An Introduction to Family Sculpting
Michael R. Perkins, MSW, LCSW
Columbia College
Columbia, Missouri
August 1999 (Revised August, 2008)
copyright 1999: all rights reserved - no part of this article may be used or reproduced without the authors permission. If you write and ask I am very liberal about granting you permission to make copies for classroom use.
Table of Contents
NOTE: This article appeared in The New Social Worker in 1999.
Intended Audiences for Sculpting
Introduction
This article is based on my clinical experience over a fifteen-year period using family sculpting with diverse client populations. My introduction to family was as a graduate student at the University of Missouri, Columbia, School of Social Work. At the time I was impressed with the depth that the class demonstration was able to convey within a very short time. To this day, family sculpting never ceases to amaze me.
Before I started my teaching career the work settings where I used family sculpting were with inpatients at a private psychiatric hospital, a long-term residential care facility for adolescent females and a residential setting for young adult males (who had been sentenced to treatment as an alternative to incarceration). Those experiences included working with individuals, groups, families and mult-family therapy groups (ten or more families) over a period of fifteen years.
Family sculpting is the visual representation, as envisioned by a particular person (referred to as the identified client), of their present family situation as they experience it. Distance and other spatial factors are used to sculpt a three dimensional representation of the family as the client arranges and places members in relation to their own unique position within the family system. The arrangement and placement of others will reveal emotional themes, alliances, conflicts, distancing and alienation as well as other valuable assessment information. “The family structure can quickly and dramatically become visible” (Hartman and Laird, p. 281) through the use of family sculpting.
Definition of Family
What is a family? This question has particular significance for family sculpting. Although the answer to this question has been controversial for political, social and even religious reasons the answer for family sculpting is simplicity itself. The definition of family is left entirely up to the identified client for purposes of family sculpting. When instructions are given the clients will sometimes ask who is to be included in the sculpture. Be vague. The worker should purposively avoid a detailed definition telling the client that their family includes (and excludes) whoever they choose. In one memorable case in a residential treatment setting an eleven year old created an elaborate family sculpture with absolutely no adults. Only other children and pets were represented. In this particular case the treatment team gained valuable insight into the mechanics, and source, of this child's distrust and alienation directed toward adults in the facility which had previously been labeled negatively as "resistance" or "oppositional defiant" depending on who was giving their opinion.
Categories of Family Sculpting
There are basically three general categories of family sculpting:
1. Actual family members are used to create the representation. Usually this is done during a family session. The use of actual a family members will occur in two instances:
a. In the instance when an individual is being seen as the primary client. Family members come in to augment the work with the individual member.
b. In the instance where the primary client is the family or a couple.
2. Surrogates are used to represent family members. Usually this is done during a group session as members of the group are drafted to represent family members. In this situation it is common for group members to take a turn sculpting their own individual family.
3. Symbolic representations using pen and paper diagrams, or Kvebaek, sculptures. These variations are covered at the end of this article.
Family sculpting is a powerful assessment tool and an effective aide to therapy with four audiences. Those audiences are:
1. The individual who creates the sculpture.
2. The family members, or group members, who view the created work.
3. The primary worker.
4. Other authorized professionals not present, who will review the clinical record. If you are doing this exercise in a group setting it is likely you will have group members who are not on your primary caseload. In that case the primary worker will be able to access the information along with other professionals, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, who may be working with the client system.
Each person who views the sculpture is able to gain new understanding of the situation and offer his or her unique perspective. Family members who view the sculpture are able to gain insight into how the identified client views the family in a way that usually defies a verbal or written description. Group members who see another person sculpt their family are able to compare and contrast their own family situation. The worker is given an opportunity to view actual family dynamics, from the identified client’s perspective, which might not surface in traditional talk-therapy or which would take an inordinate amount of time to surface. Other professionals not present for the actual sculpting session can gain valuable insight into the client’s family dynamics and may be able to offer their own unique insight as to why the family was constructed the way it was.
Getting Started
Before a client system can create a family sculpture it has to have some basic information about what it is they will be doing. It is preferable to keep introductory remarks and instructions as brief as possible. When giving instructions it is important to let creativity and client initiative take the lead. By letting clients have creative control some surprising and deeply meaningful representations can occur. Family sculpting is the one place where you will see the physical manifestation of a "Freudian slip."
Sometimes clients will include deceased persons, pets, or technically unrelated persons. Sometimes strict gender roles are ignored (particularly in a group setting when the client literally runs out of one gender or another when they are sculpting their family). This is not a problem. In addition, it is not uncommon for a person, particularly a child or adolescents, to "forget" or omit a parent or other significant person from the family. Leave any omissions, or lapses, in place avoiding discussion about them until after the sculpture is complete. They contain a message.
