Building a Medical Family: Family Sculpting in Graduate Medical Education

Abstract

Introduction: Family sculpting has been used as a clinical technique for decades within the psychotherapy community to uncover, process, and improve upon the implicit patterns of interaction and communication that permeate the lives of family members. However, even though this technique has been broadly applied to various couple and family populations within the clinical practice of family therapy, its application has essentially been non-existent outside of this venue.

Method: The following article describes the utilization of family sculpting as a bonding technique for a group of family medicine and clinical pharmacy residents, faculty physicians, and upper administration during a yearly organizational retreat.

Results: Not only was the technique well received by the healthcare team as a whole, as evidenced by a post retreat survey, there were also several noteworthy examples of the sculpting process highlighting and addressing relational tension within the residency cohort (i.e., second year medical resident) and within administration (i.e., chief executive officer) that ultimately lead to greater team cohesion afterwards.

Discussion: While the application of the technique in a medical/educational context can be considered a unique contribution of the article, more so are the specific augmentations made to the technique itself that increases its value as an academic and organizational development tool.