The Family Sculpture: Therapeutic Applications in Systemic Therapies

Abstract

The Family Sculpture is a technique for representing the relationships between elements by their placement in the space. It’s a non-verbal, dynamic, symbolic and active process. The family sculpture expresses perceptions, feelings, emotions and narratives through images and introduces changes in family histories and interactions. The sculpture can be developed in the evaluation and during therapy. The family of the past, the present, the future, the ideal/desired family and others, such as, the sculpture of the secret/unrevealed subject, fears, desires, dreams, mourning and forces, are just some of the possible sculptures of and with the family The sculpture is developed in 5 stages: instruction, realization of the sculpture, sculptures with movement, feedback and reframing/comment. Framed according to a postmodern epistemology the sculpture highlights dominant narratives, allows the emergence of subdominant narratives and introduces changes in histories, relationships and interactions in the family, through experience and not by discourses.