Who Am I: Play Therapists Using Sandtray to Examine Culture

Karen Pernet

Training Description

As our communities become more diverse, therapists need to be comfortable exploring our own culture and its effect of our work. The goal of this training is, using the modality of sandtray, to create a safe space where participants can reflect on her or his own culture-defined as a “a broad multidimensional concept that includes ethnicity, race, gender, social class, sexual orientation and so on.”  The training is highly experiential:  each person will create an individual sandtray and discuss both the content and the process.  As a group we will engage in a conversation relating our own culture to our work as play therapists.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will be able to describe the process of play therapists creating a cultural sandtray

• Participants will be able to list 2 advantages for play therapists examining their culture using the modality of sandtray vs a didactic approach