Reflection Paper Genograms

Genograms are useful tools in social work practice because it allows the counselor to see the client’s family and their relationships with each of those family members. Since I completed a genogram during my undergraduate career, I was already aware of my family functioning and have already learned why my family functions in this way. While completing my undergraduate genogram, I contacted different family members to ask my family’s mental health history, causes of death, and the relationships between all of the members. I found a trend in mental illness, and now have a better understanding of mental illnesses being genetic. Due to the genogram I learned that many of my family members have lived with mental illness. I also learned how my Grandpa …show more content…
Due to my new awareness of my family, I found miscommunication and selfishness to be the biggest challenge family work could present. The reason most of my family members have broken relationships is because there is miscommunication between the families, or misinterpretation. For example, my Mother and Nana’s broken relationship is due to my Nana’s misinterpretation of how often my siblings and I see our Grandma. Additionally, selfishness plays a part in my families broken relationship because some members are selfish and others are selfless. For example, my Father does not speak to my Aunt Sherri because she stole money from my Grandpa Ray while he was dying, and rewrote his will while he was going through chemo. Also, my Aunt was abusive towards my Grandpa Ray during this time and my family was unaware until it was too late. My Father was appalled by my Aunt Sherri’s actions and no longer considers her a part of the family. Although this is an extreme example, other families may have individuals with different values in their family who do not see eye to eye and it may be difficult to mend those …show more content…
Families do not always consist of two parents, aunts and uncles, or grandparents. Other families may include great aunts or family friends in their definition. Therefore, families have multiple layers, with additional people or less people involved, which can cause difficulty to a social worker attempting to uncover information. There may be different issues within in the layers that the social worker will have to, in time, expose. Additionally, families can have mental or physical illnesses that can cause difficulties in family dynamics. As a social worker, it is important to help family members better understand mental and physical disabilities, and teach them how to properly live with them. Finally, individuals may experience issues in their childhood that can affect them when they become adults. This is considered a difficult aspect because their childhood problem may have shaped them into the adult they became. Depending on the issue, it may take a long amount of time to