양육 초기에 버려진 여아의 모래놀이상담 사례연구

Abstract

This case study was conducted on a girl in the fifth grade of elementary school who had been abandoned by her parents during her early upbringing. She was referred from a child welfare facility to this counseling center. The sandplay counseling with the client focused on mother-child unity and has been analyzed in three stages—negative mother, introversion, and integration. The client is assumed to have developed insecure attachment since she had difficulty forming attachment without proper upbringing as she was neglected and abused. She is also thought to have mother and father images that are not positive as she was abandoned during her early upbringing. The client with complex trauma experienced acceptance and support through mother-child unity during sandplay counseling in which the sand stray as a free and sheltered space is provided. The sandplay counseling enabled her to face the negative mother or the emotionally cold mother inside her, form a secure base that was not obtained during her early upbringing, and heal the psychological trauma that was suppressed in the unconscious through deep introversion. She was also able to integrate, develop, and transform the undifferentiated instincts and emotions in the process of integration, showing the flow of energy. The client without proper upbringing had been diagnosed with borderline intellectual functioning. After receiving sandplay counseling, she improved significantly in academic achievement and made friends with her peers. The client also went on a journey to find her identity as a female, using figures, such as clothes and shoes. This case study demonstrates that sandplay counseling can be effective for a girl who is raised at a child welfare facility after being abandoned during her early upbringing.