EMDR Sand Tray Therapy for Trauma Healing: Ana Gomez on Symbols, Attachment, & Integration

Lessons from the Playroom Podcast Ep. 199

EMDR Sand Tray Therapy for Trauma Healing: Ana Gomez on Symbols, Attachment, & Integration

Lessons from the Playroom Podcast Ep. 199

In this episode, Lisa welcomes back Ana Gomez, internationally recognized expert in EMDR Therapy, complex trauma, and dissociation, for her third appearance on the podcast. Ana shares insights from her brand-new book, EMDR Sand Tray-Based Therapy: Healing Complex Trauma and Dissociation Across the Lifespan, offering practical, innovative strategies for trauma work.

Together, Lisa and Ana explore the evolution of Ana’s integrative approach, combining her love of symbols, dreams, and sand tray work with EMDR therapy. This powerful union creates a flexible pathway for clients to safely access and process traumatic experiences, reorganize their relationship with their life stories, and unlock reparative, healing moments—even when verbal language is limited.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

  • How sand tray symbols and avatars act as “story keepers,” allowing children and adults to safely engage with overwhelming experiences.
  • Real-life clinical examples, including a transformative case with a child in foster care who connected with his experiences through symbolic play before he could verbalize them.
  • Strategies for integrating EMDR and sand tray therapy with individual clients, parent-child dyads, families, and group settings.
  • How to honor protective patterns and internal defenses while gradually moving experiences from implicit memory into explicit awareness.
  • Ways parents can actively participate in sessions, supporting attachment completions and delivering guided interweaves under the therapist’s guidance.
  • Practical insights for therapists, play therapists, and trauma professionals seeking adaptable, client-centered approaches that facilitate healing, integration, and identity work.

Ana also shares where to find her book and access her global training and workshops, providing clinicians with tools to deepen their practice and expand their therapeutic repertoire.

Whether you’re EMDR-trained, a play therapist, or simply curious about innovative trauma work, this episode is packed with wisdom, inspiration, and practical guidance for your clinical toolkit.

Episode Transcript
[Music] Hi listeners, welcome back to the next 0:07 episode from the Lessons from the Playroom podcast. I have with me a returning guest. Not 0:15 only is this individual a massive um influencer in our field particularly in 0:24 the world of EMDR and soon to be EMDR Sandray based therapy which is what 0:30 we’re going to be talking about um but she’s also influencer in complex trauma 0:35 and dissociation. She also happens to be a very dear friend of mine and I love her dearly. I am talking about um the 0:44 worldrenowned Anna Gomez. Anna, thank you so much for joining, for coming back 0:49 and saying hello. And we’re going to be jumping in and talking about your new book that just uh just got released, 0:56 which is EMDR Sandra based therapy, healing complex trauma and dissociation 1:02 across the lifespan. So, thank you so much for coming back and joining, 1:08 Lisa. Thank you for inviting me. What a treat to be invited twice. No, this is 1:14 my third time, by the way. This is my third time. Yes. I feel quite honored, by the way. 1:19 Well, what I love and I’m going to read your bio in a minute, but I was thinking about the the the three podcast episodes 1:27 that we have. The first one was on EMDR. The second one was you and Jill Hosy 1:35 around dissociation. And now we’re combining both of those in the culmination of your new book, 1:42 Bringing in Sand Tree. So, it just like such a beautiful progression of three of 1:48 your favorite things that you love to educate on that you love to talk about. 1:54 So, that just felt kind of special as I was reviewing what we’ve covered in the different podcasts. So, that’s pretty 1:59 cool. Yeah, it represents a journey. It does represent a journey. Um, I would love for those individuals that are not 2:06 familiar with you, I would love to share a little bit about your bio and then let’s jump into conversation about EMDR 2:13 and Sand Trey work. So, Anna Gomez is a leading expert in the field of complex 2:19 trauma dissociation and intergenerational trauma with a particular focus on children and 2:24 adolescence. She’s the founder and director of the AIA Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Psychotherapist, 2:30 author, and international speaker. She’s trained thousands of clinicians worldwide through workshops and keynote 2:36 presentations. My guess is many of our listeners have actually attended your trainings or listened to you at some 2:42 time. Anna, a recognized authority in EMDR therapy. She’s a fellow of the 2:47 international society of the study of trauma and dissociation and the author 2:53 of EMDR therapy and adjunct approaches with children. Her most recent publication which we’re going to talk 2:58 talk about MDR san based therapy healing complex trauma and dissociation across 3:04 lifespan is now available. She is the co-editor of the handbook of complex trauma and dissociation in children. 