Breaking the Mold: Sculpting Impasses in Couples' Therapy

Abstract

In the fall of 2009, we the authors started a project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City that focuses on understanding and transforming impasses in couples' therapy. In experimenting with various interventions, we discovered the power of sculpting to capture and transform stalemates in couples relationships. In this article, we describe the ways in which sculpting brings forward the gestalt of a couple's impasse, highlights nuances of emotions and feelings, and reveals elements of both present and past. We also discuss the ways in which sculpting illuminates the partners' sense of self in the relationship as they feel constrained within their reciprocal dynamics. Through three different cases, we outline a protocol for sculpting. We demonstrate how the therapist invites the partners to create a visual/sensory narrative of their impasse, guides staging of their metaphors and images, and utilizes their enactments to unpack emotions, beliefs, and patterns that are typically on the periphery of awareness. We also articulate how sculpting offers a platform for the process of change.

Love in Action: An Integrative Approach to Last Chance Couple Therapy

“…In contrast, earlier‐developed theories and practices of family therapy often drew upon metaphors like the “family dance,” the “family orchestra,” the “family collage,” as well as asking couples to provide “video descriptions” of what happens when their interaction goes poorly or well—all suggesting that meaning can equally be represented, held, and expressed through nonverbal interaction. Techniques like family sculpting pioneered by Virginia Satir and developed by Papp, Scheinkman, and Malpas () were designed to help couples and families express—through action—feelings and perceptions about relational problems and preferences that often eluded pure verbal description.…”

Proxemics in Couple Interactions: Rekindling an Old Optic

“…This social rule appears to remain valid in the context of therapy. For example, even when proxemics masters such as Virginia Satir (many videotapes) and Peggy Papp (; also Papp, Scheinkman, & Malpas, ) use family sculpting as a therapeutic intervention (in the course of which actively promoting changes in interpersonal distances and gestures, instructing family members on how to change their position or behave in a silent sculpture, and even exploring the emotional impact of nonverbal shifts), they seldom make explicit critical comments about gestures or tones of voice or interpersonal distances that they may have noticed. The same can be noted when observing already classic structural interventions, where members of a family are asked by the therapist to change sitting arrangement during a session (Minuchin, ).…”

Editorial: LGBTQ families in the 21st Century

“…Family Process ’ articles on LGBTQ families have ranged widely: exploring the evolution of LGBT over time (Gotta et al., ); the impact of family support (Elizur & Ziv, ; Rostosky et al., ); the positive impact of being a parent of an LGBT child (Gonzalez et al., ); LGBTQ headed families (Istar Lev, ); pathways with a gender variant child (Gray et al., ); patterns of closeness in LGBTQ families (Green & Werner, ; Krestan & Bepko, ); donor conception in LG couples (Goldberg & Allen, ; Van Parys et al., ); negotiated nonmonogamy in LG couples (Shernoff, ); transgender in families (Gray et al., ; Malpas, ); the evolving discourse about coming out (Green, ; LaSala, ); and considerations of these families in therapy (Green, ) and therapy supervision (Long, ). LGBTQ issues have also frequently been included as one thread of examining diversity in families, as an important focus of some of our most prominent mainstream models, and in broader considerations of couple and family therapy (Falicov, ; Imber‐Black, ; Papp, Scheinkman, & Malpas, ; Walsh, ).…”

“…LGBTQ issues have also frequently been included as one thread of examining diversity in families, as an important focus of some of our most prominent mainstream models, and in broader considerations of couple and family therapy (Falicov, 1995;Imber-Black, 2014;Papp, Scheinkman, & Malpas, 2013;Walsh, 2003).…”