Family Sculpting in Preventive Work with “Well Families”

Abstract

This paper will describe an experimental community project aimed at “well families”. The program was designed to be preventive by providing service to families before their problems escalated into crisis proportions. It emphasized an educational rather than treatment bias; this orientation forced us to expand concepts, experiment with new techniques, and re‐evaluate our ideas on how families change. Of particular importance to us was the emphasis on behavioral change rather than intellectual insight. In the course of this work, family sculpting came to be an increasingly valuable tool.

Family sculpting: II. Some practical examples

“…. space, movement, and sensory pictures become an integral part of the experience' (Papp et al, 1973). In a more recent paper Papp (1976) has gone on in similar vein to argue that: 'Choreography allows the therapist to draw the system with, time, sight, hearing, energy and movement.'…”

Marriage and Family Therapy Assessment

“…The Kvebaek Family Sculpting Technique (KFST) (Cromwell, Fournier, & Kvebaek, 1980) is a self-report instrument that integrates aspects of "family sculpting" (Duhl, Kantor, & Duhl, 1974;Papp, Silverstein, & Carter, 1973;Simon, 1972) by highlighting closeness and distance among members, triangulation within the family, and the degree of influence held by each family member. The KFST requires that figurines representing family members be placed on what resembles a chess board (i.e., a 100 square grid).…”

Three Generations in Jewish and Non-Jewish German Families after the Unification of Germany

“…xvii After the interview we asked our interviewees to build a family sculpture, to associate to it and explore it´s meanings further in a way following the one used in family therapy (Jefferson, 1978, Papp et. al., 1973, Simon, 1972.…”