3:11 She’s written multiple book chapters on EMDR therapy complex trauma and intergenerational trauma. She has been 3:17 recognized by many many organizations. Um, some of for her her big recognized 3:24 awards are the Francine Shapiro Award from MRIA, the Hope Award from Sierra 3:29 Tucson, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Arizona Play Therapy Association. And I’ll just um give you a 3:37 great friend award uh on top of that. So, I’m going to get a 3:42 There we go. I’ll send you I’ll send you the whatever I’m going to send you, but the great award. Good. I look forward to receiving that 3:49 for sure. So, thank you, Anna, so much. 3:54 Well, thanks for having me here. I very much appreciate to be invited three times. Yes. 4:00 An honor. Yeah. Well, so you actually said it best that you’ve been on a journey 4:05 and you’ve been on a journey really exploring EMDR, uh, dissociation, complex trauma, and 4:12 sand. And I want to hear a little bit about again maybe a little bit about your 4:18 journey with the three but more specifically when did you begin to recognize the 4:24 significance of combining the three? Yeah. So this has been a journey 4:31 about self-discovery. Yeah. I think in the process of coming 4:36 back to myself, I have explored so many different 4:42 avenues and one of those is becoming a therapist 4:49 and then finding the approach that really was in my heart that I could 4:55 believe in because you have to believe in what you do, right? And I found 5:02 symbols. I fell in love with symbols very early in my life. What’s interesting is that I was in love with 5:09 symbols and I didn’t know I was because it happened so implicitly. So when I was 5:15 a teenager, I love dreams and I I still do and I listened to my dreams since so 5:23 early in my life and I had a journal where I would I 5:28 would write about my dreams and I love the symbols. Not until I really became a therapist, I 5:35 was conscious I became conscious of that love for symbols. So it was my first 5:42 language and it still is. Then it reached my cognitive mind where 5:49 now I could say, “Oh, I like symbols and this is why I didn’t for many many 5:55 years.” And that’s the beauty of and and the wonderful thing about working with symbols that I have continued to embrace 6:04 in in my clinical work. So I was working 6:09 with clients of all ages and I was attending trainings on Santre but I’m 6:16 talking about I mean 30 years ago 28 years ago I remember Gil for example I 6:22 went to some of the trainings that she did here in Arizona and I just fell in 6:27 love with it was love at first sight is it was not even at first sight it was 6:33 almost a recognition got recognition of, oh, this is me and 6:38 this is what I want to be doing. And then I was trained in in EMDR therapy. 6:44 And when what what inspired me really to integrate the two was that for many of 6:50 my clients, they couldn’t really verbalize what they were experiencing, their thoughts, their memories. They 6:57 could not verbalize and use verbal language, especially when they were 7:03 physiologically activated. So you can be physiologically activated and verbally inhibited. And we also know that trauma 7:11 often exists in fragments of sensory information that cannot be translated 7:18 into words. And if the only channel that we have for communication and the 7:23 therapeutic process is language, verbal language, then we’re really reducing the 7:29 the pathways that clients have to tell their life stories. and and beyond that 7:35 to be able to connect to their life stories and to be able to connect to self and that’s where it became more 7:42 conscious for me that the union of the two could be incredibly powerful. So I 7:48 started to put them together and the first few sessions I were buy I was 7:53 biting my nails because I didn’t know how to do it. So I’m just trying this or 7:59 that. And I started to see children, adolescence and adults 8:08 having insight and stagnation, therapeutic stagnation 8:14 move into you know kind of awakening insight realizations recognitions 8:20 acknowledgements those aha moments. So I was quite inspired by those early 8:26 experiences and then I moved