EMDR-Sandtray-based Therapy: Healing Complex Trauma and Dissociation Across the Lifespan

Author(s) : Ana M. Gomez

EMDR-Sandtray-based Therapy: Healing Complex Trauma and Dissociation Across the Lifespan

Book Details

  • Publisher : WW Norton & Co
  • Published : September 2025
  • Cover : Paperback
  • Pages : 448
  • Category :
    Forthcoming
  • Category 2 :
    EMDR
  • Catalogue No : 98151
  • ISBN 13 : 9781324053651
  • ISBN 10 : 1324053658
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Sandtray therapy offers a powerful symbol, image and metaphor-based pathway to healing, while EMDR therapy activates information processing to integrate and assimilate traumagenic memories. Both are powerful approaches for working with clients suffering from complex trauma, and when combined, EMDR-sandtray-based therapy offers multiple roads into the traumatogenic memory networks that may not be accessible otherwise, enhancing the delicate work of healing the legacy of complex trauma.

This book introduces a multimodal approach to trauma healing that integrates principles from various methodologies. With a wealth of resources, case examples, hands-on strategies and moment-to-moment decision-making markers, it is a practical and comprehensive guide for EMDR and sandtray clinicians, experts and novices alike. Various delivery formats for this therapy are explored, including individual, group, family and dyadic modalities, thus offering robust pathways for healing.

Reviews and Endorsements

This book is a unique and glorious blend of science and practice! Kudos to Ana Gómez for gifting clinicians with this substantive, state-of-the-art, integrative, trauma-informed approach. Her discussion of trauma is comprehensive and considers a range of contemporary issues such as neuroscience, attachment, trauma defenses, and implicit and explicit memories (to name a few), offering guidance on how to approach trauma recovery in a thoughtful, safe, and precise manner. I am particularly impressed with the ample suggested language, phrasing, and questions that clinicians often struggle to develop. Trauma-informed concerns are described succinctly, alongside a range of possible verbal and nonverbal (nondirective and directive) interventions, making this book immediately useful and relevant for clinicians supporting children and families through the trauma recovery process.
Eliana Gil, PhD, senior clinical director, Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education, Fairfax, VA

Many of our clients, because of their powerful defenses, trauma-based fears, and dissociative tendencies, struggle to make use of all that EMDR has to offer. In this well-written book, infused with compassion, wisdom, and creativity, Ana Gómez provides a comprehensive guide to integrating EMDR therapy with sandtray therapies in the service of reaching and treating those with deep wounds but limited access to their own stories and emotions. It is an informative and inspiring read!
Deborah L. Korn, PsyD, faculty, EMDR Institute and Trauma Research Foundation, coauthor, Every Memory Deserves Respect: EMDR, the Proven Trauma Therapy with the Power to Heal

Ana Gómez masterfully describes how her EMDR-sandtray-based therapy integrates various theories and modalities with her extensive clinical experience. She artfully articulates the deep understanding and insights sandtray provides, which are valuable and informative even to non-EMDR practitioners. Gómez also encourages clinicians to use the tray to expand their awareness, explore their own mind, and develop their ‘therapeutic home.’ Her profound comprehension and artful description of this integrative method is truly exceptional.
Linda E. Homeyer, PhD, LPC-S, RPT-STM, RST-CT, coauthor of Advanced Sandtray Therapy: Digging Deeper in Clinical Practice

Through the masterful stewardship of Ana Gómez, learn to guide your clients with compassion and clarity in working through their complex issues and situations. Written in a clear and practical way, this book addresses how to assist your clients with the complexities of working with trauma and dissociation, and deepen your therapeutic relationship within the framework of Gómez’s multimodal EMDR-sandtray-based framework. This nuanced and culturally responsive approach empowers you to understand trauma in a new and effective way that supports your work with your clients and their experience in the world. Overlooked topics such as addictions, attachment to the perpetrator, neurodiversity, and intersectionality of identities are addressed.
Marilyn Luber, PhD, editor of the EMDR Scripted Protocol books and coauthor of Treating Depression with EMDR Therapy: Techniques and Interventions

About the Author(s)

Ana M. Gómez, MC, LPC, AGATE Institute director, is a leading expert and global speaker on complex trauma and dissociation in youth. The author of multiple books, therapeutic tools, and training programs, she is a fellow of the ISSTD and the recipient of the 2023 Francine Shapiro Award from EMDRIA. She resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

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