Liberty University
Family Genogram Project The purpose of a student construing a genogram is to help a student gain an understanding of his/her family background. By gaining knowledge of one family it can help the student assist other understand how to help their clients. However, genograms backbone is a graphic depiction of how different family member are biologically, legally, and emotionally related to one another from one generation to the next (McGoldrick, Gerson &Petry, 2007, p.21). A genogram display “family information graphically in a way that provides a quick gestalt of complex family patterns; as such they are a rich source of hypotheses about how clinical problem evolve in the context of the family over time” (McGoldrick, Gerson & Petry, 2007, p. 2). A genogram is a pictorial diagram which can show anything from family relationships to medical history” Also., “complexity of a family’s complex, including family history, patterns, and events that may behave ongoing significance for patient care” (McGoldrick, Gerson & Petry, 2007, p. 4). Genograms allow individuals to identify patterns of behaviors and hereditary tendencies. The primary purpose of genograms is to engage the family in visually summarizing and illustrating familial relationships and patterns of behavior within a family system in support of family assessment and intervention planning. They have been known to record family problems, medical issues, psychological issues and personal relationships going back at least three generations of the family. Important factors included in a genogram is age, sex, ethnicity, religion, race, sexual orientation, migration information and class to be able to make accurate diagnoses. For example, when you go to the doctor for the first time they give you a question asking you about all the information in a genogram. My whole entire family, on both my mother and father side, are