Telling Family Stories: The Family Building Projective Technique

Abstract

Talking about family issues can be very difficult for mentally ill clients in an adult partial hospitalization program (PHP). This article presents the Family Building Projective Technique (FBPT), which has been demonstrated to be an effective therapeutic tool that assists clients in discussing emotionally charged family issues in an education group setting. FBPT creates a non-threatening environment for PHP clients to bring up family issues that might otherwise go unaddressed. This technique situates the issues within the context of a story of a fictional family created by the clients. This context allows for the exploration of challenging family issues in a time limited session and provides an opportunity to increase understanding of the impact each person has in a family system.