forward to continue to put them together 8:32 and now it’s 25 years later and here I am. It’s a recognition of the 8:38 limitations of verbal language. Yeah, absolutely. What do you find? I 8:43 mean, I know you’re talking about how um the sand tray work almost allows another 8:50 form of communication in the processing. If you had to like what’s the what’s the 8:55 like the the unique thing? What’s that unique component when you bring both of them together? Because there might be 9:01 people that are trained in both but haven’t considered bringing them together. Other than maybe more uh I don’t know if 9:08 you’d say faster. I don’t know I don’t know if that’s true or not or a different kind of insight but like 9:14 what is what’s unique about the combination of the two? So both approaches of their own are 9:20 quite powerful. They have robust um research and 9:26 scientific support. But in my experience, when you bring them together, it’s like you potentiate them 9:34 and you see the gifts that Santra brings, 9:40 united with the gifts that EMDR brings. And now what we have is 9:48 sometimes more rapid certainly but also what we see is a is a door a pathway a 9:54 portal really into the mind that opens up so clearly because the symbol 10:00 provides distance to the mind to be able to explore itself. The sandray becomes a 10:06 vortex where possibilities can come in where anything can happen. a mirror of 10:13 the mind. And now you have EMDR therapy, procedial stud, but also the dual 10:19 attention stimulus that can potentiate the the integrative uh forces of the 10:26 mind. Yeah. Yeah. I know your your book because I have it in here. So for those of you that can 10:32 visually see me, it’s in my hand. I’m holding it up on the holding it up on I have it too. You have it, too. your your book is 10:39 filled with um case studies and different examples. Is there one that you could share with 10:46 us that feels I don’t know just feels interesting as we’re going through this conversation that could highlight some 10:52 of what we’re talking about? Yeah, so many come to mind right now. 10:58 And and when I was writing the book, I wanted to make it very digestible 11:04 so people could actually use it. they could read the book and hopefully take 11:10 some trainings, but go back to their playrooms, their office, uh, and actually do it. One of the first 11:18 children that I used DMDR combined with Santree was one of one of those children 11:24 where the a child that other therapists had given up on 11:30 him already. They it was the difficult child, the 11:35 aggressive child that they couldn’t put up with. Those were the reports that I 11:42 received. And the case manager came to me as a last option. Can you help me? So 11:51 I said, well, let’s give it a try. And this is a child that will not 11:56 verbalize anything. And certainly children usually tell their stories 12:02 through reenactments, through play, not through well constructed verbal 12:07 narratives. So he was playing and in humility I stayed right there 12:15 with him, walk by their by his side. 12:20 He would not really verbalize anything, not even what was happening. and he will 12:25 play with a lizard and Mr. Lizard was a perpetrator. Mr. Lizard will um would 12:33 you know kill, abuse, you name it. 12:39 One day I decided to jump in and after 12:44 significant work associated with preparation with building supporting the child and 12:51 building capacities but also working with the system. It was in foster care 12:58 working with the foster parents. Then we we we really built a good safety net 13:04 with co- regulation with reciprocity with a lot of the things that he needed. But he was not able to receive them. He 13:11 was just so close. But my entry point was Mr. Lizard 13:16 because he developed a relationship with this character. 13:21 So I figure, you know, I’m just going to jump in and see what happens. And that was one of the first processing sessions 13:28 with Mr. Lizard because what we do in EMDR Santay is that we’re going to work 13:34 with the symbols. doesn’t the self does not have to be yet owned or recognized 13:40 is Mr. Lizard and his killing and Mr. Lizard is angry and what’s making Mr. 13:46 Lizard so angry someone kill his family and he had been moved into foster care 13:52 so symbolically what he’s telling me in terms of Mr. 13:58 Lizard’s family has been killed. That was this his perception of I lost my 14:03 family completely. So we started to process Mr. the the issues with Mr. Lizard killings left and right occurred 14:11 in the sand tray and also the dollhouse. Anna, did he actually choose a symbol of 14:18 a lizard that was brought into the Exactly. Yes. The lizard was there. 