Assignment 1Family of Origin Paper (20 points) & Infographic (5 points) – 25 Points totalPurpose of this assignment: Understanding family functioning and familial patterns will be animportant foundation in your ability to help your clients work through family problems. In orderfor you to help your clients better understand their familial patterns, you need to evaluate andassess family systems on a personal level as well. By understanding your family and who you arewithin the family context you will be better prepared to identify countertransference reactionswith your clients, which is an ethical responsibility for competent social work practice. Manysocial workers believe, “you cannot bring a client further than you have brought yourself”.Therefore, this 7-11 page paper will help you to explore and reflect on your own experiences,including factors of resilience and risk, this assignment to highlight ways in which you can bemore empathetic towards yourself and others in your work as a social worker. *Your paper isregarded as privileged information and the information will be kept confidential.Part 1: Family of Origin Paper (20 points)Instructions for paper & Headings Required:Section one: Family Origin (2-3 pages)(a) Produce a detailed genogram of your family of origin covering at least three generations.Please include names and ages. The genogram must include a key. At a minimum it should alsoinclude sub-systems and alliances between family members. Boundaries between you and eachof your family members (diffuse [or enmeshed], rigid [disengaged], or clear, etc.) must also bedocumented.(b) Include a 2-3 page narrative (e.g., a bio-psycho-social-spiritual background story of yourfamily). Include identification with or membership in one or more racial/ethnic/cultural/religiousSW607 Spring 2022 C.Hamilton syllabusgroups, their lifestyles, socioeconomic class, education, professions/jobs, oppressed groupmembership, members of at-risk population(s), where they have lived, grew up, etc. Includeother information that may be relevant: adoptions, pregnancies, separations, current locations,etc. Use general genograms instructions to guide this section.Section two: Subheadings required for the three topics you choose below (3-5 pages) Writeand discuss a brief illustration from a time in your childhood which exemplifies how your familysystem typically operated. What was/or has its impact been on family/functioning. Family topicsyou may cover include (choose 3 of these):1. Boundaries (within the family as well as between the family and the world)2. Family Roles (formal/informal) that each family member played in your family, how satisfiedwere members about these roles and/or role changes?)3. Subsystems (Relationships: hierarchy, triangles, alliances, subsystems. How did any factionswithin your family help/hinder the family cohesion?)4. Balance of Power (Who held it, who was subjected to it, how was power expressed/exercised,and did power have any relation to any core problem/issue/dysfunction/strength?)5. Rules (spoken and unspoken)6. Family Norms7. Communication style and patterns; Avenues of Communication (How were thoughts, feelings,and conflicts expressed by each family member? Directly, indirectly, implicitly to some extent,did young adults or children have a say in family decision making? Did members avoid talkingabout problems, or did they openly discuss them whenever problems arise, or are they expressedpassive aggressively, etc… Was there anything taboo in your family, and not openly/comfortablydiscussed or mentioned out of shame, embarrassment, etc.?)8. Resources/ resiliency factors (What strengths did your family and each family memberpossesses in terms of being able to address a core problem/etc. Think strengths based practice,and the numerous sources of strengths that clients and their environments may provide them)9. Intergenerational patternsYou must give specific behavioral examples to back up your analysis. For example, it is notsufficient to just state that there were poor communication patterns, rather, you should discussand provide examples to the specific behaviors that demonstrated how those communicationsplayed out and were maintained.In completing this section, you must use at least three scholarly articles and/or books that addressthe concepts you are discussing.Section three: Reflection (2-3 pages) Write a reflection on how it was for you to look at yourfamily through a social work systems lens by reflectively answering the following questions:• What have you learned about yourself as a member of your family?• What have you learned about yourself as a social worker who will be engaging with families ofsimilar systems?SW607 Spring 2022 C.Hamilton syllabus• How has this research increased your understanding of families in general?• Identify one or more myths you previously believed about family systems that you now knowis/are no longer valid?• What new knowledge did you gain about families that will impact your future as a socialworker?
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