How to create a genogram

Content

Steps
Method 1 of 3: Decide what you want to know with the genogram
Method 2 of 3: Study family history
Method 3 of 3: Create a Genogram
Tips
Warnings
What do you need

A genogram is a family map or family history diagram that uses special symbology to describe relationships, major events, and family changes across generations. Health professionals, including mental health professionals, often use genograms to identify patterns in the mental and physical health of relatives - for example, depression, bipolar disorder, cancer, and genetic diseases. To create a genogram, you will first need to interview relatives. You can then draw a diagram of standard icons that captures your family's special story.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Decide what you want to know with the genogram

1 Think about why you need a genogram. Understanding your purpose will help you focus on the information you want about your family. It will also allow you to decide who you share this information with. Sometimes the information you receive can be upset or unexpected for someone in the family, so you will have to act according to the circumstances.
- With the help of the genogram, you can trace heredity and various problems: substance abuse, mental illness, physical abuse, as well as a wide variety of diseases.
- Genograms allow healthcare providers to trace the history of your mental and physical condition by linking it to your family history.
2 Understand what you want to find. When you know why you need a genogram (for a doctor, for homework at school, for a better understanding of family history), it will be easier for you to correctly structure your work with a genogram.
- Genograms are like family trees, but in a genogram, you look not only at the branches, but also at the leaves on each of the branches. You will find out not only who is in your family, but also how everyone is connected physically and mentally.
- The genogram shows who got married, divorced, widowed, and so on. There will also be information about how many children there are in each pair, what each child is like and what the relationship between family members is not only on one physical level.
- Think about what information you want to get from the finished genogram. Do you want to know who in your family has had depression, addiction, cancer? Perhaps you want to understand why your mother and her mother never got along? If you are looking for exactly what you need, you will build a genogram that will give you answers to your questions.
3 Decide how many generations there will be on the genogram. This will allow you to understand who you will need to communicate with in order to obtain the information you need, and whether this will be possible, given the age and geographic location of these people.
- Fortunately, email, Skype and other communication tools are always at your disposal - they will help you connect with relatives you have never met.
- Knowing how many generations you want to track can make the process easier and faster. Do you want to start with your grandparents? Perhaps you need to reach their parents? Decide how many generations you need and you will understand who you need to contact.
4 Make a list of questions to ask yourself and your family. Based on what you want to see on the genogram, formulate questions that will help you get the information you need as quickly as possible. Here are some examples of such questions:
- "Let's start with your grandmother. What was her name? Who was she married to? When did she die? What was her nationality?"
- "How many children did your mother's parents have?"
- "Did [name of relative] have problems with drug or alcohol use?"
- "Did [name of relative] have any mental or physical illness? What?"

Method 2 of 3: Study family history

1 Write down what you already know. Chances are, you already know something about your family history, especially if you are close with one or more relatives.
- Take the questions you've already put together and think about which ones you can answer yourself.
2 Talk to relatives. When your own knowledge is not enough, talk to relatives. Ask them questions about family ties and important family events. Take detailed notes.
- Listening to the stories of relatives, you will not only get answers to your questions, but also learn something that you did not know before and did not think about.
- Remember, not all family members will enjoy these conversations.
- Be prepared to listen to a large number of stories. This is one of the best ways to receive and communicate information about the family.Listen carefully, ask questions that require detailed answers that will encourage the person to tell you more.
3 Study family documents and information online. Relatives will not always remember everything you need to know, or they may not want to tell you something.
- Internet searches and family documents can help you verify what relatives have already told you or get missing information.
- Remember that you must be sure that this information is accurate if you intend to use it.
4 Analyze your own story. If you have enough personal information, it will help you trace history.
- Gather information from your medical record.
- Consider all the drugs you are taking as this information will help you understand if your family members are taking the same or similar drugs to treat a medical condition.
5 Explore the connections within the family. When composing a genogram, you need to know how everyone in your family is related to each other. Study the unions of relatives, collect information about marriages, divorces, children and other data.
- Record who is married, who is divorced, who lives unmarried.
- Has anyone been widowed? Has anyone broken up or been violently separated?
- Depending on what you want to get out of the genogram, you may have to ask difficult and sometimes unpleasant questions to relatives to help you make connections. You may need to find out if your relatives have had outside ties or short-term relationships and how many there have been. It is also important to find out if someone has been forced into a relationship.
- Be mindful of who you are talking to and choose your questions carefully, as some relatives may find them uncomfortable.
6 Explore emotional connections. Now you know how everyone is connected, so it's time to find out what kind of emotional relationship there was or is between relatives. Answering questions about emotional connections is very important if you want to identify any psychological factors in the family.
- Do members of the family union love each other? Do they get along well with each other? Perhaps one of the relatives hates each other.
- As you delve deeper into these issues, look for signs of abuse or neglect. You can even go further and separate the physical from the emotional.

Method 3 of 3: Create a Genogram

1 Select a template for the genogram. Such templates can be found on the Internet or drawn by hand. You can buy a special computer program to create a genogram.
2 Use the standard genogram icons to indicate relatives and connections (both regular and broken). The icons are visual indications of information that you have gathered during your conversations. You can draw these characters by hand or by using the draw or shape functions in Word.
- Men are indicated by a square. If you want to depict marriage, place the square on the left.
- Women are indicated by a circle. If you want to depict marriage, place the circle on the right.
- One horizontal line represents marriage, and two obliques represent divorce or separation.
- The oldest child should be placed in the lower left corner of the family and the youngest in the lower right.
- All other symbols allow you to depict family events: pregnancy, miscarriage, illness, death. There is also a diamond icon that represents pets.
3 Design the diagram based on family ties so that the oldest generation you are interested in is on top. For example, you can start a genogram with grandparents, or even with their parents. Genograms show a variety of family relationships, as well as certain patterns or diseases.
- Genograms contain symbols that represent interactions such as conflict, intimacy, alienation, and so on.Emotional connections have special icons that make the genogram understandable.
- There are also symbols for sexual and physical abuse, as well as mental and physical disorders.
4 Look for patterns. When your genogram is ready, study it and look for patterns. There are many hereditary programs or special psychological tendencies that become apparent in this pattern.
- Don't jump to conclusions. Data is useful, but it should not be used to confirm that a particular disease or mental disorder is transmitted in the family. Talk to a specialist and ask him to analyze heredity.
- Do not draw conclusions about the motives of relatives based on the genogram and do not go into conflict armed with this information. Perhaps your aunt actually quits her job every time she finds one, and your cousin likes to steal guys from other girls, but you shouldn't tell people that they need a therapist consultation based on the genogram alone. Do not judge relatives because of the received genogram. Before drawing conclusions, talk with relatives or with a psychologist.
- If you describe the history of a family, patterns will help you understand why in the past relatives moved to another place, what kind of relationship was between family members. In addition, you may find out about other relatives who have not been officially recognized by your family.

Tips

Store your genogram in a safe place. The facts and events included in the diagram may be unpleasant or undesirable for some family members.
Always keep family members private when sharing your genogram with other people outside the family.
Genograms are also compiled for certain species of animals and plants in order to identify mutations, survival skills, and more.
Generating a genogram can be a great challenge for students. Ask students to select a famous person, study their family and origins, and try to generate a genogram. It will not be very difficult to do this using the Internet, but remember that not all information is publicly available. This exercise should be fun, but not exhausting, and it shouldn't be too precise.
Genograms are also called MacGodrick-Gerson exploration and Lapidus Schematic.