14:23 The people that Mr. lizard was killing the other animals and I stay in 14:30 curiosity not judgment stay with him and continue to add the dual attention 14:38 stimulus process that as a memory even though there is no personification. 14:45 There is no ownership of this is me or this is my pain or this is my rage or this is my anger or this is my 14:52 internalized perpetrator because he witnessed a lot of um violence 14:58 and then we started to notice week every week a shift. So the foster parents were 15:05 reporting back that now he’s opening to receiving some level of connection, 15:11 having a relationship, he’s starting to play. So within two months he made it to 15:17 the honor role because he was learning, he was studying, he was following 15:24 through with the teachers directions. So that’s where I started to realize, okay, something is happening here. let me let 15:31 me do it with more and more and more uh clients. And I started to see the same 15:36 response especially with children because that was the the channel that 15:42 was most appropriate for their age. They their development, their capacities and 15:49 that and in in the sand tray then the child through sufficient distance can 15:56 access what otherwise will be utterly overwhelming. Yeah. and information that they cannot 16:03 put together because they exist in fragments of sensory data that they 16:10 cannot translate into words and so the memory is right there even though the 16:16 child is not owning this as oh this is me or this is my anger. So that level of 16:21 distance really um gives a refuge to the mind. Dantree the 16:29 the characters become avatars of the mind and through this avatars the child 16:35 the adolescent the adult can express can 16:40 come face to face with information that otherwise will be overwhelming or the 16:46 acknowledgment of particles of self that are not yet recognized. Yeah. 16:52 So, the symbol then becomes a bridge between implicit memory and explicit 16:59 knowing. So, there’s two things that caught my attention about that story. One is this 17:05 piece. So, he he chose this symbol and the symbol um as a perpetrator. But I 17:12 love that you didn’t identify who it was, where this came from, even 17:18 whether or not he identified as the perpetrator himself, whether he had internalized, right, some of that. So 17:25 that it’s almost like the symbol got to hold the whole picture 17:31 whatever part wherever his mind wanted to go, that symbol could be a holder of 17:38 that of that energy. I think that’s that’s beautiful. I think there’s many um clinicians that might be inclined to 17:46 want to identify or label or um even be cautious about going there if they felt 17:53 like, oh, that is a symbol that’s representing some part of themsel that 18:00 they’re identifying with, but oh, that’s a scary sort of negative sort of association. And I love the 18:05 open-endedness. Do you want to say something more about that? Yeah, I mean the the um symbol the character itself 18:13 is a storykeeper. It’s a story holder and it holds the story 18:20 as the mind is ready for. So as a witness the child and the therapist we 18:26 witness it in the way that the mind is ready to witness it. And for now I can 18:32 only witness this as a lizard that is a killer. And the mind is not yet ready 18:37 for that level of recognition and acknowledgement as this is my father 18:43 right and that’s the refuge that sent and the symbols provide to the mind 18:50 and also the avatars give the mind the possibility for completions. 18:55 Yeah. So through the avatar, the child can experience an act of triumph, a 19:01 completion of a fight or flight response. The child can have attachment completions where a need is fulfilled. 19:08 Now you have a little zebra that was abandoned and didn’t have a mom and a dad. But now in the sand tray, there is 19:16 a mom and a dad ready to give the love to that zebra. And even though it’s not 19:21 necessarily happening for the child themselves, it’s happening to the 19:26 character, the character is giving the nervous system of the child the 19:32 opportunity to experience that connection, the reciprocity, the 19:38 protection, the safety, the shared coherence because they enter the wei 19:45 space. the zebra and the mother zebra and the child experiences that 19:52 correction and repair through the symbol. Um I I love that because you 19:59 know one of my understandings in the of the mind and the brain is that the mind can’t tell the difference between real 20:05 and imagined. And so as it’s happening in real time it is happening to the 20:12 child. There is an actual repairerative internalized experience because the 20:20 because it is and I think there’s a lot of clinicians that go well but didn’t