Clients are often pretty creative in utilizing the immediate environment in their sculpture. For example, it is not uncommon for people to be placed outside a door (usually representing distance and/or alienation). It is also not uncommon to have someone kneel on the floor, or to stand on a chair (standing on a chair usually represents "looking over" in a benevolent sense or negatively denotes wielding undue power). Keep in mind that any family sculpture is from the client’s own unique perspective representing their interpretation of how the family exists in relation to them. Other family members may view the family as being of a much different configuration.
Groups
In groups it is not uncommon for a few individuals to initially declare their disinterest in doing a sculpture of their own. However, by the end of the group everyone wants to sculpt their family and the group inevitably runs out of time. Family sculpting is usually a very popular group activity that lends itself to adaptation to a wide variety of group settings.
Interpretation
After the family has been sculpted the identified client is then asked to interpret their work. The worker, and others, can ask questions allowing the client to explain their choices. For example, if a female surrogate is used to represent a male family member you might want the client to explain that choice. If a seemingly significant person has been omitted, such as a spouse, sibling, or parent, now is the time to examine that omission. Asking the client to explain why people were placed as they were provides immense insight. Notice that the client has had control both of the process and the interpretation (the client has acted as the expert in providing the interpretation). This brings us to the strengths perspective.
Strengths Perspective
As a social worker it is important to consider the strengths perspective when working with family sculptures. As usual, it is easier to focus on problem areas ignoring the strengths that are inherent in any person, family or system. To the discerning worker strengths should be as evident as weaknesses. When viewing and interpreting a sculpture with a client make a conscious effort to view the representation through the lens of the strengths perspective.
Clinical Considerations
Family sculpting is a flexible tool that has been used creatively by clinicians. So far we have dealt with the concept of a family as it exists according to one persons perspective. Another common variation is to have family members take turns. Instead of each participant introducing a new family each time they do a sculpture, like in a group setting, each member sculpts their variation of the family. Each member sculpts their own unique version of their experience. It is also possible to use family sculpting for treatment planning. For example, after a person has sculpted their family, as it exists in the here and now, you can ask them to reconfigure the sculpture according to how they would like it to be. That activity can be a very empowering experience.
When clients are asked to make a sculpture of how they want the family to be constructed it is not uncommon for some persons to argue that such a positive manifestation is not realistically possible. The client has become discouraged regarding the family situation. In this case it is usually obvious from the original sculpture that a serious rift in the fabric of the family has occurred in the past that is seen as beyond repair. In such a situation the client can be encouraged to proceed even if they think it might be hopeless. Often, the act of sculpting the family in the way the client would like it to exist encourages the client to see that some kind of repair may be possible. They have before them a physical manifestation of what is possible. For most of us if we can envision something we can place it in the realm of the possible. My personal experience is that when the family situation is visible it very much demystifies the situation. It is more real, represented in a visible way, and is less threatening with desired change in the realm of the possible rather than a mysterious abstraction which remains out of reach.
Most persons desire a close family with members within physical, emotional and psychological reach of one another. It is the author’s experience that when asked how they would like the family to be constituted the identified client will construct a circular shaped family. The family will literally form a circle or at least a semi-circle (a circle is nonlinear, democratic and contains protective symbolism). Children and adolescents might place themselves at the very center of the circle (as the hub) or in some other prominent place within the configuration as the center of attention. That is fairly normal. Older clients tend to be less egocentric in the way they construct their ideal.
For the clinician the family sculpture is a powerful tool for assessment and intervention. "A picture is worth a thousand words." That is certainly true here. To actually physically see the emotional structure of the family as it exists for the identified client and how the identified client perceives the ideal provides an incredible amount of valuable information. Information about how things are and the way the client wants them to be. In most cases the person doing the sculpture will themselves be profoundly impressed with the succinct statement the sculpture makes regarding issues that they themselves may not have consciously considered. When an identified client is constructing a family sculpture they are being empowered with complete creative control.
The information allows a more accurate roadmap to be constructed for intervention: it is very useful for treatment planning. The family sculpture also promotes collaboration. The identified client, and the family, is more likely to own the representation they have seen, the issues that are involved and actively participate in corrective measures.
