Does the genogram allow you to find distant relatives. How and why to make a family genogram

06.05.2019

Genogram Guide: How to Chart a Family Tree
Material:
Several litas A4 format. Colored stickers or cut out squares and circles.
Simple pencil, eraser.

Instructions: Collect information about your family. The questions are below.
Write down and begin to distribute according to the schemes below. First with stickers and a simple pencil. It can be colored so that each generation has its own color.

A genogram allows you and your family to see your family tree in a useful and creative way. It is a great way to phase the space of your entire family's system and, using the Model Mind as your guide, you can recognize hereditary family illnesses as well as negative emotional and relationship patterns, personality traits and family beliefs that have been passed down from generation to generation. It helps the next generation to overcome family illnesses and all family members to cope with family problems, improve relationships and maintain strong family ties.

When composing your genogram, try to be as detailed and detailed as possible. Include both negative and positive emotional patterns, all important details of medical history, etc.

Remember, too, that climbing a family tree can be enjoyable, but more often than not, it can be exhausting and sometimes scary. Inspire all your family members to contribute to the genogram. Usually, the more help you get, the better your genogram will turn out.

SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF YOUR GENOGRAM

Your genogram has seven parts, each of which will be useful in its own way. Try to fill in every part as much as possible.

1. Family tree:

Start with a diagram of your family tree. Use a square for each man and a circle for each woman. Draw your own situation, then your spouse and children, as shown in diagram 2. This will be the "core of your family" and the center or "trunk" of your family tree.

Now expand your schema to include the different branches of your family tree. Keep expanding the diagram until you depict your parents and all their children, your grandparents, and their children. Don't worry if you can't figure out all the details. Just draw circles and squares for as many family members as you can count.

Then number your circles and squares and write in each name and age as shown in figure 2. This way, you will be able to refer to each person by number or name. At the end, fill in the dates of marriages (B) and divorces (P).

2. Medical information:

Tracking histories of family illnesses and medical conditions can be very helpful if you know what to look for. Diseases such as diabetes, alcoholism, disorders of the heart, pancreas and liver are sometimes transmitted genetically. Arthritis, multiple sclerosis, stress reactions, and emotional disturbances such as obsessions, depression, hostility, and an excessive guilt or sensitivity complex are likely to be more important than broken legs (assuming you have a predominance of broken legs in your family!). The point is to keep your eye on a recurring disease, condition, or ill health on your family tree.

3. Emotional patterns:

See how each person feels for himself, for others, and for life. Some may be open-minded, receptive, cheerful, lucky, or optimistic. Others may suffer from depression, various phobias, harsh dispositions, disgust, jealousy, or negativism. You can usually identify these patterns by asking questions like, "What five words do you think best describe your grandfather?" Then compare how you see your grandfather with how others see him.

One of the family members may say: "90% of the time the grandfather was angry", another enters the conversation and adds: "Yes, and the other 10% unhappy!" Children can understand how grandfather developed his negative emotional habits, knowing that he was always angry. It can also help the present generation overcome these "inherited" patterns.

4. Dynamics of relations:

Define the categories of any relationship between your family members or relationships between family groupings with a quality that characterizes them (distant, hostile, close), and highlight special relationships in capital letters (A, B, C) so that you can describe them more complete on a separate page.

5. Family system:

You will also find it helpful to take a look at how different parts of your family system work together, or how they fail. Are there any coalitions (special groups that stick together and do not give others access) or special roles assigned to certain family members or parts of the family? Are there any violations (divorce, separation of spouses, family strife), family geeks or "problem" people? Can you understand how your family system works and is passed down from generation to generation? You may want to use colored pencils to highlight specific parts of the family diagram so that you can describe them in detail according to color.

6. Family Beliefs:

Your family members pass on their beliefs to you in every area of family life: how to raise children, how to deal with teenagers, when and whom to marry, how many children, how to make a living, what is the best job, how to measure success, how to cope crisis, loss, trauma and tragedy, how to grow old and how to face death.

Pay special attention to your family beliefs: they are probably the most similar to what you believe, knowingly or unknowingly, and dictate how to survive and how to live. If they are immature, broken, or dysfunctional, they can constrain your thinking, block your development, and keep you from reaching your potential. Exploring those beliefs is the beginning of aligning them with your HIGHEST POTENTIAL.

7. Society and your family:

Finally, take a step back and see how your family sees themselves as a part of society. How does your family as a whole present itself to society? What other systems does your family identify with? And how does society usually respond to your family?

When composing your genogram, try to answer the following questions as completely and completely as you can:

GENOGRAM QUESTIONS:

1. What serious (physical) illnesses do you have in your family?

2. What are emotional illnesses? (alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness).

3. What were the fatalities and what were the causes of death?

4. What are the divorces or separation of spouses, betrayal or secret relationships?

5. How would you best describe the personality traits of each family member?

6. How do family members express love and affection? How do you know about this?

7. How do family members argue? How do they express anger? How do you know they are angry?

8. Who was the extrovert and who was the introvert?

9. Who was the main provider and who was the main dependent?

10. What alliances, coalitions and subsystems do you have in your family? What are their rules and restrictions?

11. What are your family myths? What are their secrets?

12. How do your family members communicate with each other? (words, gestures, expressions, body language)

13. What are your overriding values? What are your family values?

14. How is masculinity and femininity manifested in your family?

15. What are your family do's and don'ts, shoulds and shouldn'ts?

16. What happens to feelings in your family: are they acknowledged, communicated, or avoided?

17. How are decisions made in your family? Who accepts them? Who is involved?

18. How do family members behave in society compared to their behavior at home?

Genogram construction method.
One of the first generation family therapists M. Bowen in 1978. developed a method for constructing a genogram, with the help of which a person can display people who make up the historical past and present of his family.

