Reviews for Redemption of the Shattered: A Teenager's Healing Journey Through Sandtray Therapy

"Written and published by Bob Livingstone, Redemption Of The Shattered: A Teenager's Healing Journey Through Sandtray Therapy is a compelling blend of candid memoir with personal spiritual testimony. Here recounted is Livingstone's individual experiences and the near devastating pain of coping with the early loss of his father. Redemption Of The Shattered is highly recommended as a profound and engaging voyage of self-discovery, insight, and the recovery from familial grief."

"Fifteen-year-old Bob Livingstone's emotional life froze when his father died unexpectedly. Numb and tearless through the funeral, then continuously numb from drug use; failing in school; avoiding friends; unable to communicate with his stricken family-his disengagement with the world continued into adulthood. He never completely understood why.

Twenty years later, Livingstone finally is ready to meet and engage his demons-in the sandtray. His book, Redemption of the Shattered: A Teenager's Healing
Journey Through Sandtray Therapy, is a chronicle of his struggle and eventual triumph over his grief. In the sand, he reprocesses the scenes over and over, changing the dynamics, characters, landscapes and solutions, until he gets it right.

Each of the twenty-four chapters is a synopsis of one sandtray session. Each chapter begins with a narrative that is part autobiographical and part fanciful, starring a character named "Rob". Each figure is chosen to play a part of the author or of his trauma, often with a Jungian sense of symbolism. At the end of each narrative, he provides interpretative commentary. Finally, each chapter ends with "Family Discussion Questions" designed to elicit conversation and raise awareness.

Livingstone tells his story with haunting intensity. His early sandtrays are populated with ghouls and monsters straight out of his nightmares. Representing guilt and self-loathing, they berate him with horrifying screeds of accusation. They tell him that he disgraced his family by not mourning properly. That he is a terrible son who can't offer comfort or anything else to his mother and sister. That he is a loathsome failure. And worst of all, that his father, an angry, joyless man, was literally disgusted to death because of him. That he killed his father with his worthlessness.

As Livingstone enacts and reenacts his trauma, he stumbles into new realizations. He begins to revise his truths, and to find solutions to his nightmares. He creates positive characters that represent his resilience. He learns to face, respond to, and finally befriend his demon characters. With the new insight that his father's funeral service was an unfeeling travesty delivered by an indifferent rabbi, he gives his sandtray father a proper burial. He learns to celebrate his father's life and finds ways to connect with him. The journey from torment to peace is profound, and it is vividly rendered.

Redemption of the Shattered is not an easy read. I found myself needing to take
frequent breaks to absorb the book's impact. Its prose is dense, and it packs an
emotional wallop. Even as he distances himself by telling his story in the third person, and by fictionalizing his adventures, the honesty of his writing is a gift to anyone who has similarly experienced trauma, alienation, the inability to digest or to forgive.

The marketing of the book puzzles me. The book seems to be aimed at adolescents, but has sophistication, as well as a heft, that better suits adults. I also am puzzled about the "Family Discussion Questions.'' While I understand that their purpose is to invite readers into the process, it creates an abrupt shift from the flow of the narrative. It's like telling a gripping story, only to frequently interrupt the action to generate discussion questions. (Sample question: "Rob talks about insecurity during this chapter. What makes you feel insecure?") I wish Livingstone would have trusted his readers and his powerful prose to create their own response. But these, for me, were minor problems that didn't distract from the book's power. I wanted to run out and buy a world of sand figures: bats, witches, ghouls and coffins included."

Elizabeth Harte, M.S.

"There can never be enough discovery vehicles to help lead people out of the all-too-often confusing wilderness of their pasts. Redemption of the Shattered is a valuable tool on the road to wellness."

Russell Friedman, co-author of the best selling grief book: The Grief Recovery Handbook

"The journey from torment to peace is profound, and it is vividly rendered. The honesty of his writing is a gift to anyone who has experienced trauma, alienation, the inability to digest or to forgive."

"Redemption Of The Shattered by Bob Livingstone is an emotional self propelled path toward healing. I enjoyed it for many reasons. Mainly, I was relieved by the ease at which I, a lay person, could read and comprehend the book. Sandtray therapy was a foreign topic to me, but after reading this book, I feel I understand it and its usefulness. Secondly, the format of the book, sandtray, analysis, family discussion and questions is well thought out and practical. It lends to a usefulness in my own life. Finally, Mr. Livingstone connects with the reader by sharing his own struggles and pain, his "Healing Journey" through his sandtray therpay sessions. In doing so, he is a testament to the effectiveness of a therapy process in which he so clearly believes. I would recommend this book to any teenager or adult struggling with emotional pain.”

"Redemption of the Shattered is the moving journey of the author as he recovers from the death of his father. Mr. Livingstone's honest, first person portrayal of his emotions, combined with the Family "Discussion Questions, such as, 'In the beginning of the chapter, Rob is so angry and out of control that he smacks his hand through a window. Have you ever had similar experiences?' and 'Rob at one point says he feels all alone. Have you ever had this experience?' make this book an experience for teenagers and their parents to share. We first meet 15 year old Rob at his father's funeral, and follow him through feelings of loss, fear, isolation, and guilt. He often felt that he had no one to talk to and had great difficulty in expressing his true feelings, so benefited from the non-verbal modality of sandtray therapy. We sees Rob's courage as he first meets his internal demons, that lead to self-destruction, and then as he encounters the Voice of Wisdom, Gods and Goddesses and eventually his father. The healing that occurs reinforces the belief that in order to heal from past trauma, one needs to work through it by returning to the memory and the cellular experience of that trauma."

“In each chapter, the author starts with a picture of the sandtray he created, goes on to tell the metaphoric story behind the scene, and ends with lessons learned. Through 24 chapters, the reader has an incredible opportunity to peek at the “journey” the patient goes through in dealing with issues of death of a loved one. It is as if we are behind the glass window in the adjacent room, watching each sandtray therapy session in person.”

“In Redemption, Mr. Livingstone bares the unique passageway that took him from fragmentation to wholeness, from darkness to light, so that we all might benefit from his journey. With sand tray therapy as a powerful therapeutic tool, he replayed the adolescent dramas around his father’s death that longed for expression in his adult soul. His book is unique in style and tone. Each segment is followed by discussion questions that every family who has confronted death might consider as an essential part of its own journey toward health.”

“A well-written book that emphasizes that there is help out there for those who need it. You don't have to be alone in a time of crisis. A book that everyone should be reading, including young adults and teenagers.”

“Redemption of the Shattered is an excellent book, one which I will recommend to therapists learning to use Sandtray Therapy with the bereaved. I appreciate not only the readability of the book, but the photos and descriptive passages.”