People in my Life is a varied and comprehensive set of figures in two forms: as a figure set and as a digital application for tablets and computers. It was developed by Steven Balmbra to enable counsellors and therapists to introduce conversations with relationship overviews into their practice.
The People in my Life figure set comprises more than 300 double-sided card figures, two display boxes and several base patterns to assist the placement of the figures. The number and variety of figures allows for the creation of large relationship overviews that include a person's family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances.
The People in my Life digital app is well suited for creating relationship overviews with children and young people well acquainted with relating to visual media. It is featured, together with Play of Life, in the article 'Show me! Using digital figures to facilitate conversations in systemic therapy' by Steven Balmbra and Carlos A Raimundo, published in April 2021 in the Journal of Family Therapy Vol. 43 / 2

The Play of Life was developed by Dr. Carlos A Raimundo. It employs Playmobil figures and objects in a variety of methods based on the principles of JL Moreno's Psychodrama.

The Play of Life has a comprehensive website with information about ordering the kit, their training programme, the neuroscience of using figures, a reference list and a newsletter sign-up. Carlos Raimundo’s book ‘Relationship Capital’, published by Pearson Education Australia, describes using figures in work with organisations.

Family Dialogue Set was the forerunner to People in my Life, developed by Steven Balmbra in 1990 to adapt the use of figures to a narrative systemic approach. As it was influenced by the problem systems approach it contained a large number and variety of figures that allowed for the depiction of comprehensive social networks. Family Dialogue Set used Playmobil figures with an emphasis on developing dialogue and included adaptations for use with a variety of systemic approaches. It was used widely in Scandinavia but it was rather expensive to produce and production ended in 2011.

Virginia Satir pioneered the method of family sculpting formed by and with people in the therapy room. The Norwegian family therapist David Kvebæk started using figures to make family sculptures as a way of explaining family dynamics to colleagues, but quickly employed them as a therapy method. The Kvebaek Family Sculpture Technique is a set of wooden figures for forming family sculptures.

Kvebæk's work grew from an object relations perspective and the arrangements of figures were considered as projections of people's inner social reality with the potential to promote mutual insight among family members. His basic questions "How do you see things now?" "How were things before?" and "How do you see things in the future?" are fundamental to conversations about relationship overviews.

Julie Thorsheim in the USA has followed up David Kvebæk’s work. Her website Kvebaek Sculpting has comprehensive information about the approach and the Kvebaek figure set can be ordered there.

Small figures is the website set up by John Barton in New Zealand, who also uses Playmobil figures in psychotherapy, using role reversal and other principles from Moreno's psychodrama. John can supply figures and he runs an on-line training course about this way of working.

Communicube and the Communiwell are structures developed by John Casson for placing figures and objects on 5 different levels, in a method that is also based on Moreno's psychodrama.

One of the best known forms of visualising relationships is the genogram, which illustrates the relationship structure of a family. This is usually drawn on a chart, but there are specialist digital programs like GenoPro. Using figures makes a genogram 3-dimensional, brings it more to life and gives it a greater flexibilty of movement. Symbols can be added to demark various aspects of life experiences, quality of relationship, shared and contrasting experiences, interests, opinions, difficulties and so on. Genograms are a rich source of constructive dialogue.

There are several interesting articles written about using genograms in professional consultations, and the book Focused Genograms by Rita DeMaria, Gerald Weels and Larry Hof, published by Brunner-Routledge, is highly recommended

Network maps or charts have usually been drawn using symbols for women, men etc. This work was pioneered by Urie Bronfenbrenner who published a 5-sector circular chart. Each sector represents an area of social relationship - family, relatives, friends, work/school, neighbourhood, professional helpers, and distance from the centre indicates the degree of interpersonal/emotional proximity or distance. There are now a variety of forms of network maps and extensive literature about working with them. Network maps can benefit greatly from being made with figures as they become moveable and more flexible in use.

There is considerable literature available about working with social network charts and a large variety of forms of chart that have been developed for different settings. The chart can be drawn on a flip-over sheet, placed on the table and figures can be placed on it to make it 3D and flexible.

Here are some links to sites about using puppets in therapy:

http://www.speakingpuppetry.com/therapy.php

http://www.therapeuticpuppetry.com/

Signs of Life: Puppetry, Emotions, Embodiment and Empathy, is a 2-part discussion about using puppets in therapy with Mervyn Millar, Emily Cross, Matthew Longo, Susanne Quadflieg and Joel Smith, recorded at the University of London.

Redressing the balance—involving children in family therapy is the 1985 article by Alison O'Brien and Penny Loundon that led me on the way to using figures in family therapy with children. I consider it a classic and is well worth a read today.

Tools and techniques for Working with Children, Young People and Families, Volume 1 & 2 are two excellent editions of the Association for Family Therapy (AFT) magazine Context, numbers 145 and 161. They were edited by Michelle Newman Brown and Pete Brown and contain a wealth of ideas for using figures, puppets, drawings and objects in therapeutic conversations, closely related to relationship overviews.