be delighted to welcome you to take in the new world of symbols.

I will continue with individual and small group consults through March and probably most of April before I pack. If you wish to do a personal scene before we move please let me know. More about advanced training below.

We welcome your continued support. I am able to pass along what I have learned because of your referrals. You understand the integrity we hold for the work in sand as we continue to support your work with clients. I will now take a deep breath and move forward with the transition to a new space, a new formation of symbols, and a new professional practice.

With Much Gratitude, Dr.Dee


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TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

April: Trauma Healing Through Narrative Sand Therapy
(for Level II participants and advanced practitioners)
presenter: Dee Preston-Dillon, Ph.D.
Thursday, April 28th 8:45-4:00pm
Contact: The Institute of Advanced psychotherapy
http://www.lisaferentz.com/

March: Dr. Preston-Dillon is presenting The Power of Symbols and Metaphors at the Johns Hopkins University, graduate counseling student organization.

Summer: We are planning to do one retreat at a retreat facility, and one workshop at the Brandywine location. Details will be announced when finalized.

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ADVANCED TRAINING IN SAND

Philosophy: Advanced training in the clinical use of sand helps therapists to focus on the process of co-transference. While an introduction to sand should offer a wide range of ideas for work with diverse populations, boundaries for responding to clients, and the appropriate use of sand; advanced work offers clinicians experience and feedback to deepen insights and skills.

And, while an introduction to sand can be done in a large group, advanced sessions require more safety, immediacy, and presence to participants' sand scenes. These three principles are absolutely vital to authentic reflection on the process. Therapists must have a sense of the primacy of confidentiality and integrity while in training. Without in-depth exploration the use of sand remains an external observation and vulnerable to clinician projections. The danger is that the process begins to serve the therapist rather than the client. Without practiced boundaries and insight into personal dynamics there is the risk of misappropriation of sand and manipulation of the process. Advanced training to understand and respond to client work involves more practiced ways to conceptualize and facilitate sand therapy.

Over the last decade, in our efforts to follow best practices and ethical considerations, our advanced training has remained focused on small groups and individual work. In the traditions of Kalffian sandplay training, we encourage clinicians to pursue individual work in sand, to immerse in a series of sand scenes, and study case work and the literature.


Private Consults Continue through April . . .

The Clinician Must Have Time to Pause . . . to Honor the Healer Within.

Advanced individual sessions are not therapy. Advanced sessions provide safety for a meaning-filled experience, for quiet reflection away from the exposure inevitable in large trainings. An hour and a half to explore the connection between symbols and self honors the healer within. Clinicians who come for individual and small group consults often share how valuable insights culled here ripple out to their clients. Our focus: to engage your creative self through symbols and metaphors . . . to amplify clinical sensibilities, and to honor the depth of insights within.

For an appointment for private consultations, to join a small group, or set up a staff retreat please email your request to sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com. Private consults are for clinicians of any specialization; not only for sand therapists. Consults are set on a once-a-month basis. Each 90 minute session is $120, and $160 for two hours. For colleagues who travel for a series of sessions we will assist with locating local accommodations.

IMAGINE

Please keep our creativity consults in mind for your colleagues in non-clinical professions. IMAGINE is our framework to offer sessions to enhance creativity and explore personal narrative -- yoga for the creative soul.


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EDITING FOR PROFESSIONALS

Need assistance with your research paper, thesis, article, or other professional documents, including APA style check? Our colleague Meg Chatfield is accepting projects for professional editing. Meg comes highly recommended and has worked directly with Dr. Preston-Dillon. Find information on her website: PsychologyEditor.com

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SAND SYMBOLS BY TIFFANY

Looking for custom symbols to enhance your practice? Tiffany creates unique objects for your sand trays. Find her on Facebook: Sand Symbols by Tiffany and click on Photos to find samples of her work. Also, look for her guest feature on our site/blog soon, with photos.

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NOTES

Our blog (where you are now!) will soon take over for the website. The Cultureplay.com address will still be valid and will take you directly to the blog. We wanted to make you aware of this change so you don't think you've found yourself in the wrong spot!

We now have a separate space to highlight special guests from the play therapy community. If any of our colleagues would like to be a guest, please email sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com with your feature idea.


We wish you all well with your own spring transitions!

January 2011 Announcements

A New Path for the Center for Culture and Sandplay

It Is Such a Rarity to have Time for Yourself . . .

While there are a great many continuing education sessions for clinicians, individual private sessions that are not therapy are often missing in clinician services.

