Sand Tray and Group Therapy: Helping Parents Cope

Abstract

Sand tray with group therapy can be an effective treatment approach for parents coping with adolescent substance abuse and/or dependency. Excerpts of parent sand trays are presented to demonstrate pretreatment tasks that decrease denial, reduce reactive anger, stop enabling behaviors, and build support systems. Parent-child relational issues, including developmental delays, painful feelings, and substance abuse, are examined through the parents' sand tray and group therapy experiences.Use of sand tray therapy in the parent group creates a multirelational approach that benefits parent, child, and counselor.