Julie L. Thorsheim

Julie Thorsheim was licensed by the Minnesota Board of Social Work at the independent clinical level (LICSW) in 1991, and maintained this licensure until concluding this phase of her career on March 31, 2021.  She is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW) of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and has been awarded NASW’s highest clinical certification, the Diplomate in Clinical Social Work. Her employment history includes child welfare, school social work and mental health. She served as case manager, and then child and family therapist, on the Behavioral Services staff of Fairview-University Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1987 through 2001, has worked in private practice, and taught part-time in the Social Work Department at St. Olaf College. Thorsheim earned the Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana, where she was a University Fellow. As an undergraduate at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, she majored in sociology, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned the degree of Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude. Thorsheim’s contributions include many decades of social work practice, conducting clinical training seminars at mental health agencies and in graduate school programs, and making educational presentations at regional, national and international conferences. She is called on to provide consultation and training in innovative approaches in assessment and therapeutic intervention. Contributions include cross-cultural and international consultation.  In June 2012, Thorsheim and Hardeng presented on the KST at Augsburg College’s First International Social Work Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

David Kvebæk

David Kvebæk’s long and productive career spanned Christian ministry, family therapy, business consulting, public speaking, writing, and painting. His training in psychotherapy included tutelage under psychiatrists who founded the Modum Bad Nervesanitorium in Vikersund, Norway. It was in his role as Norway’s first family therapist, at this holistic mental health center that he developed the “Kvebæk Family Sculpture Test” in the late 1960’s, first for case presentations to the multi-disciplinary team, and soon in his direct work with the patients. Subsequently, his systems thinking turned to applications in larger systems: work groups, local community entities, and organizations. Through his Consulting Firm, he instructed organizational relations professionals in methods he developed to apply concrete human resources assessment and analysis skills in industrial and community settings. In this large systems consulting work, he continued to use  hardwood figures, a variation of the Kvebæk Family Sculpture assessment tools, to engage business and civic leaders in self-studies to improve collegial relationships and productivity. Large international companies such as Toyota contracted for his services. He was also a prolific writer, authoring many books, and was a regular contributor to professional journals and the popular press.  Later in life, he increasingly enjoyed painting, and poured much energy into oil and acrylic painting, and presented exhibitions of his work.  In 2010 he was awarded the King of Norway’s Gold Medal for outstanding lifetime contributions, especially to the field of family therapy.  He passed from this life in December, 2013, in Lillestrøm, Norway. He is survived by his devoted wife Reidun, three children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and many lifelong friends.

Stein Hardeng

Stein Hardeng was an assistant professor at the Institute for Social Work and Family Therapy, Diakonhjemmet University College, where he taught for more three decades.  A well-known clinical social worker, family therapist, licensed supervisor, and social work instructor, his clinical experience encompassed individual, group and family therapy. He is recognized for his work with support groups dealing with separation and divorce. He led these groups, on a volunteer basis, for over 25 years, and these groups lasting six months have served several hundreds of individuals over this time span.

Educated in Norway, he graduated from the School of Social Work in Stavanger in 1971, and examine Philosophicum from the University of Oslo in 1976. Additional work includes: advanced training in family therapy, supervision and administration.  Hardeng has also been called upon as an administrator, serving as General Secretary for the 22 Church Family Counseling agencies in Norway (2004-2009), and during this time he was granted a leave from his teaching position at the University College.  He was a Fulbright Scholar to the United States in 1978 where he worked in the Department of Social Services in Durham, North Carolina.  Hardeng contributed a social-ecological perspective in a seminar presentation at Modum Bads Nervesanatorium in 1974, in showing his first design of a three-level “systemplansje” to illustate the family sub-system, system and supra-system in families’ lives. Subsequently, he used his Systems map as a backdrop for the Kvebæk Sculpture dolls in his social work teaching to help students understand the individual and family in a larger context. Building on this work, Hardeng and social work student Liv Øyen Strind (also a graphic designer) created the Agora Nettverks’ Skulpturering, in 1995. This was published in Norwegian as Agora: Nettverks –Skulpturering, Stein Hardeng, Diakonhjemmets sosialhøgskole, Oslo, Norway, 1999.  In June 2012, Hardeng and Thorsheim presented on the KST at Augsburg College’s First International Social Work Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.