The genogram shows how people in a given family are connected to each other, and contains information such as:

Names, surnames
-profession
- dates of birth, marriages, divorces and death (if at an early age, then the cause of death)
- serious illnesses
- Country of Residence
-religion.

To draw up the most complete genogram, the therapist may recommend going on a visit to those family members of origin who are still alive and can remember the missing information about family roots.

The genogram is a technique that is extremely useful for revealing a large amount of information about individuals, couples, families and about the relationships in them, about what connections go from the past to the present and future. People need information about their origins not only in order to find their roots, to feel the connection between generations, but also to understand what exactly the previous generations have brought into their own relationships and what they themselves will pass on to their children, to realize their feelings for relatives and heirs, and finally understand yourself better.

The questions asked by a specialist to draw up a genogram can evoke new feelings in a person, form a new look at his current and past relationships, family patterns and patterns of behavior that are repeated from generation to generation.

Which family member should be included in the genogram?
brothers and sisters
mother, father, parents' first partners
relatives of uncles and aunts
previous and current partners, husbands (wives)
children (relatives, adoptive, adopted, aborted)
grandmothers, grandfathers (sometimes their brothers or sisters, if they have a particularly difficult fate)
great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers (sometimes up to 5-7 knees), if especially difficult events happened within the family)
persons integrated into the system (nannies, wet nurses, a person who had a great influence on the life of the family, for example, who left an inheritance)

Symbols used to draw up a genogram

Children are designated by seniority from left to right.

A complete genogram should include 4 to 7 generations.

Thus, the purpose of constructing and applying a genogram is to help people think in terms of their personal historical past and understand that their relationship with family members of origin requires completion. So that people can find a way out of dead ends and make relationships in their families more satisfying, so that they can get rid of the kind of family relationships that, while remaining unchanged, are painful.

Another goal is to help people perceive their present and future interpersonal relationships as something that they can continue to build consciously and thoughtfully, uniting the family of their origin with their created family.

Genogram. What is a family genogram?

A genogram is a graphical record of information about a family (classically and clinically - in three generations), its compilation and research is a method of family psychotherapy.

The family genogram is a kind of family tree, but with a slightly different system of records and different purposes. Men are represented here by squares, women by circles. These circles and squares are marked with the dates of birth and death (if the person died). The lines between the icons indicate the dates of entering into a registered or unregistered marriage, separation-gap-divorce. The nature of the relationship between certain members of the genus - close, conflicting, contradictory - can also be denoted by lines of different styles (double, broken, etc.). As, however, and the cause of the conflict - for example, if the spouses are in conflict over their child.

Why do we need a family genogram?

With the help of a genogram, you can set a goal, investigate, for example, family diseases, reveal, at least approximately, a certain tendency of members of the genus to somatic pathologies. Then on the diagram it will be necessary to give descriptions of appearance, mark allergies, serious illnesses, chronic ailments, congenital problems, especially pregnancies, causes of death. By the way, such information is vital in other situations. Noting, with a genogram, the presence of pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract in the family and correlating with family nutritional traditions, you can help yourself and the family as a whole. Let's say you find out that women of the genus traditionally suffer from cholecystitis, men die from pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. And at the same time, you know from your own experience how your family and friends love wide feasts with abundant fatty and spicy food.

I've been told for a long time about a fascinating method of knowing oneself through the history of my family. And I have been going to do this for a long time in order to dot the "I", as I thought. Read the story ...

How does the family genogram affect?

By compiling a genogram, you can find that the family curse - cholecystitis-pancreatitis - can be slightly moved away from relatives by adjusting the nutrition system not for a particular uncle who has just undergone surgery, but for the family as a whole. The genogram can be used to explore relationships within the family. Noting on the diagram the distribution of roles in the family from generation to generation (who is the head of the family, who is the earner of livelihood, who manages the budget, who is the dependent), the peculiarities of the temperaments of members of the clan, or phobias, a tendency to depression, ways of communication, mutual sympathies or antipathies, You will find interesting patterns - for example, the tendency of the youngest children in the family to fall into seasonal depression. Family traditions are a good material to study and introduce into the genogram. How to enter into marriages, how to feed and educate children, how to treat the sick, how to respect a husband and wife, how to read a grandfather ... A list of family holidays, the habit of congratulating with cards or lack thereof ... Professional preferences, skill-inability to make a career .. And the analysis of the genogram by itself will help to identify critical nodes and outline ways to improve problem situations, if any.

