A complete projective technique toolkit built around Barbos, a dog character who helps children express fear, conflict and grief safely, without direct questioning.

A projective technique is a structured activity that invites a child to express an inner state through symbolic, indirect material — in this case, drawing and talking through the eyes of a dog — rather than answering a direct question about feelings. Because Barbos is deliberately “blank” (no fixed backstory or personality), children of any temperament can safely project onto him what they can’t yet say about themselves.

What’s inside:

6 full projective techniques — Barbos’s Glasses, Barbos’s Little House, Barbos’s Balloons, Barbos’s Den, Barbos Looks for His Own, and Barbosa’s Tracks — each with a neuropsychological and psychological rationale, step-by-step instructions, adaptation variants, and specialist notes

7-piece clinical companion set: Quick Reference Guide, Contraindications & Red Flags Checklist, Session Planning Sheet, Observation Form, Parent Notes, Therapist Notes, and a Sample De-Identified Case

Full theoretical grounding, covering 7 neuropsychological mechanisms behind why drawing helps children talk (hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, mirror neurons, right-hemisphere processing, symbolic play, safe distance)

8-category reference list spanning play therapy, attachment/interpersonal neurobiology, trauma, symbolic play & assessment, art therapy, neuropsychology, narrative psychology, and the limits of projective testing
Clear ethical guidelines, a professional disclaimer, and a Suggested Reading list

Written by a practitioner with a background spanning veterinary medicine, child psychology, speech therapy, and canine-assisted therapy (canistherapy), and developed through real session work as part of the SunnyDog Therapy method.

Ideal for child psychologists, school counsellors, speech and language therapists, and canistherapists looking for a low-pressure, repeatable way to open conversation with anxious, guarded, or non-verbal children. Several techniques also adapt easily for parents to use at home.