Documentation and Diagramming
“Graphic visualization has demonstrated utility for organizing information effectively and coherently…” (Mattaini, p. 3). The depth and complexity of the information derived from family sculpting makes the experience difficult to record or document. How do you document family sculpting results? There will certainly be a lot of information that you will not want to loose. In response to this dilemma the author developed a way of diagramming family sculpting sessions which use the familiar conventions of genograms with some minor modifications. One useful modification is to indicate the direction a person is facing by attaching an outward directed arrow to the circle (indicating a female) or square (indicating a male) used to represent individuals. The arrow shows the direction a person is facing (it is quite common for the direction a family member is facing to be very significant.). You can also replicate the distance between individuals that was depicted in the original sculpture. The use of a diagram was adopted because unique information would surface and it was difficult to describe what had transpired without a graphical representation. Additional clinical notes can be written on back of the diagram and that should be more than adequate for meaningful documentation. David Kvebaek who was also looking for a way to clarify complicated information for treatment team presentations developed another method of family sculpting in Norway in 1968.
Clinical Example
During a family session Heather, the identified client, arranges her mother, father, and "the twins." Remember this view is looking down on the family constellation. Note how Heather has placed the family basically into two groups and the direction each family member is facing. The spacing and orientation Heather uses helps us to understand her vision of how this family is put together:
When you ask Heather how she would like the family to function she comes up with this new arrangement:
In my work with abused and neglected children the desire for a circle of protection, the pattern depicted in the constellation Heather would like, was nearly universal. However, when doing family sculpting with college students there seems to be less of a need for that circle of protection and for family unity. College students seem more comfortable with rifts and divides in the family. In their families the roles seem more solidified and they seem to have less of a need for major rearrangements in how the family comes together. The adjustments they would make are much more minor. The difference between the two populations is stark but understandable. On average college students were raised with less pathology and have had more time to adapt to their individual circumstances.
As mentioned earlier, in these diagrams the familiar genogram conventions were used since they are familiar to most practitioners. The diagram is a powerful addition to the family sculpture not only because it provides a record of what happened, but because it is a visual artifact that the family can view. The alternative sculpture, how Heather would like for her family to be, is literally a target for the family to aim at. It is extremely rare for family members to have serious disagreement as to the final alignment and arrangement which almost inevitably is an inward facing circle. I suspect that configuration is comforting and certainly mutually supporting.
David Kvebaek developed a method of using a grid board and small wooden figures or "dolls." The board he used looked very much like a good-sized checkerboard. The Kvebaek method of family sculpting lends itself to quantifiable analysis since the grid board allows for objective measurement of the spatial arrangement (including distance) of family members. Another advantage of his system, besides lending itself to presentations and quantification, is that it can be used with an individual client with or without the rest of the family being present.
Family sculpting is one of the many assessment and therapy tools the social worker has at their disposal. Relatively little research has been performed concerning family sculpting and much of the information available, including the information in this article, is antidotal treatment of practice knowledge.
There are many advantages to using family sculpting. The method is eclectic lending itself to nearly any theory of intervention or psychotherapy practice the practitioner may subscribe to. Families and groups inevitably enjoy the hands-on nature and insight that family sculpting offers. Disadvantages are few.
One critical disadvantage is that the family sculpture does not offer much insight into the physical environment that is crucial for an ecological, or person-in-environment, perspective of the client system. Another disadvantage is that this method traditionally requires the presence and cooperation of others. However, the Kvebaek use of a grid board and "dolls" or the pen and paper diagram does make it possible to apply a modified form of family sculpting when working with an individual.
A final caution. The worker needs to follow proper professional guidelines, protocols and ethics just as they would with any other intervention. The proper application of family sculpting requires a good deal of sophisticated clinical knowledge – particularly regarding families. In addition, the worker needs to be prepared to handle potentially inflammatory topics and issues that might become exposed in a family sculpting session. An excellent place to experiment and learn about the method is in a social work class with a knowledgeable instructor.
In conclusion, family sculpting is a unique and powerful tool. Clinicians have used it creatively and the basic technique has proven to be flexible. A good deal more work could be done with family sculpting - particularly in the area of research.
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References
Hartman, Ann and Laird, Joan, Family Centered Social Work Practice. New York, N.Y.: Free Press, 1983
Mattaini, Mark, More Than a Thousand Words: Graphics for Clinical Practice, Washington, DC: NASW Press, 1993
Other Resources
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The following tools are copyrighted. Please write or email for permission to use.
ASIS (Adolescent Screening Inventory) This is designed as an evaluation tool.
Religious Involvement Scale and Religious Involvement Semantic Differential Scale. This tool is designed to measure client religious involvement for spiritual assessment. Instructions for use to follow. Basically, the minimum score is 5 for no religious involvement or concern and the maximum score is 50 for high religious involvement. The Religious Involvement Semantic Differential Scale is a separate instrument and is much more qualitative in nature.
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