Family genogram example. Family genogram as a tool for psychological counseling

17.05.2019

A genogram is a graphic map of a family or its history, where special symbols are used for all family members, as well as for their relationships, significant dates, historical events. The gennogram helps to identify the sources of recurring problems, physical illness, depression, genetic diseases, etc. Usually, genograms are used by various specialists in the field of medicine and psychology, but you can do it yourself.

To do this, you need to ask all family members, as well as those who are somehow involved in your family. Then, using special symbols, create a gennogram (see below), as a result of which you get a real family (genealogical) tree.

Step 1. Family scheme

Take a blank sheet of A3 paper (in the future you can glue additional sheets as your tree expands).

There are several options for compiling a family tree:

1) Start with yourself by adding your spouse and children.

2) start with parents

3) Make two trees from each of the parents, and then glue them together, where you will be the center.

Choose the method that works best for you.

Traditionally, men are indicated by a square and women by a circle. After drawing yourself or your parents, start expanding the scheme by placing your grandparents, great-grandparents and great-grandmothers, as well as all their children (including aborted, stillborn, and infantile deaths) up to the 7th generation (total 126 people of direct relatives). Don't worry if you don't know much about your ancestors, just draw circles and squares for all your family members. In the place where you know the details, include name, age, dates of birth and death, and dates of marriages and divorces.

Step 2. Family physiology

Next, trace the history of diseases in the family, since most diseases are transmitted genetically, this information will be very useful to you.
Your main task is to find recurring diseases in your genus.

Step 3. Family psychology

Pay attention to the feelings that each person in your family had for themselves and for others. You will notice that some family members are open, friendly, cheerful, optimistic, while others, on the contrary, are depressed, boring and dull people, suffering from fears and phobias, and having a difficult character.
You can determine these features by asking something like this question: "What 5 words most characterize my / my ...?" Then compare the answers you received with the way you see your ancestor. This will help you see some of your hereditary traits.

Step 4. Family relationships

Now look at how your family members treated each other. Find out what kind of relationship dad and mom had, grandfather and grandmother, great-grandfather and great-grandmother. What kind of relationship was in each pair, open or closed, trusting or judgmental, manipulative or communicative? How did each family deal with the crisis in the relationship, who dominated the couple? Sketch all this information on the genogram.

Step 5. Family system

It's also important to look at how the different parts of your system interact with each other. Are there any special family groupings? What family violations exist (divorce, betrayal, family enmity, etc.)? Are there any “problem” people in the family? It is important to understand how your family system works and interacts from generation to generation.
You can use colored pencils for specific parts of your family system.

6 step. Family values

Determine what experiences of family values and beliefs have been passed on to you. This applies to any area of life - raising children, communicating with adolescents, getting married, the number of children, vocation and destiny, the ability to cope with crises and losses, old age and meeting death. Pay attention to what you believe, knowingly or unknowingly. If beliefs are false, they can block your thinking, personal development, and your potential.

7 step. Family interaction

Finally, look at what your family looks like in relation to society. How does your family interact with society? How does society respond to your family? What difficult historical events befell your family and relatives (war, revolution, dispossession, repression, etc.)

Below are the symbols that are commonly used when composing a genogram. But you can always show your creativity: create archival cards for each family member, or use special computer programs, come up with your own designations, highlight in color, etc.

This guide will help you create a genogram without any specific skill or training. But if you want the process of drawing up a gennogram to become a healing one for you, then it is best to contact a specialist, or go through a special training "The Power of the Family", and participate in it online without leaving your home.

PS: After your genogram is ready, you can do a special practice by putting your finger on each circle or square, and saying something like this: “My dear grandfather, I am very grateful and grateful to you for the life that you gave me, your destiny was very difficult, but I agree with it. " It is very important to speak without thinking, but feeling with your heart, saying everything that lies in your soul. You can also practice bowing for each member of your family as a token of gratitude and agreement.

“The concepts of family relationships, functional-role structure of the family, psychological health of the family, parental positions, family diagnostics, family psychotherapy have become firmly established in the everyday language of psychology. The family appears in different "faces" depending on the scale of consideration. On the one hand, we can distinguish the image of a concrete, really existing family, consisting of different, "living" people with their illusions, hopes, character traits. On the other hand, the family is viewed both as a small social group and as a structural unit of modern society ”.

