“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.”
Mo Willems, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

About Us

The Center for Culture and Sandplay provides workshops, groups, and seminars for professionals seeking theoretical understanding and practical approaches to incorporate culture and the creative arts into clinical practice, especially sandplay therapy. Seasoned professionals in the field, practitioners new to sand therapy, and graduate students come together to study and immerse themselves in the powerful experience of sandplay therapy, sand tray counseling, and the creative arts in play therapy.

Purpose: Our core purpose is to provide opportunities for clinicians to immerse in the experience of sand. Immersion is viewed as sacred, private, and should be witnessed to honor the healer within. This experience-in-sand goes beyond the practice within large workshops. It is the middle way; neither therapy nor rushed directed training.

Training: Our focus is on advanced work in sand therapy and nurturing clinician creativity. We offer continuing education for clinicians, individual and small group consultation, retreats for clinician renewal and letters on integrating theory and process. In addition to the immersion work at Brandywine, Maryland, Dr. Preston-Dillon travels to consult and train clinic staff.

Background: Dr. Dee Preston-Dillon began her explorations of creativity for education and clinical work the early 1970s. Her training in Sandplay therapy in the 1980s included training with a founding member of the International Sandplay Society and Dora Kalff. Dr. Dee Preston-Dillon has one of the rare cross-cultural dissertations in Jungian Sandplay with field work among indigenous Hawaiian and Native Americans.  She has designed over ten board certified trainings in clinical uses of sand, two graduate courses in sand therapy, and the online course for APT Play therapy credits. She has consulted with clinical staff, supervisors, and clinical program directors for over a decade.

Theory Ground: Jungian Sandplay Therapy, Narrative Sand Therapy@, humanistic-existential approaches for sand therapy, Ericksonian applications, ethics for clinician preparation for clinical use of sand, and clinician creativity.

We at the Center for Culture and Sandplay make the distinction between Jungian sandplay therapy and sand tray therapy. Jungian sandplay therapy relies on the process of Individuation, a theoretical perspective developed by Carl Jung. Of considerable significance, sandplay therapy is done silently without interference from the clinician. Sandplay is a projective technique. Hence, great care is taken in professional training, the selection and study of symbolic objects, and specific interpretive analysis such as amplification. Similar to other projective techniques such as the Rorschach, sandplay practice is a unique balance in theoretical acumen, intuitive insight, and the ability to tap psychic resources.

Psychotherapists who use sandplay have undergone their own sandplay process with a trained sandplay therapist. These clinicians are aware of the power and presence of the unconscious and the potential enactment of Jungian constructs such as complexes, anima/animus, shadow and the Self. Having the experience of sandplay is essential to grasp the dynamics of sandplay process and to reduce one's own projections and damaging interpretations during clinical practice. In addition to training in Jungian theory and Kalffian sandplay process, psychotherapists and counselors bring their own philosophical perspectives, which may include a range of psychological theories and Western, Non-Western, and Indigenous philosophies.

Kalffian sandplay is quite compatible with Eastern philosophies such as Zen Buddhist practices as well as the socio-cultural disciplines of feminist theory, social constructionism, Indigenous psychologies, and cross-cultural theories. Culturally conscious approaches help bridge sociopolitical realities with Jungian sandplay therapy. Bounded within the sand box, yet reaching the depths of the soul and the expanse of the Heavens, the primary goal of a sandplay therapist is to create a safe and protective space for emotional healing.

Sand tray therapy, on the other hand, is a generic use of sand and toys for play therapy and often includes the client's engagement with the psychotherapist in the sand scene. Therapists who use sand tray work from a wide range of theoretical perspectives to understand the client's sand play. For example the therapist might favor a developmental framework, a humanistic perspective, or a cognitive-behavioral framework including new developments in family therapy. The clinician using sand tray will most likely have some training in play or art therapy. They may have been introduced to the use of sand tray through a workshop, through work colleagues, or even in graduate internships. However, these clinicians may not have committed the amount of time to personal psychotherapy and lengthy in-depth training offered for Jungian oriented sandplay therapists.

One of the most effective non-Jungian theoretical approaches for use with sand tray that Dr. Preston-Dillon has observed is the Child-Centered approach of Drs. Louise Guerney and William Nordling applied at College Park Youth and Family Services in College Park, Maryland. A true application of Carl Rogers' work is probably one of the most efficacious approaches for play therapy, including sand tray and sandplay therapy.


