All of the ISTA members use Sandplay Therapy with their client populations as a part of their general professional practice. Many of our members (and trainees) contribute therapeutic services to the communities in the Southern part of Israel that have been victimized by rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza strip, and who have been direct and indirect victims of terrorism, Many of our members also contribute to special communities and populations in which they have found Sandplay Therapy makes a significant contribution.
- Services to children and adolescents in mental hospitals
- Geha Psychiatric Hospital: Liela Abramovitz uses Sandplay therapy with hospitalized adolescents aged 12 to 21, in the closed ward of Geha Hospital.
- Shalvata Mental Hospital: for more than ten years, Ruti Frank has created a Sandplay therapy service for both the outpatient and inpatient adolescents and children wards in Shalvata which has been recognized and received awards from the Ministry of Health for outstanding service and contribution.
- Abarbanel Psychiatric Hospital: For 15 years, Hana Eker has been working with Sandplay Therapy with children and adolescents hospitalized in Abarbanel Psychiatric Hospital.
- Services to children and adolescents with life threatening illness
Ahuva Yavin Arnon Works in Hadassah Hospital with children who carry the HIV virus and with children with cancer.
Hadassah project specializes in sandplay in Hadassah Hospital with children who carry the HIV virus and with children with cancer. - Services to sexually and physicially abused children and adolescents
Tel-Aviv project: Dr. Galit Ben Amitay has established a program in Tel-Aviv Community Mental Health Clinic which uses Sandplay Therapy to treat both the victims of physical and sexual abuse and also treat the perpetuators of this kind of aggressive violence. - Services to special needs populations
Tehila Shoham has been experimenting with the limits and limitations of using Sandplay therapy with adult patients who have various organic disabilities. - Services to minority populations
- Druze project: For many years Yael Bruno has worked with the Ministry of Education to use Sandplay Therapy with students from the Druze community (an esoteric religious minority which have lived in the Northern part of Israel and southern part of Syria and Lebanon since the eleventh century.)
- Bedouin project: Dr. Bert Meltzer is involved in the Laqya project. It is an experimental psycho-educational intervention in the Bedouin village of Laqya, in collaboration with Bedouin school counselors working in a all Bedouin school, to introduce Sandplay therapy to students who are showing symptoms of emotional and social-psychological distress. To the best of my knowledge this is the first attempt of its kind to work with this community.
Bedouins are Arab nomads who have roamed the Middle East for hundreds of years. Changes in social-political reality has necessitated their changing their lifestyles to a more static village life. This has created an enormous crisis of roles, of transition, and of both gender and personal identity within the Bedouin community in Israel. The need for psychotherapy is enormous. However, the Bedouin tradition has placed a very high priority on family honor, which puts disproportionate weight on secrecy and hiding of personal problems and feelings – which made it natural for them to oppose psychotherapy of any kind.
Sandplay therapy, with its indirect, symbolic, non-intrusive character, is an ideal tool for bridging the discrepancy between the need for therapeutic intervention, and respect for the culture with its built in reluctance against disclosure and public exposure.