PERFECT TIES

Family is the FIRST school of formation each of us goes

through, whether we like it or not.

The school where we learn how to behave loveget angry and how to communicate.

Our family is our social laboratory

where all our emotions are displayed.

A GENOGRAM isa format for drawing a family

treethat records information

about family members and their relationshipsover at least 3 generations.

A GENOGRAM isan instrument to know more

about the family through

The use of a diagramShowing the different feelings of the members of the familyand how they are related

What things in the FAMILY are looked into:

Action: ways of facing or avoiding experiences

Emotional: unresolved grief, experiences that

brought great pain

Beliefs: rules in the family, rituals, family secrets, etc.

What need to be discovered:

Personal issuesSystems of relationship

PERSONAL ISSUESa. “Wounds”/delicate pasts/aspect of

personhood1. weakness2. failures3. experiences that brought great pain4. unresolved issues: grief, loss, acceptance,

identity5. lack of knowledge: relationships, child-

rearing, vulnerability/openness

b. Issues that are reasons non-acceptance

or denial1. denial and wrong opinions2. unresolved conflicts –loss,

anger,resentment

c. Strengths learned1. feelings2. understanding3. ways of facing or avoiding

situations4. facing crisis situations5. ability to solve problems

Systems of relationshipsa. being near or far intimacy or distance

family togetherness or separationb. hierarchy of power dominance or subservience

traditional or acceptance of modernity

c. repeated ways of acting/relating triangulating ways of acting from negative feelings: anger, sadness, rebellion, avoidance of

responsibility, using forbidden drugs, drunkenness, gambling,

illness due to emotional reasons, lack of discipline in studies.

d. Family beliefs1. rules2. rituals and traditions3. fantasy: anito/alamat a. what are they? Why do they stay? b. What is right and what is wrong?4. issues of faith and religious beliefs5. how we live our faith in God: belief

of the role of God in our life, way of

looking at suffering, etc.

DIAGRAMS USED IN MAKINGA GENOGRAM

A GENOGRAMdisplays family information

graphically providing a quick gestalt of complex family

patterns and a rich source of hypotheses how a problem

maybe connected to the family

context

A GENOGRAM helps us see:StructuralRelational and Functional information about a family –

viewed horizontally and vertically

A GENOGRAM helps us scanthe current family context to see theconnectednes of the immediate playersin the family drama of each other,as well as the broader system,and to evaluate the family’s strengthsand vulnerabilities in relation to the over-all situation.