A family genogram is a tool similar to a family tree that is used to study the ties of a person and their closest relatives. Although they can be done in many ways, they typically include information on items such as the demographics of members of at least three generations.
Family genograms are commonly used in contexts such as psychology or pedagogy. In these areas, they serve to understand a person's environment and how it affects them. In addition, they also allow detecting certain patterns that may be causing problems or that explain specific situations.
Thus, family genograms are very useful to help a professional to detect the origin of certain conflicts and behavior patterns that have their origin in a person's family. They can also be used to find the causes of emotional problems, personality traits or ways of thinking..
Although this tool is normally used above all in contexts related to mental health, making a family genogram is not very complicated if you have the appropriate tools for it..
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A good family genogram differs from other similar tools, such as a family tree, in the type of data it contains. Thus, it not only includes a scheme in which the individual's family structure is collected; Relevant data on its members and on the relationships that exist between them are also incorporated..
In this way, there are three components that make up a family genogram: the structure, the individual data, and the relationships between people. We will study each of them in depth below..
The first component of a family genogram is a schematic showing the relationships between the individual's family members, including at least three generations. Although this element is not the most important for the clinical or pedagogical study, it is essential to be able to develop the others correctly.
At a visual level, this scheme is very similar to what we might expect from a genealogical tree, although in this first element we find some differences. For example, there are a series of predefined symbols that allow you to indicate different types of links, such as the relationship between parents and children or marriage..
The second component of a genogram consists of a series of data that provides important information about the family members indicated in the first. These data may have to do both with objective data (such as the date of birth and death of individuals) and with other more subjective data..
Thus, elements such as the educational level of the people represented in the genogram, indications about their personality, important moments they have lived or data about their careers and professions would be reflected in this second element..
Finally, the third component of a genogram has to do with the links that exist between the different members of the family. However, in this case we are not talking about blood or legal relationships, but about the type of emotional, affective and psychological bond that exists between them..
Thus, all conflicts, affections, similarities at an emotional or thought level and other similar elements that may exist within a family would be reflected in this element, which would be the most useful generally when carrying out a therapy or an intervention. pedagogical.
The basic symbols of a genogram can refer to the characteristics and circumstances of each member or to their relationships..
Some of the traces that give us information on the interpersonal relationships that exist between family members are:
The genogram can represent the type of relationship that exists between two specific family members. The coding for its reading is based on drawing lines that indicate aspects about what the relationship between two people is like. The encoding would be the following:
When we speak of triangulation in the family system, we refer to the coalition between two family members against another member. This type of family pattern is usually formed by a parent and their child against another parent. In the familiogram it would be represented by uniting the three members by the geometric figure of a triangle.
The genogram includes the part of the family with which the person carrying out the genogram lives at the time of the consultation. It would be determined by a closed dashed line that includes those members who live with the person.
In the genogram according to the sex of the family member, it is differentiated by 2 geometric figures:
Inside the geometric figure a cross is drawn to indicate it visually.
Depending on whether it has been spontaneous or induced, it is represented by a black colored circle or simply a cross.
They are represented by a triangle.
Before starting, I recommend that you do it in pencil in case you want to erase something, since the first times this task is carried out, it is common to make mistakes with symbols and lines or to confuse members.
Since you are the one who performs the genogram, you must draw yourself with a double line that forms the square if you are a man or the circle if you are a woman.
If you have brothers and / or sisters, draw them in chronological order next to you and on the same horizontal line as you. The chronological order goes from left to right, from the oldest brother to the smallest brother.
If there are twins, it is represented by forming a triangle where the members are located at the vertices of the same.
If there are twins, the same figure is drawn but without joining the two members.
Draw a vertical line upward from each of your siblings' symbols without forgetting to draw yours as well. If one of those brothers was not born, his line is represented in a discontinuous way.
Now draw a continuous line between them that unites them and also connects with all their children.
If they are married, on the line write the date of marriage.
Couples that are not married are joined by a dashed line, in this case the date on which they met or began to live together is indicated.
If there is more than one marriage, they will be placed in chronological order, placing the oldest on the left and the most recent on the right..
Again do the same process with your grandparents. You can perform the genogram up to the generation you want, normally it is done until the 3rd or 4th generation.
Now add each member their data: age, name, diseases ...
The genogram can be done by hand or on a computer, since today there are computer programs that can help you do it virtually.
They are as follows:
The GenoPro program, you can download it from the following link: genopro.com/free
Another program that has good results when making genograms and that you can download is Smartdraw: smartdraw.com
In the example that you have below, the genogram is performed up to the third generation. In this case, the relational aspects such as triangulation and the characteristic lines of the relationships are not included..
Pedro, a 20-year-old boy studying psychology, has to perform a genogram. He lives at home with his parents and his siblings. His brother's name is Juan and he is 16 years old. He also has a sister named María, she is 28 years old. She is not married but lives with her partner, named Jose, 29 years old. Maria recently suffered a miscarriage.
Pedro's parents are called Rosa and Ramón, both are 40 years old. They were married in November 1988.
Pedro has 3 uncles. One from his mother, whose name is Antonio and he is 33 years old. On his father's side, he has 1 uncle and 1 aunt, Manuel, 35, and Lola, 34..
Pedro's paternal grandparents are called Cristina, who is 60 years old, and Paco, who passed away at 65 last year. They were married in November 1975
Pedro's maternal grandparents died in a car accident years ago. Their names were Juana and Pepe. When the accident happened they were 69 and 71 respectively. They were married in May 1976.
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