Process and Effect of Group Sandplay Therapy on Psychological Resilience in College Students

Objective: To explore the process and effect of group sandplay therapy on psychological resilience of college students. Methods: The intervention group and the control group pre-test and post-test design were used in this study. Participants were 19 freshmen who were chose by strict screening procedure. Totally 9 students were recruited in the intervention group and 10 in the control group. The intervention group received group counseling for 8 times, including 6 times Group Sandplay Therapy. In the end of each Group Sandplay Therapy, participants were asked to fulfill a self-reflection questionnaire which includes 4 elements of psychological resilience. The control group did not receive any intervention.Both groups received the Ego Psychological Resilience Scale evaluation, UPI evaluation and sandplay evaluation before and after the experiment. Results: 1Paired samples T-test showed a significant intervention effect on the experiment group,but not the control group. 2Independent samples T-test found that there were no significant differences between the intervention group and the control group in all three dimensions of sandplay evaluation and the total score in the pre-test, but in the post-test, it showed significant differences between two groups. 3Qualitative analysis were used to analyze the self-reflection questionnaire, showing that group sandplay therapy positively contribute to the improvement of the psychological resilience via the mediating effects of self-respect, stress coping, social support and interpersonal skills in the experiment group. Conclusion: Group sandplay therapy is a feasible way to improve psychological resilience of college students, in which the self-reflection may have an important moderating effects.