didn’t really happen. Well, no, it is it 20:25 is happening because the mind can’t tell the difference. Yeah. That this is an offering of the 20:31 character, the avatar. Yeah. The offering to the nervous system is an offering to the mind that can find and 20:39 and access this um completions. Yeah. Through the avatar. Now what what I have 20:46 observed through the the last 25 years is that very organically 20:53 this experiences began to penetrate through the walls that were created for 20:59 survival and eventually organically the child begins to move this information 21:05 from implicit into explicit. And one day for example this child came in and said 21:12 I’m done with Mr. lizard. And then he started to create new sand worlds where 21:19 he had people, not me, not mine, not self yet, but started to get closer and 21:27 closer to his own story. Now he was playing out with people and then the 21:34 people were in reenacting a lot of what this child experienced. And then the day 21:42 came when he started to talk about his own feelings and then suddenly he 21:48 remember the experiences of trauma. So it’s a return to self is also a a way of 21:57 reorganizing their relationship with their life stories. But the the 22:02 wonderful thing about this union is that it happens when the client’s embodied 22:08 mind is ready to witness it, is ready to realize, is ready to recognize and 22:15 acknowledgement and acknowledge and witness the story, not before. 22:21 Right? There’s no pushing to go at my own rhythm, but we go with the agenda of 22:29 the client as the mind begins to get closer and closer and closer to their 22:34 life stories. Well, it’s a a beautiful honoring of if we’re talking about even dissociation 22:40 and complex trauma, the protective parts and the protective patterns that have come in. And it sounds like the sand 22:48 tray and the symbols are really um a helpful process for the protector 22:55 parts and you’re not going in and bulldozing over them. That there’s 23:00 almost a befriending and an allowing. So there’s an unfolding and and going at 23:06 the the child’s um uh pace. Would that be a way of saying it? 23:13 Yes. because this symbol um is gentle to the mind and passes 23:19 systems of self-p protection that were created in the service of protection. 23:25 Yeah. And when we try so hard to go against the systems of self-p protection, the defenses become stronger 23:33 with the symbol, then they bypass and work more gently with those systems of 23:41 self-p protection and defense. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So, my other question has to do with in 23:48 your story, you were weaving in EMDR as it was unfolding. Do you always do it that way? 23:56 So I often do when I put them both together. Yes. Because again they 24:03 potentiate each other. They both have gifts for each other. So the the Santra 24:10 provides the distance. The Santre provides the the refuge to the mind, the 24:18 mirror to the mind. And EMDR therapy with its procedural steps also 24:25 potentiates the process to access memory to access identity. I am convinced that 24:31 EMDR therapy is not just about memory integration but is integration of 24:37 identity and by the way integration as defined by the client promotes also a 24:44 restructuring of the relationship with the client’s life story. and a 24:51 reorganization of the relationship with self. So they both work well together. 24:56 However, I do not believe in rigidity or robotic 25:02 use of any form of therapy. And if a child doesn’t seem to be open to 25:09 procedural types of EMDR therapy, which is rare now because we have so many ways 25:15 of so many pathways with dual attention stimulas where we involve movement and 25:21 marching and dancing and using noodles where you know you brought this into the 25:27 field. Children are very much open to to engage 25:33 in in dual attention stimulus because now we have learned more creative ways 25:39 of delivering EMDR. Yeah. So it can be fun. See if EMDR is not fun, they’re not going to go for it. 25:46 But if there is a client that says, “I just want to do Santree, who am I to 25:52 forest upon themselves a therapeutic approach that does not feel congruent 25:58 with where they are, who they are?” There are clients, for example, that may do adults. They start with EMDR and then 26:07 if we’re kind of hitting a wall or moving into stagnation, 26:13 I may invite them to join in in the sand tray, for example. 26:20 And some of them just organically began with EMDR, then move into EMDR Santay. 26:25 And sometimes adults come in and say, “I want to do EMDR sand today or today I 26:31 think I want to do straightforward EMDR.” That’s how some of my adult clients call it. So, it’s not my agenda. 