Genogram technique

The purpose of the genogram technique is to obtain a diagram that reflects the history of the extended family for at least three generations. The work can be carried out at any time after the start of regular family meetings and is a routine method of gathering information about the family to better understand the problem and find ways to solve it. As a rule, it is carried out in the presence of all family members who are able to listen and perceive information, including children. It is assumed that family members are interested in this information, and they are curious to learn more about their close relatives.

Using the family genogram

The genogram contains a huge amount of information presented in a schematic form in a small space, which allows you to cover the entire family history with a single glance. In the process of working on the basis of this technique, family members get the opportunity to self-identify, learn about what is really happening in their family, about their historical roots and how these roots affect the current state of family relations. Working with a genogram can help a family break down emotional breakdowns, dysfunctional triangles and alliances, and reduce anxiety. make positive changes in the family system. In addition, the genogram is a powerful diagnostic tool that can be applied from the perspective of a given professional's specific theoretical orientations.

The article is devoted to an amazing method of knowing yourself through the history of your family - the genogram.

Everyone knows what a pedigree is. And many people imagine how to create their own family tree. At least, if someone is not yet familiar with this topic in detail, then there is always an opportunity to catch up. Fascinating and talented TV shows (I would say even whole series) have been filmed to help, thematic sites have been created, and even specialized computer programs. So the compilation and study of your genealogical trees, generational murals is genealogy, an applied historical discipline about family ties.

We are now on the territory of another science - psychology, and in the light of the compilation and analysis of the genogram, it is correct to name the pioneer of family therapy, one of the founders of systemic family psychotherapy and the creator family systems theory, American psychiatrist and psychotherapist Murray Bowen, who developed the genogram technique within the framework of his theory.

Murray Bowen (1913 - 1990)

M. Bowen's theory of family systems and systemic family psychotherapy consider a person not only as an individual, but always as a part of the emotional-social system, i.e. families. This approach is based on the basic ideas of cybernetics, more precisely, the general theory of systems. And in this case, for a psychologist / psychotherapist, a person is not a client; the client is his whole family, the whole family system. In it, a specialist evaluates system parameters, for example: accepted mechanisms (stereotypes) of interaction of family members with each other; family rules; family myths; borders; stabilizers; family history. However, if in the classical systems approach, first of all, information and communication features of the functioning of the family are distinguished, then Murray Bowen's theory of family systems focuses on its emotional processes.

Well, this is already from the field of professional psychological work with family histories and genograms, so we return to Earth. And yet for the curious, I recommend reading the collection of articles by Bowen and his students presented in the only book published in Russian: "The theory of family systems by Murray Bowen", M., Kogito-Center, 2005

So the genogram:

A family history written down graphically is a genogram.

In the genogram, in contrast to the pedigree, the main thing is not the family tree, which reflects family ties, but the relationship between relatives.

Working with the genogram on your own, you can compose and analyze it, at least in the following areas:

1. Family (genealogical) tree:

Start with a diagram of your family tree. Use a square for each man and a circle for each woman. Symbols that are convenient to use to compose a genogram, see the end of the article. Depict your own situation, then your spouse and children. This will be the "core of your family" and the center or "trunk" of your family tree.

2. Medical information:

Tracking histories of family illnesses and medical conditions can be very helpful. Diseases such as diabetes, alcoholism, disorders of the heart, pancreas and liver are sometimes transmitted genetically. The point is not to lose sight of the recurring disease on your family tree.

3. Emotional patterns:

Pay attention to how each person in your family system feels for themselves, for others, and for life. Some may be open-minded, receptive, cheerful, lucky or optimistic, while others may suffer from various phobias, depression, jealousy and negativism, and have a tough, stern disposition. You can usually identify these patterns by asking questions like, "What five words do you think would best describe your grandfather?" Then compare how you see your grandfather with how others see him. One of the family members may say: "90% of the time the grandfather was angry, not talkative", another enters into a conversation and adds: "Yes, and for the remaining 10% he was an unhappy person!" This approach can help you see and overcome “inherited” patterns.

4. Dynamics of intra-family relations:

Now look at how your family members relate to each other. For example, you might ask, "What kind of relationship did Mom and Dad have?" "How did Grandma deal with Grandpa's anger?" See if the family relationship is open or closed, judgmental or exploratory, manipulative or seeking compromise. Discover how your family handled a relationship crisis, in whose hands were superiority, who made more decisions, and who made less. Define the categories of any relationship between your family members or relationships between family groupings with a quality that characterizes them (distant, hostile, intimate). All this information can be shown schematically on a genogram.

5. Family system:

You will also find it helpful to take a look at how different parts of your family system work together, or how they fail. Are there any coalitions (special groups that stick together and do not give others access) or special roles assigned to certain family members or parts of the family? Are there any violations (divorce, separation of spouses, family feud), family geeks or "problem" people? Can you understand how your family system works and is passed down from generation to generation? Maybe you want
use colored pencils to highlight specific parts of the family diagram.

6. Family beliefs, values:

Your family members share their experiences and beliefs with you. This applies to any area of family life: how to raise children, how to deal with teenagers, when and whom to marry, how many children to have, how to make a living, what is the best job, how to measure
success, how to cope with crisis, loss, trauma and tragedy, how to grow old and how to face death. Pay close attention to your family beliefs: they are probably the most similar to what you believe, knowingly or unknowingly. They dictate how to live in order to survive. If beliefs are immature, broken, or dysfunctional, they can constrain your thinking, block your development, and keep you from reaching your potential.