Considering the family in terms of psychology, one can see that representatives of different approaches, directions and schools have different approaches to the issue of studying the family, including working with the family.

For clarity, let's briefly outline the concepts of two approaches:
psychoanalysis and systemic family therapy.

Let's start from the point of view psychoanalytic approach.

In psychoanalysis, the family is usually considered from the point of view of its nuclear organization, which includes mother, father and children. The main object of understanding is the relationship between the child and the parents, analyzed from the point of view of the preoedipal stages of development and the Oedipus complex, as well as the manifestations of ambivalent feelings and experiences that arise in the child during his communication with sisters and brothers.
Z. Freud (1856-1939) paid considerable attention to the disclosure of the essence of the Oedipus complex, the consequences of the manifestation of tender and hostile feelings of the child in the family in relation to his parents, the family romance of neurotics, the formation of the super-ego.

In systemic family therapy the specialist's actions are focused on working with the whole family.

It is important to understand from the very beginning that with this approach a person is not an object of influence and a client. The client is the whole family, the entire family system, it is she who is the object of psychotherapeutic influence.

Classical systemic psychotherapy is focused on the information and communication functioning of social groups, families in the first place. The elements of the system are connected to each other through interaction of all kinds, and any interaction carries information to the system both about individual elements and about the entire system as a whole.

Differences in views and methods of psychological work with the family imply the use of tools that are characteristic of a particular approach, but an integrative style of work is possible. Psychoanalysts, systemic family therapists, gestalt therapists and representatives of other approaches can adhere to their own practice tools, both related to the approach they cultivate, and borrowed from other schools, directions and approaches. A tool that can be used in working with a family by representatives of various psychological approaches is the genogram.

"Genograms show family information graphically."

The technique 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 current behavioral patterns. The genogram makes it possible to get a holistic picture of family life, considering all the phenomena and events of family life in an integral, vertically directed perspective.

It should be added that focusing is typical when working with a genogram. That is, what kind of possibilities of the genogram to use in working with a client and what to focus on in the work - remains at the discretion of the specialist. For some specialists, the genogram can remain at the level of a compact image of people in the form of symbols, and for other specialists it can become an actively working tool in psychological practice. Next, we will offer two options for using the genogram when working with a family.

one). First option, information-gathering, is the most common and most often used in a systematic approach, when it is necessary to write down information about the family and, after asking certain questions, build a hypothesis. In our case, the genogram is proposed to be used in any approach; accordingly, what questions to ask in order to build hypotheses remains at the discretion of specialists.

The genogram consists of symbols, consider basic notation:

Designation of emotional relationships between family members

Structural features of the "Genogram" method

Additional characteristics of the family (by children)

Any significant information about family members (the family as a whole) is sketched and / or recorded on the genogram in a place chosen by the specialist himself in accordance with specific circumstances. That is, the specialist independently decides where to enter information about health, symptom, work, education, social status, titles, achievements, etc.

The described version of the work, focused on collecting information about the family with the further construction of hypotheses, is the most common in the work of specialists interacting with families. To implement the genogram in practice in the presented version, the specialist needs to master the basic symbols, designations, structural features of the genogram and integrate this knowledge with the main approach that the specialist adheres to in his own work.

Integration of the genogram with the approach used in practice will allow you to pose the necessary questions, carry out high-tech interviews to collect information and build hypotheses for working with a case.

2). The second use of the family genogram can be used to diagnostics, where through the communication of a specialist and a client, information about the family system is expanded.

The proposed option facilitates family therapy, when the client visits a psychologist alone. According to M. Bowen's theory of family systems:

family psychotherapy is family therapy, not because several people are present at the therapy session, but because that the therapist is formulating the problem in a certain way .

Let's consider this option of work in stages:

Step 1.
The specialist invites the client to create a “family tree” himself. It is recommended that the client name the upcoming work ("family tree", "family map", "pedigree") and minimize the use of professional terms ("genogram", "genosociogram", "focused genogram").
Step 2.
The specialist instructs that you will need to draw your family and family ties in the form of symbols.
Step 3.
The specialist introduces the client to the main symbols. The offered symbolism is enough to start the work on drawing up the “family tree” (genogram).

Step 4.
Drawing up a genogram. When a client begins to draw up a genogram, the task of a specialist is to monitor the process and support, since the client can ask questions along the way.
(For example: Is it possible to portray the father if the parents are divorced?
Should I portray my grandfather if he died?).