26:39 Let’s look into what you need in this moment to be able to find or go where 26:45 you need to go. So, here’s a nuanced question for individuals that are trained in both 26:51 because I imagine some might be wondering this. My guess is some people are trained um rather than so in the 26:59 sand tray, you know, creating a scene and then having a static scene and then 27:06 doing EMDR on the static scene versus in the tray, the play is in motion 27:15 and EMDR is applied while it’s happening and there isn’t a pause per se, 27:22 something static. than for integration. Do you do both just based on whatever 27:29 intuitively is happening? Does that make sense just as an application question for people that are trained in both? 27:35 Yeah. So with there are some children for example that they’re constantly 27:40 moving the figures, the story is unfolding. I can still find that window 27:46 where um providing the dual attention stimulus and sometimes we do have a pause and then we pause and we breathe 27:54 and then keep they keep moving and uh you see the sand moving around and 28:01 figure jumping up and down. And then you have children or adolescents or adults 28:07 that they have that pause that the unfolding story is not in constant 28:15 movement as it is for example with younger children. So we adjust, we 28:21 adapt, we join in in flexibility, curiosity and joining in with the style 28:30 of the client that we have in front of us. So one of the things that I have advocated for is to 28:36 not bring the child to the therapeutic process but instead we bring the 28:42 therapeutic process and approach whether it’s EMDR Santre or both to that 28:49 individual child that we have in front of us. Yeah. So beautiful. um 28:55 question around like I mean my hope is that um twofold therapists that are 29:02 already trained in EMDR are going to go buy this book right away. Therapists that are curious about this will do both 29:10 that they’ll get curious about some EMDR training and they’ll go jump into the the book as well. 29:17 Why did you write this? like what are you hoping clinicians fundamentally get 29:22 out of this book? I mean, you already said this this book isn’t just theory and there’s a lot of application. It’s 29:29 very approachable. Um, you want it to be a a userfriendly resource, which it is, 29:35 but what like what are you really hoping this book does? 29:41 I hope that this book becomes another portal. I I do believe that there are multiple portals through which we can 29:48 find integration and healing. Yeah. And I hope that this book becomes one of 29:57 those portals and possibilities. The human mind is incredibly complex and and 30:04 our existence is messy. And so we we need to have different entry roads into 30:11 the embodied mind of the client. And I hope that this becomes another road, 30:19 another possibility that clients and clinicians can join in 30:26 and find healing. Some people certainly do sand alone and they do really well 30:33 and they go to the places where they need to go. Some do EMDR, standard EMDR 30:41 and is very effective and efficient for them. But not all of us can access those 30:49 roads. There’s not one road and one road only. but instead there are multiple 30:55 pathways into ourselves uh into our life stories and into that field of 31:03 consciousness and awareness. So I hope that this becomes a portal and a road 31:09 that is available for the ones that cannot find that that entry road into 31:15 themselves. That’s that’s so that’s so beautiful. um 31:22 this approach that you’re talking about, this combined approach, can you speak to whether it’s really just for an 31:30 individual or can you also do this in like group settings or 31:35 Yeah. Could you speak to that a little bit too? Yeah, this is a very unique feature of 31:40 this book as well because it presents many possibilities. I didn’t when I 31:46 wrote this book, I wanted this to be flexible. I wanted this to offer a 31:51 portal with multiple possibilities and pathways. So the EMDR entray can be used 31:58 individually of course but in this book I very very much advocate for a systemic 32:06 approach especially with children where we address intergenerational trauma and 32:11 wounds that are passed from generation to generation. And I really advocate for 32:17 not holding just the child accountable when what we have in front of us is a 32:23 generational wound that has been passed over and over and over again and now the child is holding that generational 32:29 wound. So systemic systemic work and in uh group work for example. So I present 32:38 some of the protocols that we use in EMDR therapy and how they can be adapted 32:45 using the Santra that can be incredibly