Family Reconstruction: Inside the Process
SESSION 2: THE PATERNAL SCULPT
➤ Dates: April 1 - 2, 2027
➤ Time: 8:00 AM – 12:30 PM ET daily (with a 30-minute break)
➤ Location: Live via ZOOM
➤ Translation : Live translation in Chinese
➤ NBCC Continuing Education: 8 clock hours available
About This Session
Behind every father is a child shaped by his own family's rules, silences, and expectations. The paternal segment brings that history into view — and with it, a clearer understanding of how his world became part of yours.
This session uses both family mapping and sculpting to explore the father's family of origin. The map externalizes the system; the sculpt enacts it — making visible what is often unspoken in the paternal line.
Jean and Regina use Jean's recorded Family Reconstruction as a shared teaching text. You'll observe the paternal family map and sculpt as they unfold — then dig into the facilitation together.
This gathering is open to English and Chinese speakers. Live translation in Chinese means language is not a barrier to being fully present with the work.
What You'll Do
Through video observation, instruction, and group dialogue, you'll explore:
☑️ How to build the paternal family map — and what it surfaces about the father's system
☑️ How sculpting brings the paternal map into embodied, felt form
☑️ The unique dynamics that often emerge in the paternal line
☑️ Facilitation nuances — how to stay present, responsive, and grounded
☑️ How the father's history quietly shapes children's safety, identity, and worth
About Family Reconstruction
In the Satir Growth Model, Family Reconstruction is a structured, experiential process that helps people understand and transform the patterns they inherited from their family of origin. Family mapping and sculpting are two of its core tools — mapping creates a systemic picture of the family, while sculpting enacts it physically, making the invisible visible.
The paternal segment is the second major movement of the process — exploring the father's world before the two family lines are brought together.
Your Teachers
Jean A. McLendon, LCSW, LMFT, learned Family Reconstruction from Virginia Satir herself, working alongside her for nearly two decades before going on to teach the model internationally for over 40 years. As longtime Director of Training for the Virginia M. Satir Center, she has guided more live reconstructions than almost anyone practicing today. Jean brings a rare, direct lineage to this process — she isn't teaching a technique she learned about, she's carrying one she learned inside.
Regina Taggart, MSW, LSCW, is a distinguished licensed clinical social worker with 30 years of experience and a leading Satir trainer who has taught the Satir Growth Model extensively around the world. Renowned for her deep clinical expertise and dynamic teaching presence, Regina brings passion, precision, and profound insight to facilitating Family Reconstructions and mentoring practitioners globally.
Xu Yang, M.A., RCC, is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who has spent the past several years immersed directly in the Satir lineage — training under Jean McLendon in the Legacy Program and in ongoing supervision, while also supporting Maria Gomori's teaching of the Satir Model across China as translator and assistant since 2018. She brings a rare cross-cultural fluency to this work, having facilitated Satir-based leadership and family programs for organizations and universities in China alongside her clinical practice in Vancouver. Xu Yang co-leads with the sensitivity of someone who has carried this model between languages, cultures, and generations of practitioners.
Cost & Registration
Due to the interactive nature of this training, attendance is limited to 24 participants.
Attend Session 1: Maternal Only for $250
~or~
Attend all 3 sessions for $600 (save $150) - View full series
⚠️ This session will be recorded. By registering, you consent to being recorded for potential future educational use by the Virginia Satir Center.