Dr. Sachiko Taki-Reece began as a registered nurse, working with children in Kyoto, Japan. There she studied with Hayao Kawai, who had just returned from training in Switzerland. He brought to Japan both Jungian analysis and Dora Kalff's method of "sandplay therapy." (Kawai, a Professor at Kyoto University, later became the Culture Minister of Japan.) Taki-Reece underwent analysis with Kawai and introduced sandplay into her work with troubled youth. She relocated to California, where she continued to study sandplay and eventually became a Jungian analyst and a certified Sandplay Therapist. Dr. Taki-Reece is widely known as a teacher, analyst, and sandplay therapist. This book describes her therapeutic approach to working with children in a Los Angeles County Public Health program for children with severe behavioral and academic problems. She presents case studies of seven children who lived in poverty and had experienced early severe stressors, such as parental drug addiction, abandonment, physical abuse, suicide or murder of a family member, and placement in foster homes. Taki-Reece presents the therapy sessions in vivid detail, including color photographs of sandplay slides, as well as her research methods and results. This book is an invaluable resource for therapists, administrators, social workers, teachers.