The client's approach to genogramming and some sketches allow building hypotheses for further work. Let's look at examples of genograms that include two generations.

1. The larger the symbol (figure) representing a family member, the more significant this family member is for the client. Conversely, the smaller the symbol for a family member, the less significant it is for the client (Fig. 1).

2. If any of the family members did not get on the genogram, this may indicate a conflict, negatively colored relationship or lack of contact with these family members (Fig. 2).

3. The vertical arrangement of family members on the same horizontal line emphasizes hierarchical features. The dominant family member can be drawn above the others (Fig. 3).

The size of the symbols, the exclusion of someone from the family, vertical features are just some of the parameters that can give information about the client's attitude to family processes and the vision of the family system. Today, specialists are actively integrating the family genogram into their work, using it as a projective technique that allows for diagnostics.

The first option for using the family genogram, focused on collecting information, when a specialist collects the information necessary for work,
and the second option, when the family genogram is used as a projective technique - both serve as a practical tool in psychological counseling, since both options contribute to the organization of the communication process between the client and the specialist.

List of used literature:

Varga, A. Ya. Systemic family psychotherapy. Short lecture course / A. Ya. Varga, TS Drabkina. - SPb .: Rech, 2001 .-- 144 p.
Varga, A. Ya. Introduction to systemic family psychotherapy. (2nd ed. Stereotyped) / A. Ya. Varga. - M .: Kogito-Center, 2012 .-- 182 p.
Leibin, V.M. A short psychoanalytic dictionary-reference / V.M. Leibin. - M .: Kogito-Center, 2015 .-- 192 p.
Olifirovich, N. I. Therapy of family systems / N. I. Olifirovich, T. F. Velenta, T. A. Zinkevich-Kuzemkina. - SPb .: Rech, 2012 .-- 570 p.
Murray Bowen's Theory of Family Systems: Basic Concepts, Methods and Clinical Practice / ed. K. Baker, A. Ya. Vargi. - M .: Kogito-Center, 2012 .-- 496 p.
Chernikov, A.V. Systemic family therapy: an integrative diagnostic model / A.V. Chernikov. - M .: Independent firm "Class", 2012. - 208 p.
Schneider, L.B. Family: looking ahead / L.B.Shneider. - SPb .: Peter, 2013 .-- 368 p.

“The concepts of family relationships, functional-role structure of the family, psychological health of the family, parental positions, family diagnostics, family psychotherapy have become firmly established in the everyday language of psychology. The family appears in different "faces" depending on the scale of consideration. On the one hand, we can distinguish the image of a concrete, really existing family, consisting of different, "living" people with their illusions, hopes, character traits. On the other hand, the family is viewed both as a small social group and as a structural unit of modern society ”.

For clarity, let's briefly outline the concepts of two approaches:
psychoanalysis and systemic family therapy.

Let's start from the point of view psychoanalytic approach.

In psychoanalysis, the family is usually considered from the point of view of its nuclear organization, which includes mother, father and children. The main object of understanding is the relationship between the child and the parents, analyzed from the point of view of the preoedipal stages of development and the Oedipus complex, as well as the manifestations of ambivalent feelings and experiences that arise in the child during his communication with sisters and brothers.
Z. Freud (1856-1939) paid considerable attention to the disclosure of the essence of the Oedipus complex, the consequences of the manifestation of tender and hostile feelings of the child in the family in relation to his parents, the family romance of neurotics, the formation of the super-ego.

In systemic family therapy the specialist's actions are focused on working with the whole family.

It is important to understand from the very beginning that with this approach a person is not an object of influence and a client. The client is the whole family, the entire family system, it is she who is the object of psychotherapeutic influence.

Classical systemic psychotherapy is focused on the information and communication functioning of social groups, families in the first place. The elements of the system are connected to each other through interaction of all kinds, and any interaction carries information to the system both about individual elements and about the entire system as a whole.

"Genograms show family information graphically."

The technique 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 current behavioral patterns. The genogram makes it possible to get a holistic picture of family life, considering all the phenomena and events of family life in an integral, vertically directed perspective.

The genogram consists of symbols, consider basic notation:

Designation of emotional relationships between family members

Structural features of the "Genogram" method

Additional characteristics of the family (by children)

Any significant information about family members (the family as a whole) is sketched and / or recorded on the genogram in a place chosen by the specialist himself in accordance with specific circumstances. That is, the specialist independently decides where to enter information about health, symptom, work, education, social status, titles, achievements, etc.