Our space is designed specifically and solely for clinician consultation and supervision. With over three decades of purposeful cultivation of symbols, icons, cultural and sacred images, our work supports your creativity, transformation, and mindful, meaningful experience.

The Healer Must Have Time to Pause . . . to Honor the Healer Within . . . and Renew

Clinicians who come for individual consults often share how valuable the sessions are for increased personal insight, and how insights culled here ripple out to their clients. Exploration through symbols and metaphors engages the creative soul. A private consult opens the brain to perceive one's work and one's self in new ways . . . to nurture your creative energies, augment your perceptual sensibilities, and access the depth of insights within you.

Take a step out of time, a moment to see the world differently, to explore your inner world, and honor the great beauty and depth within you.

If you would like a private consult (not therapy), or if staff and colleagues seek a private retreat for renewal, please consider our Center. Renewal from a day-long retreat can last for months.

Private consults are for clinicians of any specialization; not only for sand therapists. Consults are set on a once-a-month basis. Each 90 minute session is $120.

IMAGINE . . . Another Way of Being

We honor the clinician's life as a journey for meaning, depth, and creativity. And now, through our new program, IMAGINE, we are serving those outside the clinical sphere.

A New Program for Non-Clinicians

IMAGINE is designed specifically for professionals, those in law, media, medicine, and the arts; scientists, writers, and educators. We focus on mining your rich imagination -- to break through blocks to creativity, re-conceptualize problems, and rejuvenate your sense of connection.

We welcome your referrals of colleagues, friends and family to experience Imagine. Imagine is a consult for perceptual shifts; it is not therapy.

For information, please email us at sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com

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Training Opportunities with Dr. Preston-Dillon

The Meaning of Symbols in Play Therapy
Virginia Association for Play Therapy
Presenter: Dee Preston-Dillon, Ph.D.
March Date TBA
Information: http://vapt.cisat.jmu.edu/

Trauma Healing Through Narrative Sand Therapy
(for Level II participants and advanced practitioners)
presenter: Dee Preston-Dillon, Ph.D.
Thursday, April 28th 8:45-4:00pm
Contact: The Institute of Advanced psychotherapy
http://www.lisaferentz.com

Fall Sand Schedule 2010

Association for Play Therapy provider # 05-161
National Association for Social Workers provider # 886477192
National Board for Certified Counselors # 6305

AUGUST 13 FRI -- Ethics and Clinical Practice (Sponsored by Chesapeake Beach Professional Seminars, contact: www.cbpseminars.org or info@cbpseminars.org)

AUG 22 & 23 SUN & MON – CULTUREPLAY--  Narratives in the Sand (noon to 6 p.m.)

SEPTEMBER 13 MON -- Ethics/ Supervision College Park Youth Services, MD (contact Chesapeake Beach Professional Seminars: www.cbpseminars.org or info@cbpseminars.org)

SEP 17 & 18 FRI & SAT -- Creative Counseling with Play for Children and Adolescents (The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, one graduate credit, register through GWU)

OCTOBER 1 & 2 FRI & SAT – CULTUREPLAY--  Understanding Sand Scenes – The Meaning of Symbols sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com

OCT 12 TUE -- Narrative Sand Therapy: Transformative Journeys for Clinician and Client (day-long session at the APT conference, register through www.a4pt.org)

OCT 29 FRI -- Transformation in Sand Therapy: Spiritual Journey, Mindful Metaphors (Loyola University Maryland) 6 CEus 9 am to 4 pm (contact www.loyola.edu/psatoralcounseling/myc)

NOV 7 & 8 SUN & MON – CULTUREPLAY--  Grief and Loss (noon to 6 p.m.) sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com

DEC 5 & 6 SUN & MON – CULTUREPLAY--  Advanced Sand Therapy (noon to 6 p.m.) sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com

** All CULTUREPLAY dates will be held in College Park, MD.  Directions sent upon registration. All Cultureplay workshops are kept at very small groups to allow for individualized in-depth training, and are conducted by Dr. Preston-Dillon, Director of The Center of Culture and Sandplay. Descriptions will soon be posted at www.cultureplay.com. Registration required. Email sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com for info and registration.
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Book Review (psychology, fiction): Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice
Lisa Genova
Pocket Books 2009
http://www.stillalice.com/

(review by LK Hunsaker of LKHunsaker.com)

Alice is a 50 year old psychology professor at Harvard who has co-authored a text book with her husband, a research scientist, and has established an incredible reputation as not only a preferred teacher but also as a world-traveled speaker. As she celebrates her birthday, she is struggling with memory issues and even starting to get lost close to home in an area she's very familiar with. Going privately to a neurologist, she is diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's disease.

