“Sandplay engages the right brain as it focuses attention and softens conscious awareness. The opportunity to experience tactile manipulation of the sand in the tray provides a way for the psyche to interact with the body.”
I am a sandplay therapist, with a thriving practice located on Dublin’s beautiful coastline.
My work is primarily concerned with somatic expressions of psychological stress in children and adolescents. Our bodies can carry tension, trauma and strain. Where adults can often verbally express the traumas they have experienced, children often cannot. Sandplay therapy is thus an extremely effective treatment for young clients; the work is sub-verbal, often archetypal, primal and instinctual. In my professional experience, sandplay therapy can be of great benefit and relief to children presenting with recurring somatic symptoms.
I hold a Masters Degree in Practice-Based Therapy from Christchurch University of Canterbury, UK. In addition to my Masters Degree, I have undertaken extensive training and study in sandplay therapy with internationally regarded experts Dr. Barbara Turner and Eunice Stagg. My masters thesis, titled The Effect of Sandplay Therapy on a Child Affected by Somatic Symptoms, has been published in The Routledge International Handbook of Sandplay Therapy, edited by Dr. Barbara Turner and published by Routledge in 2017.