The Orphan
The Psychic Drive for Wholeness

Workshop for Psychotherapists and Lay People 

Presenters: Audrey Punnett and Dyane Sherwood

Dr. Punnett will show how the constellation of the orphan archetype with its accompanying feelings of isolation, anguish, and despair can act as a catalyst for the individuation process. Jungian theoretical concepts will be woven into her presentation of the case of an 11-year-old boy, including his sandplay process. Her work with the boy will also demonstrate how, when working with children, there is always the potential that parents see progress and want to end the child's therapy too soon. She will discuss how she worked with this problem and invite discussion from the participants.

Dr. Punnett will have copies of her recent book, The Orphan, for signing. It can also be ordered through the publisher, Fisher King Press. 

In the afternoon, Dr. Sherwood will discuss the psyche's survival strategies in response to actually being orphaned, including the case example of a young girl and her sandplay process. We will see how the healing capacities of a child's psyche are constellated and expressed symbolically. The case example will serve as a basis of looking at ways these survival strategies also appear in situations in which a person feels emotionally abandoned, including reactions to the therapist within a therapeutic setting.

Participants need not be child therapists in order to benefit from this program and apply it to life experience and to working with patients.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

Audrey Punnett, Ph.D., received her diploma in both adult and in child and adolescent analysis at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. She is also a Teaching Member and past President of the Sandplay Therapists of America (STA).  She has lectured nationally and internationally on the archetype of the orphan. Her private practice is in Fresno, California.

Dyane N. Sherwood, Ph.D., received her analytic training at the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, where she was certified as both an adult and as a child and adolescent analyst. She is a Teaching Member of the Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) and International Society of Sandplay Therapy (ISST). She has taught widely on topics in Jungian psychology such as alchemy, active imagination, implicit communication, attachment, and working with trauma. She is the author of articles and book chapters, and the most recent can be downloaded from her website, http://dyanesherwood.com. She is in private practice in Oberlin, Ohio.