Reflection Paper 1

Genogram Reflection Paper

Lauren McCaskill

SOWK 312
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Genogram Reflection Paper

This was my first time creating a genogram and it was interesting to look at the three

generations that make up my family. It was interesting to see on paper how my parents’ families

and their sides come together and created my family. It was also interesting to see the difference

between relationships that are on both sides of my family.

Contribution

Some family dynamics that we have are communication, love, and support. When it

comes to communication and my family, it is very important to all of us that we communicate

often just to see how each other is doing. For us, often communication is important, especially

with my grandparents, because none of my grandparents live close enough to see them on a

regular basis so it is important to us that we communicate with each other just to make sure that

we are keeping our relationship as close as possible while not being able to see each other often.

Another family dynamic that we have between my immediate family and both sides of

my parents’ family, is love. For my family, love kind of correlates with communication. When it

comes to love, we make sure we always tell each other we love them anytime we see a family

member or anytime we have a conversation with someone. By telling family members that we

love them when we talk to them, it helps us keep our close bond and lets us always remember

that we are loved by each of our family members. Another family dynamic that we have is

support. Between my immediate family and my cousins on both sides of my family, there is a

total of eight grandchildren. All of us are different ages and are in different stages of life. My

younger cousins are currently taking dance and singing classes and my other two cousins are

playing sports and going on trips with their college to conferences. With all of these

extracurriculars, my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles are always supporting us and doing
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what they can to help us. Everyone in my family is always there to show support and show they

care.

When it comes to my influence on my family members, I think it is important for me to

keep my family up to date on what is happening in today’s society. Considering today’s society is

very different than how it was when my grandparents and parents were growing up, I feel like it

is important for me to keep them updated on what’s going on in case they haven’t heard or seen

something. With doing this, it helps us with communication and helps keep our bond close.

Strengths and resilience

One important family issue that was talked about during my interview with my family was the

birth of my twin cousins. This was a big deal to everyone in my family because my aunt and

uncle had trouble conceiving so they had to use IVF. They used IVF for a long time before my

aunt successfully became pregnant. The birth of my twin cousins was also a big deal because my

cousin, Knox, was the first grandson on both sides of my family so it was very exciting to finally

have a boy in the family besides my uncles.

The second big issue that we talked about was the divorce between my aunt and uncle on both

my mom and dad’s sides. On my dad’s side, his brother was married to my cousin’s mom and

then they got divorced. Since there divorce, nobody likes my cousin’s mom, and nobody

associates with her anymore. The divorce between my aunt and uncle on my mom’s side is

recent and it has been hard for my aunt and their two daughters. I recently found out that my

uncle, Ben, has a drug abuse problem and that is the reason my aunt and uncle are getting a

divorce. It has been hard for my aunt because her two daughters are still young, and they don’t
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understand fully what is going on. This has made it hard because my uncle cannot be around his

daughters alone.

The third thing that we talked about was the death of my grandfather. My grandfather passed

away when I was only 7 years old. Since I was so young, I don’t really remember much about

him, and it makes me sad that I don’t have any good memories to hold onto from when he was

still alive. The death of my grandfather hit my family hard because he was only 56 years old

when he passed away. He passed away from a heart attack in my grandparents’ home so that

made everyone feel uneasy when it came to being in that house. My grandmother had to move to

a new house because she could not live in the same house that her husband passed away in.

Strengths. During the interview, I feel like a strength that I had was being able to talk

about the different aspects of both sides of my family. I was able to talk about the hard topics,

such as my grandfather’s death and my uncle’s drug abuse problem, while still being able to

continue the interview even though those are two hard topics to talk about. I learned that things

need to be talked about and not kept inside in order to understand the entire thing and being able

to process the situations.

Limitations. When it comes to limitations during the interview process, I feel as though I

didn’t have any. I was excited to learn more about my family and the things that have happened

to us. If I had limitations, I wouldn’t have been able to talk and learn more about my grandfather.

I also wouldn’t have been able to hear and learn more about my aunt and uncle and the situation

they are going through.

Improvement. I think when it comes to improvement, I can have a better understanding

that things aren’t always the way they seem. I just recently found out about my uncle not too

long ago and I had no idea what he was going through. I never thought someone in my family
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could be going through drug abuse problems and I was very surprised when I found out. I need

to improve when it comes to my understanding about drug abuse and the people going through it

because I need to remember that you cannot always tell when someone has a drug abuse

problem.