Introduction
A family is a group of blood-related individuals: mother, father, and children. A family can also be a group of people in a place of worship or a learning institution (Joseph et al., 2022). Genograms help show family outlines, relations, and history and help community workers to understand the source of their client’s problems.
The genogram includes people related through blood and marriages: parents, children, grandparents, and aunts. The individuals in the structure are Hispanics who share the same religion because they are members of the same family. This paper will interpret Richard’s designed family genogram and his relationship with his family members.
Family Structure
Richard is a Cuban immigrant born in 1995, and his elder sister, Rachael, was born in 1992. His mother, Maribel, is 62 years old, and his father, Ricardo, is 54. Richard has been living with his pet, Stella, since 2021 (Libbon et al., 2019).
His grandparents from his father’s side are both deceased. His grandfather died earlier than his wife in 2017 at 82 years old because he was suffering from heart disease and memory problems. His grandmother died in 2020 at the age of 82 due to diabetes. His family also consists of his aunt Maria, who is his mother’s sister, and she has heart disease. Richard’s parents from his mother’s side are still alive; in this case, his grandmother is 74, and his grandfather is 70. Richard’s parents are divorced, and he has always been in a good relationship with all his family members and spends his holidays with them; therefore, he does not have foster, step, or adoption families.
Types of Communication in the Genogram
Richard openly communicates with his sister, mother, grandparents from his mother’s side, and aunt. He has not had good contact with his father since he divorced his mother (Storlie et al., 2019). His mother has not been directly communicating with her husband because each of them lives his/her own life. Richard’s grandparents from his mother’s side have not communicated well with his father because they rarely see each other. Richard enjoys strong relationships with all his family members, exemplifying a well-defined sense of harmony among them.
Reasons for Excluding Some Family Members in the Genogram
Some family members who are logical to be included in the structure have been omitted. The exclusion is because Richard only migrated from Cuba with his father, mother, sister, and aunt (Libbon et al., 2019). The rest of his family members were left in Cuba, and Richard does not know their whereabouts. After Richard’s migration, some of his family members left in the home country may have procreated without his knowledge. Therefore, Richard could find it challenging to include them in the genogram because he does not know them by name or how many.
Key Terms to Interpret Family Dynamics and Communication
Richard’s family has good association and communication among themselves. A good relationship builds trust and openness; therefore, the members will share opinions and concerns about each person’s well-being (Storlie et al., 2019). Every family member is allocated a different responsibility and should work towards achieving a specific goal to ensure the safety and satisfaction of every person in the family. The relationship between Richard and his entire family is good. Richard’s parents do not have a good relationship because they are already divorced. All family members in the genogram have a good relationship, which is why they all migrated from Cuba.
Love
Since Richard has a good relationship with his family, this indicates a strong existence of love. Love prevails over challenges like conflicts, discrimination, and mistrust among family members. In a family where one member is addicted to drugs due to depression, the others should show love by taking the individual to rehabilitation centers or counseling institutions. Love helps to strengthen the bond between members of the family and is therefore defined as a source of happiness and unity in a family. A family that does not support each other does not grow in numbers or progress.
Interpreting Family Patterns and Functioning Between and Within Generations
Family Structural Issues
Families make close relations and positions of power that can help or not help young people to change their behavior. Parents should support each other in making family decisions and disciplining children (Storlie et al., 2019). Sometimes, a child is burdened with controlling the family when the parents are in conflicting moods or after divorce. Due to the divorce of Richard’s parents, he may be forced to take all the responsibilities of the head of the family at an early age.
There is a generational relationship between Richard’s grandparents and his parents. His mother was married to Richard’s father, who was younger than her, just like his grandmother from his mother’s side, who was married to Richard’s grandfather, who was younger than her. His grandparents from his father’s side died in different years, but at the same age, eight two years, indicating a probability in the generational pattern of the age at which a person passes on. The patterns illustrate a probability of consistency in age at death and marriage in the family’s future generation.
The role of a parent in a family is to act as a mentor and counselor to her children, hence showing them the right direction to follow to be successful in life. Richard’s mother and her sister Maria are supposed to care for their aged parents (Joseph et al., 2022). Richard and his sister have a role in respecting their mother and helping with household chores.
The children are supposed to share their problems with the mother if the need arises; therefore, she should solve them if possible. Richard is supposed to take care of his pet and ensure that she is always healthy, clean, and has plenty of food. Every family member is supposed to ensure that he or she takes each role responsibly to build a strong family.
Interpreting Life Events Such as Marriages, Divorces, and Critical Life Changes
Marriage is a legal and social union that should entail respect and love from Richard’s parents, procreation, and partnership. Co-parenting should apply where Richard’s father must support his wife in providing for basic needs and raising and educating children despite divorce (Joseph et al., 2022). Divorce makes a child stressed and traumatized, and Richard may be having questions in person about why his parents are divorced.
Richard may not be raised with good morals by one parent compared to when raised by both parents. No child is supposed to be brought up by a single mother, male or female, due to separation. Trauma can lead to depression and mental illness in children due to overthinking. In this case, Richard may feel that society is not reasonably fit for him and his sister because people might describe them as children from a family of divorce.
Most family secrets include a child not being taught why parents divorce. Richard’s mother should open up and tell him and his sister why she parted with his father. This openness will make the children free to ask any questions related to this issue and stop overthinking who between the parents was the cause of the divorce (Joseph et al., 2022).
Transitional changes may impact Richard and his sister physically, intellectually, physiologically, and emotionally. These include parent separation, changing learning institutions, moving from lower to upper primary school, moving from one location to another, and a prolonged period under medication or puberty. Parents should ensure they live well in marriages to avoid inconveniencing their children’s lives.
Personal Thoughts and Feelings Gained from the Interpretation
Regarding the understanding gained from the interpretation, a family is supposed to be complete with both parents. Every extended family member is supposed to be included in a genogram (Libbon et al., 2019). All family members are supposed to have good communication skills to share ideas on how to build a strong family together. Divorce should not happen in future generations to avoid stress and trauma among the affected children.
Genograms help the upcoming generation identify different generations’ repetitive patterns and behavior. The coming generation will be impacted so that they will not exactly know all their family members since only a few are indicated in the genogram. A family that loves each other is vital, while a family that does not support one another separates unnecessarily.
Conclusion
In summary, Richard maintains positive relationships with each member of his family. The family members have opened a type of communication among themselves. Some legal members of Richard’s family, including his father’s and mother’s side, are omitted because he migrated from Cuba with just a few members. The other members are left in their home country; therefore, Richard does not have their whereabouts. There is an intergenerational relationship whereby Richard’s grandmother married a man younger than her, like his mother, who married a gentleman younger than her.
References
Joseph, B., Dickenson, S., McCall, A., &Roga, E. (2022). Exploring the therapeutic effectiveness of genograms in family therapy: A literature review. The Family Journal, 106648072211041. Web.
Libbon, R., Triana, J., Heru, A., & Berman, E. (2019). Family skills for the resident toolbox: the 10-min genogram, ecomap, and prescribing homework. Academic Psychiatry, 43(4), 435–439.
Storlie, C. A., Lara Hilton, T. M., McKinney, R., & Unger, D. (2019). Family career genograms: Beginning life design with exploratory students. The Family Journal, 271), pp. 84–91. Web.