7.Your family and community:

Finally, take a step back and see how your family sees themselves as a part of society. How does your family as a whole present itself to society? What social attitudes does your family identify with? And how does society usually respond to your family? What disturbing historical events affected your family and relatives (war, revolution, dispossession, repression, etc.)?

When composing your genogram, try to answer the following questions as completely and completely as you can:

GENOGRAM QUESTIONS:

1. What serious (physical) illnesses do you have in your family?

2. What are emotional illnesses? (alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness)?

3. What were the fatalities and what were the causes of death?

4. What are the divorces or separation of spouses, betrayal or secret relationships?

5. How would you best describe the personality traits of each family member?

6. How do family members express love and affection? How do you know about this?

7. How do family members argue? How do they express anger? How do you know they are angry?

8. Who was the extrovert and who was the introvert?

9. Who was the main provider and who was the main dependent?

10. What alliances, coalitions and subsystems do you have in your family? What are their rules and restrictions?

11. What are your family myths? What are their secrets?

12. How do your family members communicate with each other? (words, gestures, expressions, body language)?

13. What are your overriding values? What are your family values?

14. How is masculinity and femininity manifested in your family?

15. What are your family do's and don'ts, shoulds and shouldn'ts?

16. What happens to feelings in your family: are they acknowledged, communicated, or avoided?

17. How are decisions made in your family? Who accepts them? Who is involved?

18. How do family members behave in society compared to their behavior at home?

Below are the symbols that are commonly used when drawing up a genogram. But, of course, a creative approach is always welcome: you can put on each family member, for example, archival cards, use computer programs and your own designations, highlight in color, etc.

The presented guide to compiling and analyzing a family genogram allows you to do this work yourself and without special training. But I will justly emphasize that for a psychologist, drawing up a genogram is not a goal, but one of the techniques that he uses in his work, helping to solve the problem with which the client turned. And, of course, joint work with a specialist on a genogram is always a dialogue, which is healing in itself.

For those who courageously read this article to the end and are ready to draw up their genogram, I recommend that you definitely watch the video from the cycle "Happily Ever After: Everything About Man, Woman and Family", prepared with the participation of the Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications and the Drofa publishing house. These are conversations between psychologist Olga Troitskaya and TV presenter Alexander Gordon. Part 4 is devoted to the topic of compiling a genogram. Deep, delicate and professional work, taking into account Russian specifics.

Prepared by: Ivanova Yulia

The following literature was used in the article:

"The theory of family systems by Murray Bowen", M., Kogito-Center, 2005

"Systemic family psychotherapy", A. Ya. Varga, SPEECH, St. Petersburg, 2001

Vernon Wolfe, “Cold Dynamics. Power in Action, Appendix: Genogram Guide: How to Chart a Family Tree, 1995.

A genogram is a family history map that uses special characters to describe events, relationships, and various dynamics across generations. A genogram is a very useful thing, and it is desirable for everyone to have it. It helps us to clearly see our kind - with hidden energy, potential, contradictions and the unique experience of our ancestors. After all, it was they - our ancestors - who survived two world wars, a couple of revolutions, were not lost in this whole stream of history, got married, got married, gave birth to children, and finally produced our beloved ones, who make up the genogram. And it's a sin for us not to take advantage of their experience and the hidden energy accumulated in the family. After all, the energy will remain hidden if we do not see it and touch it.

Family psychologists are especially fond of the genogram. During therapy sessions, they constantly draw these very squares and circles in their notebooks, reflecting the lives of clients and their ancestors. Why? First, it very clearly reflects the various processes in the family that can affect the lives of our clients "from the past." And secondly, drawing symbols is much faster and more convenient than writing in words. Well, and then, all this can be shown to the client right here and now. And he will see what he has never noticed before. Or he will not see ... but this is extremely rare.

So, before you start drawing a genogram, it's best to decide what you want from it. The options "I am working with a psychologist and he gave me my homework to draw a genogram" are accepted, but it is best to understand why I personally need a genogram. This will determine what the genogram will focus on. The focus can be illness and unhappy fate, or it can be success stories in the family. Or simply - filling the gap in information about one of the branches of the genus. It all depends on your tasks.

It will not hurt to draw up a work plan. This will help form an understanding of the required resources. You may need: phone calls, Skype, personal visits to relatives, search for information on special sites, such as the Russian State Military Archives or "People's Feat" and even contacting real, not online archives. Although you can just start drawing - first yourself, then your parents, then all the uncles and aunts you know, grandparents, and then how it goes.

Currently, on the Internet, you can find computer programs for drawing genograms. And you don't have to bother with high technologies - the genogram won't get any worse from this. On the contrary, everything that is done directly by hand, with the help of pencils and paper, in my opinion, is much better integrated into our personality and becomes a part of it. So, start with a rough draft - a simple sheet of A4 or A3 paper. Subsequently, if you get carried away, you may need a Whatman paper, but more on that later. None of my clients, and I myself once, failed to draw a genogram the first time. Get ready for this. You can make a layout - a matrix of the genogram. After all, all of us and our ancestors have or had dads and mothers, which means that places for them can already be foreseen on our draft.