2). The second use of the family genogram can be used to diagnostics, where through the communication of a specialist and a client, information about the family system is expanded.

The proposed option facilitates family therapy, when the client visits a psychologist alone. According to M. Bowen's theory of family systems:

family psychotherapy is family therapy, not because several people are present at the therapy session, but because that the therapist is formulating the problem in a certain way .

Let's consider this option of work in stages:

Step 1.
The specialist invites the client to create a “family tree” himself. It is recommended that the client name the upcoming work ("family tree", "family map", "pedigree") and minimize the use of professional terms ("genogram", "genosociogram", "focused genogram").
Step 2.
The specialist instructs that you will need to draw your family and family ties in the form of symbols.
Step 3.
The specialist introduces the client to the main symbols. The offered symbolism is enough to start the work on drawing up the “family tree” (genogram).

Step 4.
Drawing up a genogram. When a client begins to draw up a genogram, the task of a specialist is to monitor the process and support, since the client can ask questions along the way.
(For example: Is it possible to portray the father if the parents are divorced?
Should I portray my grandfather if he died?).

The client's approach to genogramming and some sketches allow building hypotheses for further work. Let's look at examples of genograms that include two generations.

2. If any of the family members did not get on the genogram, this may indicate a conflict, negatively colored relationship or lack of contact with these family members (Fig. 2).

3. The vertical arrangement of family members on the same horizontal line emphasizes hierarchical features. The dominant family member can be drawn above the others (Fig. 3).

List of used literature:

Varga, A. Ya. Systemic family psychotherapy. Short lecture course / A. Ya. Varga, TS Drabkina. - SPb .: Rech, 2001 .-- 144 p.
Varga, A. Ya. Introduction to systemic family psychotherapy. (2nd ed. Stereotyped) / A. Ya. Varga. - M .: Kogito-Center, 2012 .-- 182 p.
Leibin, V.M. A short psychoanalytic dictionary-reference / V.M. Leibin. - M .: Kogito-Center, 2015 .-- 192 p.
Olifirovich, N. I. Therapy of family systems / N. I. Olifirovich, T. F. Velenta, T. A. Zinkevich-Kuzemkina. - SPb .: Rech, 2012 .-- 570 p.
Murray Bowen's Theory of Family Systems: Basic Concepts, Methods and Clinical Practice / ed. K. Baker, A. Ya. Vargi. - M .: Kogito-Center, 2012 .-- 496 p.
Chernikov, A.V. Systemic family therapy: an integrative diagnostic model / A.V. Chernikov. - M .: Independent firm "Class", 2012. - 208 p.
Schneider, L.B. Family: looking ahead / L.B.Shneider. - SPb .: Peter, 2013 .-- 368 p.

It happens that no logic explains why what is happening. This happens if a person continues to live according to scenarios and programs laid down by his predecessors, ancestors. To figure out which program of the past affects the present day, you need to build a genogram. And today an article is about How to make a genogram.

A woman condemns herself to suffering.
Luck bypasses.
Effort and labor do not generate income in any way.
Throughout life, he is haunted by a feeling of innuendo, uncertainty.
With excellent health, it is impossible to conceive children.

A genogram is a map of relationships between several generations of a family. Family tree, or pedigree, supplemented by facts. The genogram contains data on life and death, health, important events and shocks, oaths and crimes. All events, thoughts and ideas that influence the way of thinking, feelings - everything must find a place in the genogram.

How to create a genogram

Facts include knowledge that is precisely known and verifiable - for example, date of birth, last name, first name, patronymic, place of residence, place of work, position, etc. The facts are of the highest degree of certainty. To get the facts, you can, if possible, ask your relatives who may know something. Information about those killed and missing in the war, repressed relatives can be found in the archives. Some archives are freely available on the Internet, and, if you wish, you can try to find information about your relatives directly from your computer. (* The addresses of online archives can be found in the support service.)

2. Legends.

Many families have stories, stories, myths and legends about ancestors that are passed down from generation to generation.

3. Family values (artifacts).

Any items that are inherited from generation to generation. Items that carry to descendants the memory of the ancestor who possessed them. For example, it can be jewelry, medals, grandmother's samovar, photographs, documents, books - each family has something different.

