Meet the Makers
They say it takes a village, and a lot video conferences.
Kay Bruner, MA LPC
Creator, Counselor, Spiral Enthusiast, Mom
Kay is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and mother of four. Her practice includes helping clients with anxiety, depression, grief, and shifting faith.
She loves rainbows.
Michael Bruner
Game Designer, AI Artifact Creator, Son
Michael has an MFA in Design and Technology from UT Austin. He is a lighting designer, video game developer, and is an assistant professor at Texas A&M.
He loves his cat, Jack.
Andy Bruner
Program Manager, Troubleshooting Hero, Dad
Andy works for a large non-profit as a Business Analyst. He and Kay love to travel the world together.
He is known as “Handy Andy”.
Jake Bruner
UI/UX Designer, House Plant Lover, Son
Jake is a graduate of BFA Design at the University of Texas at Austin. Jake is currently writing these blurbs, and watering all of his plants.
He loves his family.
Our Story
Michael was home for finals week, finishing up the second year of his masters at the University of Texas. Everything was online by this point, due to the pandemic: my practice, his finals, the whole world. We were talking over lunch one day, about how the world was going to be different after this. How many things would be online, and what that would mean for us all.
“I wish there was some way to offer sand tray therapy online,” I said. “Of course it would have to be super simple for me to use, and it has to look cute. It can’t be frustrating. I’m already frustrated by the Coronavirus. It would have to be fun and easy.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I could probably do that.”
I ran the idea by my husband, Andy, who’s a business analyst and systems manager, and the two of them were off and running with my dream.
A couple of weeks later, Michael had an early build ready for us to view, and suggested that Jake, our youngest child and a recent design graduate from UT, might come on board to work on the user interface and other design-related elements.
And that’s how Simply Sand Play happened. When you have a therapist longing to offer expressive practices via telehealth, and that therapist’s family is a dream team of web developers and designers, wonderful outcomes are inevitable.
-Kay Bruner, MA LPC, Creator
