The Research Trends on Sandplay Therapy for Depression : Focusing on Degrees and Academic Journals from 2007 to 2023

The purpose of this study is to analyze trends in sandplay therapy research for depression conducted in Korea, seek research directions for sandplay therapy related to depression improvement, and provide basic data necessary for therapeutic research. The papers included in the study include 58 domestic studies conducted from 2007 to 2023. As a result of the study, an average of 3.4 studies on depression and sandplay therapy were continuously conducted each year. Additionally, 53.1% of the research subjects were degree theses and 46.5% were academic theses. In the case of academic papers, 44.4% of studies were published in general academic journals, 40.8% were studies published in registered journals, and 12.8% were studies published in candidate journals. In order to verify the effectiveness of depression in research, Beck's depression scale was used most often, and pre- and post-test was used in 43 studies. The subjects of the study were diverse, including children, adolescents, and adults, but the proportion of adults was high at 32%. The average number of study participants was 10, and the number of counseling sessions was 15 on average. Based on these research results, implications such as points to be considered when conducting sandplay therapy research related to depression and discussions on follow-up research were presented.