“Our mental health staff had the opportunity to spend day-long workshops with Dee Preston-Dillon in which we focused on the issue of being centered while exposed to overwhelming pain and distress in children and their families. We also worked on forming a team that could support and nurture each other as we did our challenging work. The days we spent with Dee were remarkable: We felt immediate trust in her; we did amazing sand work that was evocative and deep; and we became more and more introspective and motivated to take care of ourselves. Dee is uniquely attuned to each person she works with and her words of wisdom and reflections come from a place of selfless-ness and grounding. I can unequivocally recommend that you spend some time feeling nurtured and inspired by and with her!!”
Eliana Gil, PhD, RPT-S, LMFT, Director of Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Play Therapy
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“After an initial training, Dr. Preston-Dillon has continued to provide the staff at Bowie Youth & Family Services with Sandtray consults for over seven years. Her insight, guidance, and therapeutic skill have given the clinical staff a set of wonderful tools to further help their clients resolve past traumas and current dilemmas. Dee supervises with a positive, caring and open attitude to both new and seasoned counselors/therapists. She has been a joy to work with. Any clinician interested in Sandtray would benefit from her training and continuing consults.”
Nancy Branch, Director, Youth & Family Services, Bowie, Maryland
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“Dr. Dee Preston-Dillon uses a gentle and creative approach when training. Her presence, expertise, and personality combined help creative juices flow. It is so rare to find a trainer who can create a safe and supportive environment that is also inspirational without being invasive or analytical and yet Dr. Preston-Dillon masters both.
Dr. Preston-Dillon is balanced in her skills and artistic practices. She sets up an environment which allows the trainee to feel connected to their sand scene as well as the process itself. She uses various clinical models (Jungian, Narrative, Rogerian, etc.) yet the real clinical impact comes from “within” her. The very first time you work with Dr. Preston-Dillon you can feel how special she is; her spirit nurtures your soul and leaves you enlightened.
Attending training with Dr. Preston-Dillon is unlike any other. It is a hands-on experience which leaves you feeling more connected and open. Dr. Preston-Dillon understands how to embrace all that is good and bad in an accepting and non-judgmental way which allows the trainee to explore and work. She also encourages exploration beyond the training so that each individual can continue on their journey toward emotional happiness.”
Stacie Gold, LCSW-C, Clinical Supervisor, College Park Youth Services, MD
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“Dr. Preston-Dillon’s presentations are highly enriching and often personally transforming. Her combination of clarifying theoretical discussions with her experiential exercises gives dramatic depth and meaning to participants’ knowledge around sandplay work.”
Jennifer Weaver, LCSW Director of Weaver and Associates
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“Each time I engage with the sand I leave reflecting on layers of depth and meaning. I come away with skills, renewed in mind and spirit, and better able to meet the needs of my clients. I think an important element of this process is the incredible respect and safety Dr. Dee provides participants. Dr. Preston-Dillon models how to honor the images in sand scenes in an ethical way and encourages deep self-reflection.”
Aaron Bourne, LCPC, private practice Virginia
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“At the age of 57, I have begun yet another transformation, and my pragmatic, perfectionist identity is rapidly shifting to one of greater openness, deeper awareness, and a renewed enthusiasm for life and learning. Dr. Preston-Dillon guided me to a place I had never let myself go. Her presence and insight opened parts of my mind and my being that I had always denied, perhaps because of doubt and fear. I have learned from her demonstrations that if I approach my inner and outer life as half scholar and half mystic the outcomes and understandings I experience will be much richer. I have found within me new abilities, strengths, and confidence, all of which have enabled me to trust and use my intuitive gifts, and to acknowledge, embrace, and begin to apply my creative energies.”
Theresa Robertson
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"Dee Preston Dillon provides both a fresh, surprising perspective and an old wisdom-usually in the same breath. I am a social worker using play therapy and other techniques with children and their families, and I have learned much from Dee that has been fascinating and eye-opening. Every time I do a training with Dee, I experience moments of amazement, when windows open up onto things I never thought about before. I always come away from her workshops with a feeling that I have wonderful new gifts to give my clients."
Tracy Samuel, LGSW
Family Therapist
College Park Youth and Family Services
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"Thank you so much for the beautiful and empowering experience. It gave me the courage to continue in my search of the best path for me. Time is my friend right now and I will need it in order to make the best choice. When I arrived to your place I was confused and scared that I might not make the right choice…However, I left with the confidence that I will.
I immensely appreciated the opportunity. You are such a devoted, caring, and thoughtful person – You are a beautiful soul and I feel bless to have you in my life as a professor and as a guide."
Nancy G.
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"Your article deserves an award. The time, energy and effort you put into it demonstrates your passion and love for sand play."
Susan Y.
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"Thank you for an amazing, awesome adventure.... Not in my wildest imagination would I have thought that calling your number would have resulted in a journey filled with lions, goddesses, angels, suns, totems, Dorothy and superman and a woman named Dee, sitting on a soft blanket of pure white with one small ant crawling. Amazing. Why amazing? Because it all felt so normal to me."
Joelle N.
