Example genogram professional#

Example genogram professional#

The person of primary focus, or index person, will be the individual who is consulting a professional for assistance or the person who is creating his or her own genogram.

While a genogram might appear at first glance to resemble a family tree, this visual aid typically contains detailed information about individuals in the family and the quality of their relationships with each other. Genograms are used in several professional fields, including psychology and medicine, to help individuals identify behavioral patterns or hereditary conditions. If you're writing up the family history, patterns established in a genogram can be very helpful as a way of explaining why ancestral family members left one geographical area for another, what sorts of relationship issues members had and may help to unearth other family members who were not officially recognized.Genograms look at the relationships between multiple generations of a single family.ДЄ genogram, alternately known as a Lapidus Schematic or McGoldrick-Gerson study, is a visual representation of the relationships, medical and psychological issues, and other data about several generations of a specific family.Be very careful to avoid approaching your family members in a judgmental way as a result of making a genogram talk to your family or personal counselor before proceeding to reach conclusions from a self-generated genogram. While you might find your aunt has a tendency to quit every job she has ever had while your cousin has always seemed to steal other people's boyfriends, it's not a good idea to use the genogram to 'prove' your point that a family member needs psychoanalysis. Avoid using the genogram to make assumptions about the motivations of family members as well, or using this to confront them.

Talk to a medical professional about any potential for hereditary problems of this type. The data is one thing, but avoid using it to confirm that your family has a particular disease, or mental issue. There may be hereditary patterns or particular psychological tendencies that are very noticeable when grouped together in this way. Once you've made the genogram, look carefully to see what patterns can be identified. Do you want to know who in your family has depression, addictions, or a history of cancer? Perhaps you want to know more about why your mother and her mother never get along, by looking for the right clues youвЂ™ll be able to make a genogram that serves your goals.

Think about what kind of information you want to learn from making your genogram.

It will also tell you how many kids each union (typically between two individuals) has, what each child is like, and what the individual relationships are between members on more than just a physical level.

For example, a genogram can tell you who is married, divorced, widowed, etc.

You'll not only learn who is in your family, but how everyone is connected through physical and emotional relationships. Only in addition to looking at the branches, you also look at the leaves on each branch. Once you know why you're making a genogram, whether itвЂ™s for a healthcare provider, school project, or just to get to know you and your family more, knowing what it is you want to learn can help you to organize how you go about populating your genogram.