Center Staff

The Center for Culture and Sandplay: The environment at the Center supports a multicultural milieu. The Center's collection of several thousand carefully chosen symbols represents two decades of searching for elements that represent global, indigenous world views, as well as modern and post-modern constructions of culture.


Dr. Dee Preston-Dillon, Director

Dee Preston-Dillon, Ph.D., counselor educator and cross-cultural psychologist grounds her sand therapy perspective in twenty years research with indigenous peoples in the Pacific and her initial studies as a Jungian oriented sandplay therapist. Founder and director of the Center for Culture and Sandplay, a professional training and consulting practice, and originator of Imagine (the non-clinical use of sand to enhance creativity), Dr. Preston-Dillon consults with individual clinicians and clinics, local and international groups, teaching narrative and humanistic-existential approaches to sand therapy.

Sand Therapy: Beginning in the mid 1980s, Dr. Preston-Dillon trained in Kallfian Sandplay with Dora Kalff and founding members of STA. Her research examined Sandplay symbol relevance for indigenous cultures, including fieldwork among Cherokee, the Dine’ (Navajo), and Hawaiian peoples. Her qualitative study applied a comprehensive Jungian analysis with indigenous myths, grounded in post modern philosophy.

Clinician Educator: Her approach to training and supervision reflects Ericksonian, Jungian, Narrative, and Humanistic/Existential perspectives. Her practitioner interests center on connections that bridge myths, symbol meanings, metaphors, and dimensions of consciousness with clinician experience.

Professional Presentations: Thirty-six years national and international presentations, Dr. Preston-Dillon’s professional contributions include innovations in the clinical use of sand, reflective supervision, cross-cultural, and narrative therapy.

University Teaching: On the graduate associate faculty at The George Washington University, Loyola’s Pastoral Counseling, Argosy University’s Clinical Psychology program, and taught advanced play therapy and supervision for Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Preston-Dillon offers clinicians training in sand therapy anchored in direct immersion in the experience.

Presentations:
•The International Play Therapy Conference
◦Cultural Dimensions of Sandplay: Ethnic identity and cross-cultural dynamics (Toronto, 2006)
◦Fairy Tales and Narrative Techniques in Play Therapy (Nashville, 2005)
◦Cultural Dimensions of Sandplay: Ethnic identity and cross-cultural dynamics (Denver, 2004)
◦Cultureplay-Sandplay: The emergence of ethnic identity in sandplay therapy (Norfolk, 2003)
•University of Maryland School of Social Work Continuing Professional Education
•College Park Youth and Family Services
•Chesapeake Beach Professional Seminars
•Pearl Harbor Family Service Center
•Kingman Regional Medical Center
Training and consultations are done on site at the Center for Culture and Sandplay in College Park, MD, as well as at other locations by prior arrangement.

Previous workshops:
•Sandplay and Hypnosis: Inner work for the clinician With co-facilitator Vladimir Nacev, Ph.D., ABPP
•Mandala Imagery and Sandplay: Jungian centering and the Self With co-facilitator Ellen M. LaCapria, DC, ATR-BC
•Culture, Ethnicity and ethnocentrism: Culturally conscious sandplay
•Sandplay and Drama Therapy: Persona and our collective selves
•Myths and Sandplay: Following Joseph Campbell's path
•Narrative and Fairy Tales in Sandplay
•The Tao of Sandplay: Altered states of consciousness in the practice of sandplay

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Loraine Hunsaker, Network Coordinator

Under pen name LK Hunsaker, Loraine is the author of a string of novels centered around the arts and societal issues, combined with strong romantic and psychological elements. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland University College in between supporting her husband's military service, raising her children, and holding various jobs. As an Army spouse, she traveled widely, moved several times, and was honored with meeting some of Washington D.C.'s top names. Having received inspiration and instruction from her family of recognized artists, Hunsaker also has an Arts degrees heavy with English and creative writing emphasis. She is founder/owner of Elucidate Publishing and assists other writers with their publication goals.

Loraine consults with Dr. Preston-Dillon to advance the goals of the Network, and sets up and maintains the Voices network around the internet, as well as providing design work.

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CONTACT: dee [at] thecreativeclinician.com

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