Exploring the Family Panorama of Childhood

Goal of the Technique:

This is a format used to explore and understand the social panorama of the family and the associated childhood. The social panorama describes the internal representation of people and how they imagine the social world and its systems. It is a tool for exploring and transforming people's social models.

Exploring the Family Panorama of Childhood:

1. Find a memory from early childhood (ages 2–7). Any fairly clear memory works (e.g., vacation, birthday, Christmas).
2. Fully associate yourself with this memory (VAKOG: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory, Gustatory); regress to that age.
3. Once the regression to the earlier age is complete, look around and think of all the people in your world.
4. Find your mother’s place in that memory.
5. Once you’ve found it, look for where your father is positioned.
6. Find the positions of your siblings.
7. Where are other important people—living or deceased, present or absent?
8. Draw a family constellation diagram.
9. Associate into each personification within your childhood family panorama. Find out how they feel in the family and how they are coping within it.