There is no great wisdom in the symbols of the genogram. Men are depicted in a square, women in a circle. The relationship between them is lines. When describing relationships in a pair, a man is usually drawn on the left, and a woman on the right. We begin to draw from the bottom up, indicating ourselves first.

We indicate the dates of life, years of marriage and exit from it. It will be good if it is possible to collect information not only about living and living ancestors, but also about aborted pregnancies, miscarriages, stillborn children. Usually such information is important at least two or three generations up. It is not necessary longer. However, it is worth remembering that not all information is carefully stored in the family and is protected from oblivion. Many dramatic and tragic events, such as abortions and miscarriages, forced deprivation of life are often forgotten because of their severity, and often even intolerable. Therefore, some of the information cannot be obtained. Be prepared for this too. Well, and be careful and careful when communicating with your relatives. Be sure to explain to them why you are asking all this and why it is so important to you.

In different psychological schools and different countries, there are many additional designations for the genogram: different diseases and nuances of relationships have their own signs, and even had to see a designation for a significant pet. Don't be intimidated by all this variety. The most important information is names, age, years of life. They are an obligatory (as far as possible) component of the genogram. We just write the rest next to the squares and circles. Did your uncle suffer from alcoholism? We write "alc." next to his square, and that's enough. Was your grandmother a famous actress? We write "znam.aktr." next to her circle. The main thing is that you yourself can figure it out. And a specialist, if anything, will ask about what he needs.

An important part of the genogram is the designation of emotional ties and breaks between relatives. They often have a significant impact on the lives of future generations. However, everything is not complicated here either (see the figure below).

We transfer everything that turned out in the end into a clean copy. And this is where whatman paper can come in handy. I have seen genograms drawn on four (!) Whatman sheets glued to each other. By the way, in the final version, it is not forbidden to use colored pencils or felt-tip pens to indicate emotional connections, and even different branches of the genus. In general, no one limits you in a creative impulse! It is good to discuss the result of your work with a specialist - a family psychologist. But in itself, drawing a genogram is a large and important matter, contributing to the restoration of lost ties in the family, solving family problems and strengthening relationships. Once you get involved in the work, you yourself will not notice how the genogram becomes your personal project, which later you will definitely be proud of and tell your children and grandchildren about it.

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Genogram

The Genogram technique is used to analyze the course of family history, stages of family development, patterns of relationships that pass from generation to generation, and events preceding a family crisis and seeking psychological help.

A genogram is a form of family pedigree that records information about family members for at least three generations. The genogram was first introduced into therapeutic practice by Murray Bowen in 1978 (Sherman R., Fredman N., 1997).

The methodology allows, through the construction of a diagram reflecting the history of the extended family for three or more generations, to show how patterns of behavior and intra-family relationships are passed from generation to generation; how events like deaths, illnesses, major professional successes, moving to a new place of residence, etc. affect modern behavioral patterns, as well as relationships in intrafamilial dyads and triangles. The genogram allows the psychotherapist (researcher) and the family to get a holistic picture, considering all the phenomena and events of family life in an integral, vertically directed perspective.

The genogram has much in common with traditional approaches to collecting family history data, but its main distinguishing feature is the structure and mapping of family data. Compared to other forms of exploratory writing, the genogram allows for continual additions and adjustments to be made at each meeting with the family. A visual representation of the relationship of a large number of family members and key events in family history facilitates psychotherapeutic work. When constructing a genogram, almost all family information is presented graphically, which allows the researcher (therapist) to quickly grasp complex family patterns.

The genogram is a rich source of hypotheses about how current family problems may relate to family context and developmental history. For therapy recordings, the genogram provides a concise summary that allows the therapist (counselor) unfamiliar with the case to quickly absorb large amounts of information about the family and gain insight into its potential problems.

In combination with a genogram, a list of important events in family history or a Timeline technique, in which events are located along a time axis, is usually used. The technique is quite simple: a time line is drawn horizontally with a mark of years, months and even days, at the discretion of the therapist (consultant). Vertical lines are drawn, life cycle events are indicated above them. For example: "Nikolai lost his job", "Maria and Vladimir got married", "Sergei's father died" etc. This technique allows you to present difficult-to-compare information about family history in a more convenient graphical form. This technique becomes especially important when the therapist (consultant) thinks about why the family came for help right now, and not a year earlier or later. What has changed in the family? What has become different in the external relations of the family? What made the family seek help during this special time? What is the starting point of the crisis? (Chernikov A.V., 2001).

Description of the method

VIn the process of family counseling and psychotherapy, the collection of information about family history usually takes place in the context of a general family interview, and the therapist cannot ignore the problem with which the family has come. Therefore, the construction of the genogram should be part of the broader task of joining and helping the family. In interviewing, the therapist moves from the problem presented to the broader family and social context, from the current family situation to the historical chronology of family events, from easy questions to difficult, anxiety-provoking questions, from obvious facts to judgments about relationships and then to circular hypotheses about family functioning. ...

The genogram is built, as a rule, in the presence of all family members who are able to listen and perceive information, including children. It is assumed that family members are interested in information about their close relatives and grandparents.