Since Alice is the POV character, you have to wonder how Genova will continue to follow her story as Alice lapses further into the disease. I was rather impressed with how well she managed to show the early struggles as well as the progression. All of the characters are well drawn from Alice's POV and we get to know some of them better than others. I found it interesting that the child she says she knows the least is the one we know the most. The other two are mainly background.

Her husband, John, is an interesting character and at times, I wanted to yell at him for being so self-centered, but then looking back at their history, I couldn't help but think Alice partly made him that way with her work obsession. The novel is a nice look at marriage-combined-with-work issues, as well as the dementia issue.

From the beginning, we bond with Alice. Anyone who has ever been so busy finding a set of keys seems an impossible task will relate. This makes us truly sympathetic of her plight and we pull for her to keep going, keep trying. As we do, we learn much about Alzheimers and how it progresses and how they are working to find ways to slow or stop it. There is also information about how to keep the brain healthy in general.

At times, the writing is a bit stiff, especially at the beginning, but Genova is a first time novelist and I believe she may find her stride with the next.

This is a must read for anyone dealing with dementia in a loved one, anyone with dementia in their family history, as well as for anyone who wants to better understand this disease. It is truly educational and heartwarming and sad and hopeful all at once.


This review was originally posted at http://lkhunsaker.blogspot.com. The book was purchased by the reviewer and no compensation has been offered or received. Posted here with permission.

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February Announcements

Hello Sandplay Enthusiasts,

Dr. Preston-Dillon is just back from VAPT's winter conference at Regent University in Virginia Beach where she presented Narratives in the Sand: Practice and Ethics for Metaphors in Play Therapy on Friday and Exploring Sand Therapy in the Supervision of Play Therapists on Saturday. Almost 100 attendees including seasoned clinicians, faculty, and graduate students, worked in groups to explore the power of cultural experience in sand, boundaries and caution for sand therapy, the value of play therapy to help build counselor connection with clients, the importance of self reflection and personal work to increase counselor skills using play therapy, and ways to incorporate narrative ideas in play therapy supervision.

~~ Our next training opportunity is on March 14th with Ethics, Supervision, and Clinical Practice: Three Dimensions for Play Therapists, Supervisors, Clinicians, and Students. Space is currently available. Please request a registration form at sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com if interested. This workshop will be held in College Park and directions are sent when registration is received.

~~  On Friday, March 19th, Dr. Preston-Dillon will present Identifying Archetypes in the Sandtray: An Experiential Exploration for  Clinicians and Supervisors in Play Therapy  Cosponsored by the Virginia Association for Play Therapy and the Phoenix Family Counseling & Play Therapy Center, PLL this training will take place in Gainesville VA. It runs from 10 am to 4 pm, provides 6 CE. For registration and information, contact Liz Fong: contacteliteprogram@gmail.com http://www.phoenixfamilycounseling.com

~~ Dr. Preston-Dillon will present Amplifying Cultural Worlds: Meaning and Integrity in Sandplay at the 2010 National Sandplay Conference in June at Boulder, Colorado. Email us for information.

~~  We have been asked about offering week day training opportunities. Before we can set one up, we'd like to ask how many of you would be interested in attending during a week day instead of a weekend. You may want to create personalized day-long training for your staff, or let us know you’d like a weekday training and what kind of training you would like. Please email sandplayvoices@cultureplay.com and let us know your interest.

~~  A clarification: Our July 11 & 12 Ethics workshop notes that personal consults are combined with the training. This is an offer to set up individual consultations for a separate fee over the same weekend specifically for those who come from a distance. They are not included with the workshop fee. Consults are available at other times, also, through appointment.

~~  Sandplay Voices Network Coordinator Loraine Hunsaker (writing as LK Hunsaker), has a new novel out titled Off The Moon.  The story involves a teenage girl dealing with loss and abuse, and a self-absorbed pop star who pulls her in from a window ledge and provides a safe haven. The story includes counseling issues, specifically creative counseling and family relationships.  For more information about the book, see http://www.lkhunsaker.com/OffTheMoon/main.htm or ElucidatePublishing.net where there is a book club guide.

~~ Sometimes we are asked how our training in sand therapy differs from other training. In brief, Dr. Preston-Dillon was trained in Jungian Sandplay and over the last 25 years has incorporated narrative, humanistic and existential approaches. Training and consulting defines her practice; it is not an incidental she does on the side. Her doctoral research and writing focus on sand and she continues to work on theoretical foundations for the phenomenal experience of symbolic work and transformation in sand.