My Experience At The Genogram Assignment Essay

Journal of Family History. 41.1 (2015): 65-80. SAGE. Web. 14 May 2018.

This semester, you will have the opportunity to construct a family genogram for informational purposes. You will develop a genogram, documenting information from both sides of your family (maternal and paternal) for 4 generations starting with yourself. The genogram may be hand drawn or you may use a computer drawn one. (You can download a basic program from www.genopro.com/free or from http://www.progenygenetics.com/students/ ) Your

Additionally, incorporating the emotional and relational components into the genogram and asking for input from each family member could elicit thought-provoking discussion and insight for each individual member of the family, in addition to the

Today genograms are used in psychology and medical settings to identify the connection between families and identify how members of the family communicate with one another. There are several types of genograms that created for many reasons such as ethical, career, and sexual. This genogram helps an individual map out the connection of their contextual history with their framework. My experience of creating a genogram was an amazing feeling and it helped me discover several factors that occur in life as an adult. The interview with mom helps me to identify a lot of unknown features that can be possible genetically transmitted to my children. During my genogram creation, a few explanations of conflicts were discussed according to family member’s characteristics and beliefs. Discovery of my genogram alerts me with the many personalities that I share with my family. While reading this book I was eager to finish the book because of the interested information that was listed to help me understand my developmental structures.

This paper offers a critical reflection and analysis of my genogram. My family consists of two completely different families thrown together who coexist together without much intermingling. When viewed as one unit, I would describe my family as a loose knit, hardworking, Black middle-class, southern, Christian family. I use the term loose knit because my family is not close at all. We can go months without talking to or seeing each other and there is nothing wrong with that. There have been many times I have been in conversation with family friends and find out information about my family because we do not interact with family members often. The anchor that each of us is close to is our mother, Sandra Smith-Graves.

A genogram is a diagram that shows family members and their relationships. The information can sometimes include, ages, dates, deaths, and or geographic locations. Males are represented by squares and females are represented by circles. The horizontal lines indicate marriage; while the vertical line indicates parents and children. This paper outlines the assessment and analysis of the three generation of the Jones and Sheffield family, relationships, structures, and health struggles. The interview was conducted by myself (Katroya) and the interviewer was my mother (Sheryl).

I was looking forward to completing this assignments, as I was able to connect with family members and gain a better understanding more of how my heritage and culture has helped to shape my career development. I did not find difficulties constructing my genogram until having to document my grandparents careers. Growing up, I knew that my grandparents owned farms because I spend a considerable amount of time playing on the expanse of land. However, I began to realized that I was not sure if that had always been their occupation. I did have to call my father to get a bit more information about my grandparents and their occupations. I was not far off from what I believed to be true. However, I did realized that both of my grandmothers were homemakers until my aunts and uncles were school aged.

I’m amazed at how many Americans don’t know their own family heritage any further back than their grandparents. For many years, I was one of them. I would casually tell people, “My family never really talked much about our family tree, because we were afraid we’d find horse thieves hanging from the branches.” But, bad or good, I always wondered about my roots.

Since I have always had such a fascination with genealogy, I thought it an honorable undertaking to research our ancestry. I wish someone had done it fifty years ago so that I might have access to more information on our direct line of ancestors, other than the word of mouth passed down through the generations that I’ve had to rely on and what little I have found digging through dusty courthouse records.”

Genograms are used to graphically represent a family tree and display detailed data on relationships among the individuals included in the family tree. In essence, families are complex systems that interact with kin groups in specific ways, and a genogram helps to show a diagram of a family tree, but also maps out interactions, relationships, traits, and characteristics that may otherwise not be noticed. The purpose of a genogram is to identify and understand patterns in family history which may influence an individual’s personal behavior and traits. Family Systems Theory, presented by Dr. Murray Bowen, suggests that an individual cannot be understood in isolation from their family members. According to Dr. Bowen, the family is an emotional

Genograms are like family trees with more details. Within a Genogram you can clearly see patterns and connections amongst numerous family members. Before I made my genogram, I had to do an interview with my client, Ileyna Gil. In this interview we discussed her family line, cultural background and religious beliefs. Religion was an important piece of her family’s life. After conducting the interview, I structured her genogram utilizing three generations of Ileyna’s family. After reviewing my notes on Ileyna 's genogram, I identified her family member’s strengths, the impact of Ilena 's cultural background on her way of life.

Family genograms are essential to discover family history; it helps doctors and therapists to go deeper into an individual’s background to analyze the individual’s mental, physical and behavioral condition. In this paper, I will introduce my family’s genogram information to analyze three generations with events that impacted each generation. These generations include my grandparents, my parents and my own generation of procreation. I will examine the family structure of each generation, the family relational patterns and the critical family life events that took place. I will discuss the role that culture plays in my family genogram in regards of family development, interaction patterns and communication.

The first theme I noticed after completing my genogram was the trend in education. None of my grandparents had the opportunity to pursue education further than a standard high school degree. Still, they greatly value education and have contributed to the postsecondary educational pursuits of their children and grandchildren. My brother Tommy and I have completed the same level degree as our mother, and my brother Wesley has completed the same level degree as our father. The second theme I noticed involved a connection between familial relationship and career choice. I have always been very close with my grandmother, Lola, and I am working towards a career in the same field as she worked. The same rule holds true for my father and my brother

Completing this genogram proved to be much harder than expected. This is because my most of my family members do not work any longer and those who do work do not have formal careers; so much as they have temporary jobs. The lack of careers is due to a lack of higher education in my family history. Higher education was not much of an option for my parents and grandparents. In fact, my sister and I are the only members of my family to hold a degree higher than an Associate’s Degree on my mother’s side of the family.

Since I am the index person, this genogram focuses on the “Zupka” family. I am a fifty year old middleclass gay man who lives with his long term partner of seven years, so my contemporary family is my partner Dale and our two cats Necropolis and Pandemonium. Dale has minimal contact with his family and I have no contact with my surviving relatives. I have not met any of Dale’s family nor has he met any of my family. Dale’s family is accepting of his