Contents:
- Sandplay Therapy With Severely Disturbed Institutionalized Populations (Testing The Limits With Mental Hospital Patients)
- Dealing With Collective Loss & Death
- Heratology & Oncology Project
- Kiriat Shmona Group
- Sderot Project
1.Sandplay Therapy With Severely Disturbed Institutionalized Populations (Testing The Limits With Mental Hospital Patients)
A large portion of mental hospital patients are not good candidates for verbal therapy. This project is introducing Sandplay Therapy to numerous wards, in several different mental hospitals and clinics -initially – in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv area.
I.S.T.A. has provided Sandplay training programs in both Children and Adult Mental Hospitals to create a core group of staff in each institution, who became accomplished Sandplay therapists. Historically the regressive aspect of Sandplay Therapy has suggested Sandplay was not suitable for already regressed and disintegrated individuals. This project targets the populations of their respective hospitals who have not used traditional therapy well, and/or have not shown stable benefits from psychopharmacological treatments, to experiment and evaluate the use of Sandplay therapy both as the treatment of choice and in conjunction with psychopharmacological interventions. Preliminary results indicate that despite the common sense logic against regression for regressed individuals, the regressive aspects of Sandplay has empowered some severely disturbed clients to access internal resources that actually enabled them to collect and organize themselves for more appropriate communication, behavior, & self-reflection.
2.Dealing With Collective Loss & Death
A series of workshops were given after seven teenage girls from the town of Beit Shemesh were killed , and scores others wounded on a school field trip by a Jordanian soldier. The entire city was in a state of shock, mourning, and grief, and the local services rose to the occasion to bring what comfort and relief it could.
A series of workshops were provided for the Educational Psychological Services of Beit Shemesh by I.S.T.A. to expand their repertoire of therapeutic skills to include some fundamentals of Sandplay. The goal was a short term intensive intervention to give practical training to psychologists and establish a Sandplay therapy room in the Beit Shemesh Clinic. The workshops included practical and technical information about Sandplay therapy, and theoretical information about dealing with loss, death, mourning, and grief geared to working with teenagers, younger siblings.
Follow up workshops and group supervision is currently being negotiated with the goal of a more ongoing long term relationship with the professionals serving in the clinic of this tragedy struck community.
3.Heratology & Oncology Project
The children’s and Adolescence ward at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, under the leadership and supervision of Dr. Esti Weistub and Mrs. Ahuva Arnon, a clinical psychologist, have established a Sandplay Therapy program for use with patients with both medical and psychological problems. Along with sandplay therapist Michelle Mendelowitz, they have developed a Sandplay therapy program providing invaluable therapeutic relief in the Hematology and Oncology unit of the Children Department.
Faced with terrible pain, from the illness and from the treatment, the prospect and reality of dying, and the fears associated with it, children being treated for various forms of cancer need to express what they are going through, and often lack the language and the energy to do so.
Dr. Weistub, an associate of I.S.T.A., and an advanced candidate for ISST, initiated a Sandplay Therapy program for these children as an adjunct to traditional interventions -including chemical. As a result of her work and the work of Mrs. Arnon, an ISTA and ISST member, most children that come through these wards have an opportunity to do some Sandplay Therapy.
In addition, a small group of some of the most suffering children at some point became bedridden. Not able to leave their bed, they have not been able to use the Sand tray even when they most needed to. To deal with this problem, the Hadassah ward and ISTA members worked together to design and build a “mobile Sandplay Therapy Unit” that could be wheeled to a patients bed, and “opened” to make a Sandbox instantly accessible – in easy reach – with materials and objects available to be used in the sand. In addition creative solutions were needed and found to deal with collateral issues of limited mobility and necessary sterility.
4.Kiriat Shmona Group
A series of training workshops and demonstrations were given to staff of a clinic from a town on Israel’s Northern border with Lebanon, shortly after it had been particularly traumatized by terrorist attacks and Katuchah rocket attacks.
The people of Kiriat Shmona, a city on Israel’s Northern border, have been the target of terrorist attacks and Katuchah rocket attacks almost since its beginning. Children grow up spending many nights in bomb shelters, and going to sleep fearful of their house being attacked. Psychological services in this situation find a heavy demand for dealing with trauma and stress. In 1995-96, I.S.T.A. provides several two and three day workshops and demonstrations to enable the psychologists working with children and adolescence in this city, to learn something about the tool of sandplay as an invaluable technique to dealing with trauma, stress, and loss. The workshops included theoretical material, experiential work, and clinical demonstration. Several clients were selected from the existing therapy service – who were considered to be having more than the usual difficulties using verbal therapy – and were brought in to have some Sandplay sessions – with the training group looking on. The material was video-taped and then used for didactic purposes within the group.
5.Sderot Project
The intensification of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against the helpless civilian population of the development town of Sderot, led to the formation of an emergency response from ISTA staff and affiliated personnel. This author, Rina Porat, in conjunction with professional volunteers, responded to the crisis.
Thanks to generous donations from Sandplay therapists throughout the world and especially from the USA, along with volunteer Sandplay Therapists in Israel, ISTA was able to establish a Sandplay therapy treatment program to make a modest contribution to the enormous need for professional services to deal with the collective traumatization of most of the helpless population of the town of Sderot. Under the auspices of senior members of ISTA, Sandplay therapy spaces were created in two schools in Sderot. In one school an entire room was set aside for Sandplay therapy, and in another a corner of a treatment room was converted to a Sandplay therapy corner. ISTA volunteers donate their time to treat children the school identified as most needing professional services. ISTA candidates have stepped up to donate one day a week, or part of one day for therapy services, and senior ISTA members have provided case supervision without remuneration