enriching and a combination of all. I 32:51 have families for example where the child is receiving EMDR Santra 32:56 individually. The parent is also attending some level of group work and 33:03 if after the group work where they work on psycho education developing 33:09 capacities relational capacities co-regulatory capacities 33:15 and then they can do some processing in the sand tray using EMDR as a group and 33:22 they can process moments of activation with their children. If we reduce those moments of activation that move the plan 33:30 C cl the parent out of co-regulation and out of connection and keep the client in 33:36 that place of reciprocity and co-regulation without having to move into survival and self-preservation then 33:43 we reduce the activation through EMDR cent based group protocols and for 33:51 parents that need additional processing and integration and they want to do 33:56 individual work, they can do individual work. But then the other part that I think is quite potent and beautiful is 34:04 that we can use this group approach also with families. So you have the child, 34:10 you have the parents, the siblings and they all have their own sand trays and they do beautiful work combining the 34:17 two. Yeah. when you do work with um like a parent child diad, 34:24 do you put them both assuming that there is um readiness to do so? 34:29 Do you put them in the same tray or do you often have like you said two separate trays? 34:36 How do you when it comes to to combining both EMDR and sand tray? It depends on 34:42 where we are and where the clients are. If we are utilizing the Sandray and 34:48 Santray procedures and strategies in initial phases of treatment with the 34:54 goal in mind and the purpose of gathering data and information and understanding their relational 34:59 choreographies, then we do join uh trace to understand how they relate to each 35:05 other, who takes the lead, who controls. So much can be observed in the 35:12 development of a joined uh tray. When we go into process then though the 35:18 child then is doing their own work and 35:23 the parent is there to accompany them. So the parent becomes a very active 35:30 therapeutic partner that joins in as a companion for the child when the child 35:36 is processing stories and the parent also can deliver strategies that in EMDR 35:43 we call interweavves and those interweavves are delivered by the parent 35:49 guided by the clinician. So, for example, if you have a little zebra, little kitty that was abandoned, and 35:56 that little kitty is alone and sad, I can ask, “I wonder what the little zebra 36:03 needs right now.” Well, the little zebra wishes that she had a mommy and a daddy 36:10 that could sing a song, for example. So, then I wonder I wonder if we can invite 36:16 mom or who would you like? Let’s check with the zebra. Ask the zebra, who does 36:22 the zebra want to have, you know, sing a song. And so then, you know, we have 36:27 little musical instruments or little music musical box. And there is mom with the musical box or singing Twinkle, 36:35 Twinkle, Little Star. And sometimes the child might say, I want uh the zebra wants all of us to sing. So we all sing 36:43 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Well, I’m using bilateral stimulation. and we breathe in and go, “Well, I wonder what 36:49 happened to the zebra.” So, it’s focused on the character, though. There are times where we go from character to self 36:56 and wonder as you watch the zebra, how is this for you? We never um break the 37:05 beauty of symbol or metaphor. We don’t say, “Oh, that’s you.” No, we stay with the zebra. The little zebra didn’t have 37:12 a song, so we’re singing a song together. Attachment completion. So now 37:17 the parent can sing a lullabi, can rock the little zebra. How does the zebra 37:24 feel? Oh, zebra feels happy and safe. Oh, let’s watch little zebra. Right. So 37:31 through that zebra, the nurturance that that the zebra is receiving, that is 37:37 also an offering to the child’s nervous system. Yeah. Yeah. So so beautiful. And even all these 37:45 examples, I mean, it is I love what you’re saying. It’s not rigid. It’s flexible. It’s 37:50 adaptive. It’s based on the needs of the child or the family in the moment. And 37:57 um and there isn’t a right way to do it is what I’m hearing. There are there are sort of protocols to keep in mind. There 38:04 are processes to keep in mind. There are approaches to keep in mind. But that it really is based on what’s needed in the 38:11 moment. And as we say in MDR, go with that 38:16 and the capacity of the the therapist to mentalize to hold the child’s in mind 38:23 and deliver you know the the interweavves or provide the companionship that the character needs. 