Sandtray therapy provides a route and a portal into the client’s embodied mind that honors and acknowledges right- and lower-brain emerging data while engaging left-brain and higher cognitive capacities in the process. In addition, Sandtray therapy provides clients with distance from the traumatic event and a developmentally sound road for finding healing. To withstand unbearable pain, children often must build a self-protective system that blocks their access to their inner world.

Clients across the lifespan affected by complex traumatization may come with a narrow window of affect tolerance and extensive phobias derived from trauma. You will learn how Sandtray work within the overarching structure provided by EMDR therapy’s procedural steps can support the work with defenses and trauma-related phobias. Sandtray work provides a refuge for the embodied mind of clients across the lifespan, allowing trauma stories to unfold at varying levels of distance. This creates a safe and supportive space for clients to explore and process their experiences in a way that feels manageable for them. EMDR-Sandtray work offers space to the implicit and right brain generated material to emerge as well as the explicit information that exists in the client’s field of awareness. It’s not necessary to have formal training in Sandtray therapy, as EMDR-Sandtray has its own procedures and principles rooted within the AIP model and EMDR procedural steps. A thorough hands-on approach is used, with Ana Gomez and the AGATE Institute trainers and facilitators providing individualized support and guidance as you practice in small groups. Once you complete the program, you’ll receive a certificate from the AGATE Institute and be listed on our website as a referral source.