Dee Preston-Dillon

Dee Preston-Dillon, MA, PhD, professor of psychology, founder of the Center for Culture and Sandplay and The Sand Therapy Training Institute. Dee’s cross-cultural research compared indigenous experience with Sandplay with Jungian interpretation. Her research has implications for social justice in clinical practice and cultural competency when using symbols in sand.

Over two decades of research and clinical consultations on sand scenes led to her development of Narrative Sand Therapy©, clinician competency scales, an Advanced Sand Therapy certificate program, and online Sand Therapy courses. Presenting at over 40 conferences on ethics, theory and practice for Sand Therapy, Dee emphasizes humanistic, existential and post-modern approaches to understand and respond to client sand scenes. Her central philosophy: essential to competency is a therapist’s immersion in their own sand scenes, deepening their experience of symbols and metaphors.