What are the Benefits of Family Sculpture?
- Accessible and appealing across the age spectrum.
- Rapidly engages clients in sharing their stories.
- Multi-sensory: helps clients communicate through kinesthetic, visual and verbal means.
- Grounded in family systems theory — provides insight into family structure: boundaries, cohesion, hierarchy.
- Research shows the Kvebæk Sculpture Tool has both construct and convergent validity as a measure of cohesion and distance.
- Valuable tool for making accurate assessments about family functioning rapidly and in a non-intrusive manner.
- Empowering, client-centered, process.
- Concretely involves client in setting treatment goals.
- Beautiful hardwood — natural variations in wood grain mean each figure is unique.
- Sculpting promotes self-awareness and insight.
- Process strengthens empathic connections among family members.
- In workplace and in organizational development, the KST is a useful tool to illustrate relationships, and to promote conflict resolution.
Child shows his family
Use figures to tell story
This tool will help you make accurate assessments in record time and effectively engage your clients in attaining their goals. Guided by you, following steps outlined in the manual, you will more successfully engage adults and children in the therapeutic process. You will be able to provide each family member with a new way to express ideas and feelings about self and their family — of how they feel related, or alienated — and with few words, place themselves in the picture.
KST gives you “handles” to further explore feelings and relationships.
Deepens affective and cognitive awareness.
Elicit client’s unverbalized internal image of self in relation to others. For example, see the depiction by a 6 year old of his relationship to his brother and parents:
“How it is now.” – - – - – – – – – – – – – – – – “How I’d like it to be.”
- Applications include: direct client work, supervision, consultation, and research.
- Show the family pattern using a visual and tactile tool.
- Clarify roles and relationships in client system.
- Obtain concise information about cohesion, hierarchy, and adaptability.
- Resource in cross-cultural communication.