This study researched 77 research papers and 49 journals – in total 126 papers
– which have been published from 1986 to 2010 within the Sandtray Therapy
paradigm. I looked for trends of these research papers and journals according to the
year, the object and the theme of the study.
The results of this study are: firstly, of the 126 research papers in total, 69 were
master’s theses, six were doctoral theses, and 49 were journal articles. Secondly, the
most frequently used therapeutic skill was play therapy. There are 25 journals in
which play therapy was adopted as a therapeutic method within a total of 49
journals. Thirdly, the object of study was most frequently a child. In 49 papers
children were the objects and in 39 young children were the objects. Fourthly, I
analyzed study themes according to types of questions and consequences. From the
analysis, I confirmed that Sandtray Therapy has been actively studied from 2005
and since then, the ages, the types of clients, the objects of study and the
consequences thereof have diversified.