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In pairs, answer the following questions and turn in one
written response with both names on paper. Use
Goldenberg, Yarhouse, and Genogram books)
1. After reading Box 1.6 Case study, p. 18
(Goldenberg), create a genogram of
family and identify where presenting
problem is taking place
 2. What skills and concepts mentioned in
Ch. 1 were used to facilitate change in this
family?
 3. If this family requested biblically informed
counseling, what concepts from Ch. 1
(Yarhouse) would be useful to bring into the
session?
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The standardized genogram format is
becoming a common language for
tracking family history and relationship
 Record information about family
members and their relationships over at
least three generations. Provides a quick
gestalt of complex family patterns.
 Map family structure and update as
patterns and functioning emerge.
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Created at any moment in the family’s
history, showing the ages and
relationships of that moment to better
understand family patterns as they
evolve through time.
 Should be part of any comprehensive
clinical assessment, if only to know who
is in the family and facts about their
current situation.
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Basic demographic information
Multigenerational mapping (Bowenian)
Systemic hypothezing for strategic
interventions
Projective hypotheses about the workings
of the unconscious.
Time-line genograms
Functional families
Attachment diagrams
Spiritual/religious genograms
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Complex relational configurations –
remarried families
Engaging and tracking of complex,
culturally diverse families
Exploring specific issues such as sexuality
and sexual history of the family
Making family interventions
Teaching illiterate adults to read
Work and career genograms to facilitate
career decision
Gender relationships over the life cycle.
Haley: He said he did not believe in ghosts
 Minuchin, Watzlawick, Weakland, and Sluzki
– preferred to focus on the relationships in
the immediate family
 Michael White – saw gathering information
as problematic – it “privileges” certain
family of origin experiences over other
relationships, which may disqualify or fail to
honor these other people.
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Articulating historical patterns can reveal
aspects of the family that have been
hidden from family members – “Secrets”
 Leads family beyond the onedimensional linear perspectives that
have so often characterized
psychological explanations.
 Teaches people to think systematically –
patterns – noticing more than one
pattern at a time

See page 12, fig. 1.3, fig. 1.4
 SES
 Gender/Sexual orientation
 Culture/Ethnicity/Race
 Geopolitical structure
 Religion/Spirituality
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Guides clinicians in using genograms for
clinical assessment and intervention
 Family members are intricately
intertwined in their lives and in death
 All of society is ultimately
interconnected.
 People, problems, solutions, do not exist
in a vacuum.

“ No one goes anywhere alone,
even those who arrive
physically alone….We carry
with us the memory of many
fabrics, a self soaked in our
history and our culture.”
Those who are tied together through their
common biological, legal, cultural, and
emotional history and by their implied future
together.
 Where you fit in the family structure and
large context, can influence your
functioning, relational patterns, and the
type of family you form in the next
generation.
 Families repeat themselves.
 See fig. 1.5 Context for assessing problems
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Key words:
Nuclear family p.5
Blended family (Step family)
Family interactive patterns
Shared family rituals
Family narratives – Box 1.1
Postmodern outlook
Family resiliency
Positive psychology
Therapist resilience
Cultural diversity Box 1.5
Epistemology
Monad
Dyad/Triad
Cybernetics
Reciprocal Determinism
Constructivist perspective
Identified patient
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Table 2.2 Stages of the Family Life Cycle (6)
Table 2.3 Common transition points (Duval)
(8)
Family life cycles – multidimensional,
multicultural, multigenerational perspective
Fig. 2.1
Box 2.2 – Discuss in triads.
Binuclear family
Table 2.5 – Stages – Divorcing families
Remarried families
LGBT families