4. Memories.

Memories include memories of any events that happened to family members. For example, it can be some kind of visual images, or a favorite melody of childhood, or a feeling of bliss, the smell of freshly cut hay, the taste of fresh milk, grandma's mushroom soup, or something else that people remember at least something and can tell.

5. Assumptions and conjectures.

The client himself can have, or make up, some idea about his ancestors. For example, if he knows that one of the ancestors was a merchant, then in history books you can read about how the merchants lived. If possible, you can visit the museum, see the life of that time and form an assumption about how this merchant - ancestor lived approximately. It should also be noted that all information about each system for the entire period of its existence can be obtained from the information field. The field always exists, regardless of us and our knowledge about it. Even if the client does not know anything about his ancestors, the field is still there, and data from it can be read, for example, using the family constellation method. All this knowledge can be useful when drawing up a genogram.

How to create a genogram

For starters, you can draw common symbols of people - circles or squares. Do this for as many family members as you deem necessary.

Medical information. The genogram can be used to investigate recurring family scenarios - for example, recurring family illnesses. The idea behind looking for repetitive scenarios is to keep an eye on a fact that has been recurring in your family over several generations. You can trace the history of family illnesses. Diseases such as alcoholism, diabetes, heart disease, pancreatic disease, liver disease, and some other diseases are sometimes genetically transmitted.

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. Emotional patterns can be identified by asking questions such as: "What five words do you think would best describe this relative?"

After that, you can compare how you see this relative of you with how other people see him. Some of the family members may say: Most of the time (70%) he was angry, angry, taciturn ", another will add that" He had bad contact with people, was in conflict and was an unhappy person. " This approach can help you see and overcome “inherited” patterns.

The dynamics of intrafamily relations. With the help of a genogram, you can trace how members of your family system relate (or relate to) each other. For example, you can ask your parents: "What kind of relationship did grandparents have, uncle and aunt, etc." Family relationships, for example, can be distant, intimate or hostile, withdrawn or open, judgmental or exploratory, manipulative or seeking compromise.

With the help of a genogram, you can see how members of your family over several generations have dealt with a crisis of relations, in whose hands there was superiority, who made decisions, whose word meant more and whose less. All this information can be shown schematically on a genogram.

Family system. You can try to figure out how your family system works, how different parts of it work together, or how they fail. You can see if there are any special groups (coalitions) that stick together and do not give access to others, or special roles assigned to certain family members? Are there any violations (divorce, separation of spouses, family feud), family geeks or "problem" people?

Family beliefs, values. Whether you like it or not, your family members pass on their experiences and beliefs to you. This happens in any area of family life: how to raise children, how to deal with teenagers, when and whom to marry, how many children should be, how to earn a living, what is the best job, how to measure success, how to cope with a crisis, loss, trauma, tragedy, how to grow old and how to meet death. Pay close attention to your family beliefs. Most likely, they are very similar to what you consciously or unconsciously believe in. They dictate how you need to live in order to survive. They can limit your thinking, block your development, and keep you from reaching your potential if they are dysfunctional, broken, or immature.

Your family and community. It will be very good if you look at how your family sees itself as a part of society. How does your family present itself to society? With what other systems does he identify himself? And how does society usually respond to your family? Drawing up a genogram begins with the person who wants to build it, i.e. if I want to compose my genogram, I will start with myself, then go to my parents, then to my grandparents, great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers, and so on. It all depends on how much information I have about my ancestors.

An example of a genogram

There are certain rules and symbols for drawing up a genogram. Usually, men are denoted by squares, and women - by circles, near which you can indicate the date of birth of a person, the date of his death (if he has already died). The lines between the icons denote relationships between people - entering into a relationship, into a registered or unregistered marriage, separation, breakup, divorce.

You can schematically indicate the nature of the relationship between certain members of the genus - close, conflict, etc. For your own genogram, you can use both standard designations and your own.

You can build a genogram on sheets of various formats, but it is much more convenient to use computer programs designed specifically for working with genograms. At any time, you can enter new information into the created genogram file, change something, correct it.

Genogram

One of the simplest, but meaningful and fairly common tools for collecting information about a family is the genogram.

Genogram [Chernikov A. V., 1998] is a form of graphic family pedigree, on which information about family members of at least three generations is recorded in a special way - with the help of special characters.

