The impact of sandtray therapy in group counselling towards children’s self-esteem

Abstract

This study is based on an experimental design by making a comparison between control group and experimental group based on the pre- and post-test results. The objective is to identify the effect of sandtray therapy towards the improvement of the five self-esteem variables: general, social, family, academic and lie. The subjects of the study were children aged 11 years old (n = 32) in Malaysia. They were divided into two groups namely the sandtray group (n = 16) as the experimental group, who received sandtray therapy compared to control group (n = 16) who did not receive the treatment. The data were analysed using SPSS version 22, MANOVA recurrent measurement, pre-test and post-test. The findings specify that sandtray therapy is a valuable therapeutic intervention to enhance the child’s self-esteem. Several recommendations were presented to parents, teachers and school administrators, and the Ministry of Education Malaysia was discussed in promoting children’s well-being. Keywords: Sandtray therapy, group counselling, children, self-esteem