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Art-based Research on Group Sandplay Therapy for Myanmar Refugee Children Staying in Malaysia

  • Journal of Symbols & Sandplay Therapy
  • Abbr : JSST
  • 2022, 13(1), pp.215~274
  • Publisher : Korean Society for Sandplay Therapy
  • Research Area : Social Science > Psychological Science > Counseling Psychology / Psychotherapy
  • Received : March 30, 2022
  • Accepted : June 4, 2022
  • Published : June 30, 2022

Yeoreum Lee 1 Lee sehwa 2 Jang, Mi Kyung 3 Choi Ye Lin 3

1남서울대학교 대학원 아동복지학과 아동상담․심리치료전공 강사
2남서울대학교 원격평생교육원 강사
3남서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study is based on the group sandplay therapy that we provided to Burmese Chin children living in Malaysia as ethnic and religious refugees and our analysis of the themes in the children’s sandboxes using an art-based research method. All the participants were Burmese Chin refugee children aged 10 to 13 years old, attending an international refugee school in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Participation was voluntary, with written consent from legal guardians. The sample chosen for the study comprised 12 children, with six males in one group and six females in the other group. Altogether, the children took part in five sandplay sessions, which lasted 120 minutes each. During these sessions, all the participants expressed individual the sandtray and then gathered to share and talk about the scenes they had made in the sand. After each session, it construed the children’s sand scenes, imaginative stories and symbolic image from an analytical psychology perspective and categorized the contents by common themes. As a result, six themes emerged: homes taken away, abandoned children, bystanders, safety bases, and liberation/resettlement. Through the sandplay therapy, the refugee children could express their trauma in a safe, supportive environment. Sandplay provided these children with an opportunity to identify their trauma, independently overcome that trauma, and grow.

Citation status

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