Family Sculpting Board: Place Your Family and See What Could Change

Place a watercolor figure for each person, turn it to show where they look, then move everyone to how you wish it were. Watch the change.

AdultsCouplesRelationships & connectionFamily systems
15–30 minutesIn person and on videoFor clinicians
Free interactive tool
Designed by Michael Thompson, MSc
If someone is hurting you or you don’t feel safe, tell a teacher, a doctor or another grown-up you trust. Childhelp (US and Canada): call or text 1-800-422-4453. In danger, call 911 or your local emergency number. Outside the US and Canada, a grown-up can help you find a helpline in your country. Violence, threats or fear of a partner: US National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 (text START to 88788); elsewhere, your local domestic abuse service. Teens and adults in crisis: call or text 988 (US and Canada) or your local crisis line.
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Use with care

Needs clinician framing: the board shows one view, not the truth about a family.

More

Sculpting can be intense; slow down and check in. Do not use it for Hellinger-style "orders of love" interpretations.

For clinicians

Use it with a client or family in session. The board shows one person's view of the family, not facts. Sculpting can stir strong feelings, so pace it.

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How to play

  1. Add a figure for each person and give it a name.
  2. Drag to set how close people stand. Turn them to show where they look. Size shows how big they feel.
  3. Tap Wish and move people to how you'd like it to be. Try In a year too.
  4. Tap Watch the change, then ask each person: how does it feel to stand here?
  5. Tap Finish for the pictures and a summary.

About the technique

The family board, Familienbrett in German, is a wooden board with simple figures that family members arrange to show how close or distant people are and which way they face. Kurt Ludewig and colleagues developed it in Hamburg as a way to represent family relationships (Ludewig et al., 1983), and it became a standard tool in German-speaking systemic therapy. Family sculpting is its embodied cousin from experiential family therapy: family members physically place one another in a room to depict their relationships, as Peggy Papp, Olga Silverstein and Elizabeth Carter described in their work with families (Papp et al., 1973).

Both methods let a family show what it may struggle to say. Distance, alliances, someone left on the edge or a parent turned away from a child become visible in seconds, and comparing two members’ arrangements opens a conversation about different experiences of the same family. The evidence is practice-based. The family board has a German-language research tradition but little outcome research in English, and sculpting is described in clinical literature without controlled trials.

It suits families, couples and individuals mapping their family, from school-age children to adults, at assessment and when reviewing change. Present each arrangement as one person’s view, not the truth about the family. Sculpting and even a board can be intense, so slow down, check in and give everyone a turn. With family violence or abuse, let a child arrange the board privately, never in front of someone they fear, and follow your reporting duties. This is not family constellation work and implies no correct order.

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For therapists: how to run it

Goal

See how each person experiences the family, try one change on the board and talk about how it would feel for everyone.

In session

  1. In person: hand the client a tablet or turn your screen. On video: tap Play together and send the link, so the client moves the figures on their own device while you see it live.
  2. Ask them to place themselves first, then everyone else: “Where does each person stand? Which way do they look?”
  3. Switch to Sculpt to give figures a pose and a one-line voice: “Standing here, I feel…”.
  4. Tap Wish and ask what they would change. Move one figure and ask how the others would feel about it.

As homework

Not given as self-guided homework. Use it together in session.

With a group

  1. With a family on video, tap Play together and send the link to each person. Everyone can move figures; take turns.
  2. Or let each person build their own board one after another, then compare the Finish pictures side by side.
  3. Ask everyone: what surprised you about where others put you?
Mandated reporting

Exercises like this can lead to disclosures of abuse, neglect or risk. Know your reporting duties before you start, and pause if one comes up.

Good to know

If anyone in the family is feared, let each person build their own board privately. This is a systemic family board (Familienbrett, Kurt Ludewig and colleagues, Hamburg, 1980s) with Satir-style sculpting. It is not a Hellinger "family constellation". Constellations use strangers as stand-ins, claim a "knowing field" and hand out ritual sentences; German systemic therapy societies have warned against them and the research on them is limited and mixed. People often search for family constellation therapy when what they want is this: seeing the family in space. The board keeps that part and leaves the meaning to the family and their therapist. It shows how one person sees the family, not facts and not a diagnosis. With children, any activity can lead to a disclosure of abuse or neglect. Know your mandated-reporting duty before you start, and pause the activity if one comes up.

Worksheets that pair with this tool

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Active Listening: Communication Skill | A Therapist’s Guide

Three steps to practice, showing you are listening, encouraging sharing, and striving to understand.Adults and teensCommunicationRelationshipsBehavioralPsychoeducationalSystemic relational+3Free PDF 1 pageBack-to-Back Drawing Activity Worksheet

Back-to-Back Drawing Activity Worksheet

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Sources & credibility

Method
Systemic family board (Familienbrett) and family sculpting
Developed by
Kurt Ludewig and colleagues (family board); Virginia Satir, Fred and Bunny Duhl, David Kantor and Peggy Papp (sculpting)
First described
1983; 1973
Approach
Systemic and experiential family therapy
Evidence
Practice-based (limited trials)The family board is a standard tool in German-speaking systemic practice, with a handbook of research results but little English-language outcome research. Family sculpting is described in clinical literature without controlled trials.

References

  1. Ludewig, K., Pflieger, K., Wilken, U. & Jacobskötter, G. (1983). Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Darstellung von Familienbeziehungen: Das Familienbrett. Familiendynamik, 8(3), 235–251.
  2. Papp, P., Silverstein, O., & Carter, E. (1973). Family sculpting in preventive work with "well families". Family Process, 12(2), 197–212. Source

How it was made

Built by the Mentalyc team from the original method and the published sources listed here. Nothing you enter is stored.

Questions people ask

What do family constellations mean?

The term family constellations usually means a specific group method developed by Bert Hellinger, which has little research support. This board is different: it is a simple family sculpting tool for placing figures to show closeness and distance, a common technique in systemic family therapy.

What is family sculpting?

Family sculpting, developed by Virginia Satir and others, asks a client to arrange family members or figures in positions that show how they experience the family. A figure board like this one does the same on screen.

Is family constellation therapy scientifically proven?

Research on Hellinger-style family constellations is limited and mixed, so it should not replace evidence-based treatment. Using figures to show a family layout is a common, low-risk tool in many family and systemic therapies.

How do you do family sculpting in therapy?

A family member places each person, or a figure for them, to show closeness, distance and who faces whom. The therapist asks how each position feels, then invites a second sculpt of how they wish the family looked; the gap between the two guides the work.

Who developed family sculpting?

Family sculpting grew out of experiential family therapy in the 1960s and 1970s and is linked with Virginia Satir, Fred and Bunny Duhl, David Kantor and Peggy Papp. The tabletop family board is a later systemic version from German-speaking family therapy.

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Your game designer
Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson, MSc

Michael's background combines doctoral training in clinical psychology with research on motivation, learning, and emotional regulation.

More about Michael Thompson, MSc →

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Table Of Contents
  1. About the technique
  2. For therapists: how to run it
  3. Worksheets that pair with this tool
  4. Sources & credibility
  5. Questions people ask
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Made for use in therapy: a licensed mental health professional decides whether a tool suits their client and guides its use.

Children should use this with a parent, therapist or teacher, not on their own.

Educational practice aid, not a medical device. Not a substitute for therapy, diagnosis or emergency care.