What’s What Wednesday: Clinical Social Workers and Child Therapy

Written by Diana Salazar. Posted in Blog, Clinical Social Workers

One of the many roles of a Licensed Clinical Social Worker is to provide counseling to not only adults but children as well. Throughout the counseling process, a Clinical Social Worker will utilize various interventions, techniques, and theories in order to help their client reach their fullest potential. One effective technique used in Child Therapy is known as Sand Tray Therapy. Sand Tray Therapy is a special type of expressive therapy in which a tray of sand can be used to help the client create and explore an internal world.

Sand Tray Therapy has been recognized as a form of therapy since the early 1940’s and is widely used by Registered Play Therapists.  An excellent use for sand tray therapy can be for working with children experiencing complicated grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, family conflict, bullying, difficulty adjusting to life changes such as divorce, puberty, etc.  and many other challenges when words are difficult to process.

There are several components of sand tray therapy that make it effective for many people, including:

• The design of the sand tray environment is a safe, contained world that is fully controlled by the client, and can be manipulated or changed by adding, subtracting, or moving figurines within the scene.
• It does not require any artistic skill to have a satisfying sand tray experience—only selecting and placing objects.
• Physically moving representational objects within the sand tray container has a beneficial effect on the body, especially in people who have undergone traumatic experiences—more so than simply talking about memories or ideas.

To learn more about Child Therapy and if you know a child who would benefit from it, please visit www.sscc.center or call (239) 495-7722 for a FREE phone consultation with one of our Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Registered Play Therapist today.