When we explore three or more generations in a genogram, it helps centre clients, and they come to understand their heritage. Stolen generations, migration, separation from birth families, and family breakdowns all of these things can inform clients' presenting issues. It helps us discover any untimely losses or trauma the family have had to deal with in the past. It identifies intergenerational trauma. A genogram can track family issues through space and time. Genograms contain the history of pain as well as the trajectory of survival, resilience, and hope.”– Monica McGoldrick, The Genogram Casebook, 2016ĥ ways a genogram can help you better understand your therapy clientġ. It can help clients build empathy for their parents and grandparents and understand their circumstances in a greater sociocultural context.Ī genogram is an integral part of a comprehensive perinatal and family assessment. In a therapeutic context, genograms can help us explore relationship patterns more deeply. However, genograms are much more than just a family tree. It’s a visual representation of family members and other significant people in a person’s life. In its most basic form, a genogram is like a family tree. Ultimately, genograms are effective in therapy with clients across the lifespan. Genograms can be used in "play" assessments with children as young as three years old as a way of engaging them to talk about their families. Children (even unborn babies) must always be considered in the context of their families, communities and culture, which is why the genogram is the natural starting place for any child or adolescent assessment. It's especially useful in working with perinatal clients and families. We’d touched on them in University, I’m sure, but it was more often used as a way of mapping out a family, not as the powerful assessment and therapy tool I have since discovered they are. When I first began working in the perinatal and infant mental health sector, I hadn't heard all that much genograms.
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