The genogram, in contrast to other forms of counseling and therapy records, which are kept by a psychologist, allows you to constantly make additions and adjustments at each meeting with the family. This can be done by both the psychologist and the client. It enables the therapist and client to keep in mind a wealth of information about family members, their relationships, and key events in family history.

The genogram is not a test and does not contain clinical scales. But it is a tool for collecting information about a problem family, i.e. performs the same function as tests. The genogram was introduced by Murray Bowen and serves to analyze family history from the perspective of systems theory. The list of standard symbols used in the genogram is presented below (Fig. 15, 16).

On the genogram, next to those to whom it belongs, other important information can also be briefly marked: names, education, occupation, serious illnesses, current place of residence, etc.

For the client, drawing the genogram of his family on a piece of paper from the first try - even if there are conventional signs in front of him - is an almost impossible task. Therefore, as a rule, a genogram is drawn up by a psychologist or psychologist with the active participation of family members (member).

In any case, a detailed interview is conducted on the material of the genogram.

Rice. 15. Basic designations of the family genogram

Adopted daughter, with the indicated date of birth (above) and the date of admission to a new family (below)

Living in one apartment (a woman, her two children from her first marriage, her mother and her second husband)

Genogram of three generations: spouses, their parents and children. The example shows that the spouses have two children: an 8-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, born in 1988 and 1991. The wife is the only child in the family, the husband has a younger brother. Children are designated by seniority from left to right

Rice. 16. Types of relationships

According to A. V. Chernikov [Chernikov A. V., 1998], an interview on the genogram usually includes the following questions:

1. Family composition ... Who lives with you? 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. Family demographic information: names, gender, age, length of marriage, occupation and education of family members, etc.

3. The current state of the problem.Which family member is aware of 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, by whom, and in these situations? Has the family previously visited specialists and have they been hospitalized? How have family relationships changed from what they were before the crisis? Do family members see the problem as changing? In which direction: for the better or for the worse? What will happen in the family if the crisis continues? How do you see the relationship in the future?

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

6. Family reactions to important events in family history.What was the family's reaction when a particular child was born? Who was it named after? When and why did the family move to this city? Who was the worst survivor of the death of a family member? Who suffered easier? Who organized the funeral?

Assessing past adaptations, especially family reorganizations following losses and other critical transitions, provides important hypotheses about family rules, expectations, and organizational patterns.

7. Parental families of each of the spouses.Are the client's parents still alive? If they died, when and from what? If they are alive, then what are they doing? Retired or working? Are they divorced? Have they had other marriages? When did they meet? When did you get married? Does the client have siblings? Seniors or juniors, and by how much? What do they do, are they married and have children?

The therapist may then ask the same questions about the mother's and father's parents. The goal is to collect information from at least three to four generations, including the generation of an identified patient. Important information is information about foster children, miscarriages, abortions, early deaths.

8. Other people who matter to the family: friends, 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 person trust most? All married couples have some difficulties and sometimes conflict. What types of disagreements are there in a client pair? At the client's parents? In the marriage of the client's siblings? How does each spouse get along with each child?

The therapist can ask special circular questions (see section 3.4). For example, he might ask the husband, "How close do you think your mother and your older brother were?" - and then inquire about his wife's impressions on this topic.

It is sometimes helpful to ask how the people attending the meeting would be characterized by other family members: "How would your father describe you when you were thirteen, what is the same age as your son now?" The purpose of these circulars is to identify differences in relationships with different family members. By discovering at the same time different perceptions among different family members, the therapist simultaneously introduces new information into the system, enriching the family with views of itself.

10. Family roles. Which family member loves to be caring for others? And who loves to be taken care of a lot? Who in the family looks like a strong-willed person? Who is the most authoritative? Which of the children is more obedient to their parents? Who is successful? Who fails all the time? Who seems warm? Cold? Distance from others? Who is the most sick in the family? Etc.

It is important for the therapist to pay attention to the labels and nicknames that family members give to each other ("supermom", "iron lady", "house tyrant", etc.). They 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 health problems? Problems with physical or sexual abuse? Do they use drugs? A lot of alcohol? Ever been arrested? For what? What is their status now? Etc.

According to A.V. Chernikov, in combination with a genogram in counseling and therapeutic work, it is most convenient to use a list of important events in family history (see below the methodology "Family stressors") or the method "Timeline", in which family events are recorded on the time axis , symbolizing the history of the family (also see below the methodology "Family Life Line").