Genogram Symbols

Before learning more about the symbols used in genograms, I thought that family trees couldn't be that informative. I had never really looked past the basic representation of structure that I had seen in previous family history charts. However, looking deeper into the different symbols showed me that you can learn a lot about a family situation just by the graphic representation of their genogram. Depending on how detailed the genogram becomes, you can tell that someone had a child while living with someone, got married then divorced, and remarried to someone who had a child from a previous marriage. Basicially, I really enjoy how things that seem at first incredibly complex can be organized coherently into a genogram.

Even though my family is relatively large, I am looking forward to creating this genogram and making it as detailed as I can. At the same time, I feel as though a lot of my family members would not appreciate me detailing their "faults" or the issues people have with one another. I think that when working with families, one of the hardest things to start off with would be honesty, because everyone wants to present themselves as being a member of a perfect family. A lot of the issues we can label through the established genogram symbols (such as sexual abuse or physical abuse) are topics that are normally kept private if not completely silenced, but if they exist then they should be acknowledged so that the genogram is the best representation of reality. What also stood out to me about these symbols is that while there are many to show problems the family has faced, there are also symbols to show close connections and areas of strength. I think a genogram would be able to show a family that has close bonds and positive relationships even though there are problems in their past, but I wonder how many family genograms are actually unbiased in the types of details they convey.