38:30 And sometimes kids may say uh by the way that zebra it’s me. Oh okay. So how do 38:37 you want me to call the zebra from now on? Well, call it um Johnny the Zebra. 38:44 Okay. So, let’s check with Johnny the Zebra and see what what the zebra needs 38:50 or wants. Right. Are so great. Yeah. Or or the other thing that is so 38:55 amazing with dissociative clients is that often dissociative parts or ego 39:02 states unlend. 39:07 And for example, you have a perpetrator imitating part that shows up to kill. 39:14 And later on they say, well, that is actually a voice that I hear in my mind. 39:20 But first they find safety in the sand tray. Yeah. Right. To come out, to be witnessed, to 39:27 be known at the pace that the client’s mind can tolerate. 39:33 Yeah. Yeah. It’s I mean so beautiful. It’s like that part of me gets to exist, 39:38 too. I can acknowledge that that part of me, but but I need still feel safe enough to do 39:43 so. Yeah. But I can acknowledge it when I’m ready for that. Exactly. 39:48 When my mind is ready to acknowledge it and recognize it and sometimes it’s a gradual entrance into consciousness. We 39:56 honor that rhythm through which information enters consciousness. And 40:02 sometimes it enters consciousness through the symbol and stays there as a 40:08 symbol as a zebra that was abandoned. And one day the child might say, “Well, that’s me and that’s my mommy.” Okay? 40:15 You know, we honor that. We honor the natural rhythms of the mind and what the 40:21 mind needs in the process of healing, the process of seeing, knowing, recognizing, and naming. Right? 40:31 So, Anna, where can people find your book? Well, I’m excited to say that this um 40:38 August, I believe 11 or 12th, it’s going to be available everywhere 40:45 really where you buy your favorite books that you can find them. Barnes & Nobles, 40:51 Amazon, everywhere will be will be available. So, I’m excited that this is 40:56 going to happen within just a few days. Yes. And for those that want to um learn 41:03 more about your trainings, because you travel the globe, you do trainings, you 41:08 also do online trainings, you even do intensive trainings um for EMDR training 41:15 um in Arizona where you are. So if people are just interested in learning with you, where can they find 41:22 you? Well, they can find me somewhere in the universe. 41:29 Can I add the energy? But uh you can find me also through the web. So I have 41:35 two websites www. agate a g a t e institute.org 41:46 and we have uh multiple trainings that we offer but is one there’s one that is 41:52 specifically dedicated to EMDR Santre. So there is a part one, part two, it’s a 41:58 total of 90 hours because we go deep into possibilities. There’s so much that can be done. And then um my website 42:07 www.aggomez.org. Amazing. Well, Anna, thank you for once 42:15 again just bringing yourself and your creativity to the field and helping 42:23 advance our understanding and support our growth and our ability to work with clients. Um, thank you for writing this 42:31 book and all the other books that you’ve written. Just thank you for being such a mind. 42:36 Um, thank you. I I am grateful that you’ve given me this space to share 42:42 about something that I deeply deeply love. This book represents a journey. It 42:49 it’s been a journey starting from scratch not knowing how to put this two together and this is a culmination of 42:59 that journey. It’s not the end of it because there are already things that I’m thinking about for the second 43:05 edition already. Oh, we can do this or that. But really, it represents a whole 43:12 journey for me. And so, it’s like my child honestly and and I’m grateful that you 43:19 have given me the space to talk about something that is very dear to me. 43:25 You’re so welcome. Okay, listeners. Um, as I mentioned, you know, if you’re 43:32 EMDR trained, if you’re Santra trained, go grab this book. if you’re not, check 43:38 it out anyway. Um, the book will uh open your eyes. Um, I love this book. This 43:45 book was a fun fun read. Um, and it’s exactly on what you said it was going to 43:50 be, which is it’s it’s practical. It’s digestible. Um, so listeners, wherever you are in 43:58 the world, uh, take care of yourselves. You are incredibly important. Anna said 44:05 something there at the end. You know, our ability to hold the minds of our 44:11 clients, right? Our ability to hold what’s happening um as it unfolds in 44:17 process is so important and that means taking care of ourselves and continuing 44:23 to do our work and expanding our capacity. So, wherever you are in the 44:29 world, I wish you well. I wish you expansion and uh you are the most 44:35 important toy in the playroom. Until next time.