In the process of constructing a genogram, the therapist (consultant) collects the following information (Chernikov A.V., 2001):

1. Family composition:“Who lives together in an apartment (house)? What kind of relationship are they? Did the spouses have other marriages? Do they have children? Where do the rest of the family live? "

2. Demographic data: names, gender, age of family members, length of marriage, occupation and education of family members, etc.

3. Present state of the problem:“Which family member knows about the problem? How does each of them see her and how does he react to her? Does anyone in the family have similar problems? "

4. The history of the development of the problem:“When did the problem start? Who noticed her first? Who thinks of it as a serious problem and who tends to overlook it? What attempts at solutions were made and by whom? Has the family previously consulted specialists and were there any cases of hospitalization? What new things have appeared or disappeared in family relationships, compared to what they were before the crisis? Do family members feel the problem is changing? Which direction? For better or for worse? What will happen in the family if the crisis continues? How do family members envision future relationships? "

5. Recent events and changes in the family life cycle: births, deaths, marriages, divorces, relocations, job problems, illness of family members, etc.

6. Family reactions to important events in family history:“What was the reaction of the family when a certain child was born? Who was it named after?

When and why did the family move to this city? Who was the worst affected by the death of this family member? Who suffered easier? Who organized the funeral? " Assessing past adjustments, especially family reorganizations after losses and other critical transitions, provide important clues to understanding family rules, expectations, and response patterns.

7. Parental families of each of the spouses:“Are the parents alive? If they died, when and why? If they are alive, then what are they doing? Retired or working? Are they divorced? Have they had other marriages? When did the parents meet? When they got married? Are there brothers and sisters? Elder or younger and what is the age difference? What do they do, are they married, do they have children? " The therapist may ask * the same questions about the parents of the father and mother. The aim is to collect information on at least 3-4 generations, including the generation of an identified patient. Important information is information about foster children, miscarriages, abortions, early deaths.

8. Other significant people for the family: friends, work colleagues, teachers, doctors, etc.

9. Family relationships:“Are there any family members who have interrupted relationships with each other? Is there anyone who is in serious conflict? Which family members are very close to each other? Who in the family does this or that person trust the most? All married couples have some difficulties and sometimes conflict. What types of disagreement do you have in your couple? Your parents? In the marriages of your brothers and sisters? How does each spouse get along with each child? " The therapist may ask specific circular questions. For example, he might ask your husband, "How close do you think your mother and older brother were?" and then ask what his wife thinks about it. It is sometimes helpful to ask how the people attending the meeting might be characterized by other family members: “How would a father describe you when you were thirteen, what is the same age as your son now?” Such circular questions are asked in order to discover differences in relationships with different family members. Revealing different perceptions in different family members, the therapist simultaneously introduces new information into the system, enriching it with new ideas about herself.

10. Family roles:“Which family member loves to show concern for others? And who loves to be taken care of a lot? Who in the family can be considered a strong-willed person? Who is the most authoritative? Who is the most obedient child? Who is successful? Who fails all the time? Who seems warm? Cold? Remote? Who is the most sick in the family? " It is important for the therapist to pay attention to the labels and nicknames that family members give to each other: Supermom, Iron Lady, Household Tyrant, etc. These are important clues to emotional patterns in the family system.

11. Difficult topics for the family:“Does anyone in your family have serious medical or mental problems? Problems related to physical or sexual abuse? Do they use drugs? A lot of alcohol? Ever been arrested? For what? What is their status now? " Discussion of these topics can be painful for family members, and therefore the questions should be asked especially tactfully and carefully. If the family expresses strong resistance, the therapist should back down and return to them later.

While basic genogram information can be collected in half an hour (without detailed questioning), a comprehensive collection of family history from multiple family members, both as part of therapy and research, may require several meetings. The therapist (researcher) can do such work, having previously motivated the family for it and concluding an appropriate contract with them. It is more common to first get basic information about family history and come back to it from time to time when “history material” comes up in conversation.

Other ways of working with the genogram are possible. So, for example, a psychotherapist can offer each family member, using the basic designations used to construct a genogram, graphically depict their idea of the family, that is, the genogram can be compiled by the family members themselves (Eidemiller E.G., Dobryakov I.V., Nikolskaya I. M, 2003). Often, such a genogram reflects the characteristic structural disorders of the family system.

Family genogram: basic designations

On the genogram, next to those family members to whom this applies, important information can be briefly marked, for example: names, education, occupation, serious illness of family members, current place of residence.

Genosociogram

The Genosociogram technique was developed and described by A. A. Schutzenberger. The word "Genosociogram" comes from the words "genealogy" and "sociometry". The Genosociogram technique is based on the Genogram technique and is also used to analyze family history, patterns of relationships passing from generation to generation, and events preceding a particular family crisis. Its difference lies in the focus on the megasystem level of the functioning of the family system. When working with this technique, the psychotherapist pays special attention to the situation in society at a time when certain events took place in the family. In the course of work on the gene-sociogram, such social cataclysms as war, hunger, decline in production, changes in the political system, persecution of individual peoples and nationalities, etc. are noted. The purpose of the methodology is to obtain a complete and holistic picture of the functioning of the family at all levels: individual, micro -, macro- and megasystemic.

