Sandspace with Adolescents

The adolescent brings his world to the therapy situation and we, as therapists need to collaboratively, with our adolescent clients, create a framework of meaning which supports the process and purpose of therapy. The guiding principle of this collaborative construction is the client’s meaning-making, which promotes discovery of capability, agency, personal power and connectedness with the interpersonal world. Sandspace is a unique developmental approach to working with adolescents which supports meaning making and self-perception. The sandworld can bring healing and insight, offering a dynamic mode of relating which enriches contact process between aspects of self-experience which are often compartmentalised in the adolescent’s developing awareness. The adolescent’s lifespace and contact boundary development become visible, tangible and three-dimensional in the sand. This dynamic way of working also creates additional richness and depth to therapeutic contact.

During the two days, we will explore theoretical, clinical and practical aspects of Sandspace with adolescents including:

• An introduction to Sandspace
• Initiating Sandspace with adolescent clients
• Gaining practical experience of creating & facilitating Sandspace
• Exploring the healing & transformative potential of Sandspace
• Trauma & Sandspace: silent expression of the unspeakable
• Understanding the richness of symbolic representation for the adolescent

Dates: Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 June 2023
Time: 10am - 4pm
Venue: ZestLife, Churchtown Dublin 14

Fee: €320
CPD Hours: 12

If you would like to book a place on the training programme, please forward payment via PayPal. You will require the email address bronaghstarrs@gmail.com to complete the transaction. You will then receive a confirmation email with additional information.

About The Presenter:

Bronagh Starrs is Programme Director for the MSc Adolescent Psychotherapy in Dublin Counselling & Therapy Centre in partnership with University of Northampton and Founder & Director of Blackfort Adolescent Gestalt Institute. She maintains a private practice in Omagh, Northern Ireland, as a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, writer and trainer, specialising in working with adolescents, emerging adults and their families. Bronagh is an adolescent development specialist and has considerable experience as a trainer in adolescent development and therapy throughout Ireland. She also teaches and presents internationally on the developmental implication of trauma on the adolescent journey. Her first publication Adolescent Psychotherapy - A Radical Relational Approach (Routledge, London) has received international acclaim. Bronagh’s second book is due for publication in 2023.