Kinetic House Tree Person

Kinetic House Tree Person (KHTP)
Reference:
Burns, R.C. (1987). Kinetic house-tree-person drawings: an interpretive manual. New York, NY: Brunner/ Mazel Publishers.
Brooke, S.L. (2004). Tools of the trade: a therapist’s guide to art therapy assessments. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.
Purpose:
This assessment builds upon Buck’s House Tree Person Assessment by providing a more unified approach, which gives the evaluator more information about the client. The KHTP tells a story about the person in his or her environment.
Ages: No age limit is noted.
Materials: One blank, white 8 ½ x 11 paper and a #2 lead pencil
Administration: The evaluator hands a sheet of paper and a pencil to the client, and instructs him/her to “Draw a house, tree, and person with some kind of action. Try to draw a whole person, not a cartoon or stick person.” There is no time limit for this drawing, but the evaluator should be cognizant of the amount of time used.
Inquiry:
What story does the picture tell?
What is your first impression?
Whom and what do you see?
What is happening?
How do you feel about what is happening?
Is the picture warm or cold?
What do you notice about the energy areas about the picture?
What activities are depicted in each drawing?
Interpretation:
Burns uses some of the same interpretative technique that is used in the Kinetic Family Drawing, such as the significance of attachment, distance, order, size of figures, actions, styles, and symbols. There is an added component based Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that may indicate a particular developmental stage. In the KHTP, the house represents the physical aspects of life. The tree represents the life and direction of energy. The person is the director of the energy.


Strengths:
The KHTP provides more information than the HTP alone because it visually demonstrates the interaction between the house, the tree, and the person. This assessment may take less time to complete and uses less paper.
Limitations:
Reliability and validity have not been proven for the KHTP. Interpretation may be difficult when a symbol, action, or style is not addressed within the interpretative manual.
Reflection: I have always been interested in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and would be interested in acquiring Burn’s manual so that I can better understand how the hierarchy is integrated into the KHTP. I can see myself using this assessment more than the original HTP because it probably wouldn’t take as much time and would theoretically offer more information about the client. It seems that trees and people often pop up in house drawings anyway, so this assessment capitalizes on a natural tendency.