Beyond Words: Exploring School Counselors’ Experiences of Implementing Sandtray Therapy with Secondary School Students from Low-Income Families
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Abstract
School counselors increasingly encounter secondary school students from low-income families who experience complex emotional, behavioral, and psychosocial challenges. Although sandtray therapy is widely recognized as an expressive therapeutic approach, limited research has examined how school counselors implement it in authentic school settings. This study explored school counselors’ experiences of implementing sandtray therapy with secondary school students from low-income families in Malaysian secondary schools. A qualitative multiple case study design, underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm, was employed. Five full-time school counselors with formal training in sandtray therapy participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and multiple documentary sources, and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis with support from NVivo. Four interrelated themes emerged: (1) therapeutic relationship as the foundation of intervention, (2) symbolic expression as a medium for emotional exploration, (3) professional adaptation in managing the therapeutic process, and (4) psychological growth through symbolic engagement. The findings indicate that effective implementation extends beyond symbolic play techniques and requires therapeutic relationships, professional flexibility, and responsive intervention strategies tailored to students’ individual needs. This study contributes to school counseling literature by providing an in-depth understanding of sandtray therapy implementation in educational settings and highlights its potential as a developmentally appropriate expressive intervention to strengthen comprehensive school mental health services.
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