In addition to the genealogical picture, supplemented by a list of important life events in the family, the geneosociogram, based on the sociometric concept of J. Moreno, also reflects sociometric connections, emotional relationships, mutual sympathies and antipathies of family members, which makes it possible to deeply analyze the macrosystem level of family functioning.

Each of us, whether he wants it or not, is a descendant of his Kin, a member of the family of his ancestors, an element of his own family system.

Belonging to the family system is one of the very important and significant resources of a person, which increases the success and efficiency of his life.

The feeling of love and support from your ancestors, the feeling of belonging to your Family, the feeling of the strength of your Family, gives a person a huge life resource, called "love of the family." A person, for some reason cut off from his kind, resembles a tree without roots. He often feels lonely, cannot be successful enough, self-confident and effective.

According to Bert Hellinger's approach, each person is part of a certain family-clan system.

As part of the system, a person is included in some systemic family-clan interaction, which has a significant impact on his entire life and destiny. This interaction can be structurally described by the categories and orders of general systems theory.

Within each family-clan system, certain laws operate by which it lives and develops.

One of the first generation family therapists M. Bowen in 1978 developed a method for constructing a genogram, with the help of which a person can display the people who make up the historical past and present of his family.

The goal is to help people perceive their present and future interpersonal relationships as something that they can continue to build consciously and thoughtfully, uniting the family of their origin with their created family.

Genogram technique It is used to analyze the course of family history, stages of family development, patterns of relationships that pass from generation to generation, and events preceding a family crisis and seeking psychological help.

A genogram is a form of family pedigree that records information about family members for at least three generations.

The genogram was first introduced into therapeutic practice by Murray Bowen in 1978 (Sherman R., Fredman N., 1997).

In order to draw up a genogram, it is necessary to interview all family members. You can then use the special genogram symbols to create a diagram that will document your family's history.

The genogram shows how people in a given family are connected to each other, and may contain information such as: names, surnames, dates of birth, marriages, divorces and death (if at an early age, then the cause of death), education, occupation, profession , serious illness, country of residence, religion.

A GENOGRAM is a graphic representation of all members of a person's family, which describes important events that are taking place.

Genogram analysis allows to identify recurring events in the system, dates (“anniversary syndrome”), to recognize hereditary family diseases, as well as negative emotional patterns (models) and patterns of relationships, personal characteristics and family beliefs passed from generation to generation.

The methodology allows, through the construction of a diagram reflecting the history of the extended family for three or more generations, to show how patterns of behavior and intra-family relationships are passed from generation to generation; how events like deaths, illnesses, major professional successes, moving to a new place of residence, etc. affect modern behavioral patterns, as well as relationships in intrafamilial dyads and triangles. The genogram allows the specialist and the family to get a holistic picture, considering all the phenomena and events of family life in an integral, vertically directed perspective.

Children are designated by seniority from left to right.

A complete genogram should include 3 to 7 generations.

Which family member should be included in the genogram:

● siblings and step siblings
● mother, father, parents' first partners
● relatives of uncles and aunts
● previous and current partners, husbands (wives)
● children (relatives, adoptive, adopted, aborted)
● grandmothers, grandfathers (sometimes their brothers or sisters, if they have a particularly difficult fate)
● great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers (sometimes up to 5-7 knees), if especially difficult events happened within the family)
● persons integrated into the system (nannies, wet-nurses, a person who had a great influence on the life of the family, for example, who left an inheritance)

Research your family history. First, write down everything that you personally know. When you have exhausted your own knowledge, start talking to family members. Ask questions about family relationships and significant events. Take notes, take note of everything said.

● Be careful after all, these discussions may be difficult for some family members.

● Be prepared to listen to tons of stories. Stories are the best way to remember and store information - encourage it, listen carefully, openly ask questions that motivate the person to reveal more information.

● You may also be able to find information through online searches or family books. However, you must be sure that this information is accurate. If you decide to use these methods, then you will have to double-check the information received from different sources and the way you communicate with real people.

When composing a genogram, it is necessary to answer the following questions completely and completely, as far as you can:

1. What serious (physical) illnesses does the family have?

2. What are emotional illnesses? (alcoholism, mental illness, drug addiction).

3. What were the fatalities and what were the causes of death?

4. What are the divorces or separation of spouses, betrayal or secret relationships?

5. What is the best way to describe the personal qualities of each family member?

6. How do family members express love and affection? How do you know about this?

7. How do family members argue? How do they express anger? How do you know they are angry?

8. Who was the extrovert and who was the introvert?

9. Who was the main provider and who was the main dependent?

10. What unions, coalitions and subsystems are there in the family? What are their rules and restrictions?

11. What are family myths? What are their secrets?

12. How do family members communicate with each other? (words, gestures, expressions, body language).

13. What are the overriding values? What are family values?

14. How is masculinity and femininity manifested in the family?

15. What are family “do's and don’s,” “should” and “should not”?

16. What happens to feelings in the family: are they acknowledged, communicated, or avoided?

17. How are decisions made in the family? Who accepts them? Who is involved?

18. How do family members behave in society compared to their behavior at home?

Symbols used when drawing up a genogram:

The genogram can be used to indicate a variety of family relationships as well as types of diseases.

The genogram includes symbols that indicate family relationships, such as conflict, closeness, alienation, etc. Emotional relationships have specific symbols that help maintain the semantic flow of the genogram.

Seven measurements of the genogram (by the hands of MV Smolenskaya).

The genogram has seven parts, each of which will be useful in its own way. Each part should be completed whenever possible.

1. Family tree: You need to start with the diagram of your family tree. A square is used for each man, and a circle is used for each woman. You need to depict your own situation, then - the spouse (s) and children. This is the “core of the family” and the center or “trunk” of the family tree.

You can now expand the diagram to include different branches of the family tree: it will depict parents, all of their children, grandparents, and their children. If you can't remember all the details right away, then you just need to draw circles and squares for as many family members as you can count.

Then you need to number the circles and squares and write in each name and age. Thus, it will be possible to refer to each person by number or name. At the end, enter the dates of marriages (B) and divorces (P).

2. Medical information: Tracking histories of family illnesses and medical conditions can be very helpful if you know what to look for. Diseases such as diabetes, alcoholism, disorders of the heart, pancreas and liver are sometimes transmitted genetically.

Arthritis, multiple sclerosis, stress reactions, and emotional disturbances such as obsessions, depression, hostility, and an excessive guilt or sensitivity complex are likely to be more important than broken legs (unless, of course, there is a predominance of broken legs in the family!). The point is not to lose sight of a recurring disease, condition, or ill health on your tree.

3. Emotional patterns: See how each person feels for himself, for others, and for life. Some may be open-minded, receptive, cheerful, lucky, or optimistic. Others may suffer from depression, various phobias, harsh dispositions, disgust, jealousy, or negativism. Typically, a person can identify these patterns by asking questions like this: "What five words can best describe a grandfather?" Then compare how you see your grandfather with how others see him.

One of the family members may say: “90% of the time the grandfather was angry”, another enters the conversation and adds: “Yes, and the other 10% unhappy!” Children can understand how grandfather developed his negative emotional habits, knowing that he was always angry. It can also help the present generation overcome these “inherited” patterns.

4. Dynamics of relations: Now we need to see how family members relate to each other. For example, you might ask, "What kind of relationship did Mom and Dad have?" "How did Grandma deal with Grandpa's anger?" Whether the family relationship is open or closed, judgmental or exploratory, manipulative or seeking compromise. Discover how your family handled a relationship crisis, in whose hands were superiority, who made more decisions, and who made less.

You can then categorize any relationships between family members or relationships between family groupings with a quality that characterizes them (distant, hostile, close), and highlight special relationships in capital letters (A, B, C) so that you can describe them. more fully on a separate page.

5. Family system: It will also be helpful to look at how different parts of the family system work together, or how they fail. Are there any coalitions (special groups that stick together and do not give others access) or special roles assigned to certain family members or parts of the family? Are there any violations (divorce, separation of spouses, family strife), family geeks or “problem” people? Can you understand how your family system works and is passed down from generation to generation? You might want to use colored pencils to highlight specific parts of the family scheme so that you can describe them in detail according to color.

6. Family Beliefs: Family members pass on their beliefs to us across all areas of family life: how to raise children, how to deal with teenagers, when and whom to marry, how many children, how to make a living, what is the best job, how to measure success, how to cope with crisis, loss, trauma and tragedy, how to grow old and how to face death.

Therefore, you need to pay special attention to these beliefs: they are most likely similar to what you believe in, consciously or unconsciously, and dictate to you how to survive and how to live. If they are immature, broken, or dysfunctional, they can constrain thinking, block development, and keep them from reaching their potential. Exploring those beliefs is the beginning of aligning them with your HIGHEST POTENTIAL.

7. Society and your family: At the final stage, it is necessary to take a step back and see how the family sees itself as a part of society. How does the family as a whole present itself to society? What other systems does it identify with? And how does society usually respond to the family?

Once you've drawn up the genogram, carefully trace what similarities and consistency can be identified. Perhaps there are patterns of hereditary behavior or specific psychological tendencies that are very noticeable when everything is grouped together in this way.

● Be careful in their assumptions. You should not draw conclusions about the hereditary specific diseases of your family, based only on data from the genogram. Contact a medical professional about your suspicions, let him advise you on this hereditary disease.

● Do not use the genogram as an assumption about any actions and motives of family members, and also do not try to resist them. If you find tendencies that Uncle Fedya quits every job, and cousin Maria always takes other people's guys away, do not rush to wave a genogram in front of them as evidence that they need the help of a psychoanalyst. Try to avoid the superficial attitude of family members after creating this genogram, first ask your family or personal lawyer for an opinion about it.

● If you describe in detail family history, the facts and similarities revealed by the genogram can explain why family members changed geographic area, what types of relationships are traced, and perhaps even find family members who have not been officially recognized.

● Store your genogram in a safe place. The facts and events included in the diagram may be unpleasant or undesirable for some family members.

● This can be an excellent school assignment., students will select a famous person and explore her family history and relationships. This can be facilitated by using the internet, but searches can produce inaccurate facts and narrow information, so it can be considered personal research, but not necessarily exhaustive.

● Always maintain confidentiality family members when you share your genogram with other people outside the family.

● Never use a genogram to confront a family member without the help of a lawyer or health professional.