Family Origin Paper
Paper details:
This assignment consists of a personal family assessment using your own family of origin and an analysis of possible intervention avenues. Your paper is regarded as privileged information and will be kept confidential, unless the instructor requires consultation from another faculty member.
The paper must be minimum 10 – 15 pages (not including references and title pages) typed, double-spaced, 12 font, APA format, etc.
Must include seven references within the past five years; unless prominent/scholarly contributor to subject matter; and use proper APA formatting and citations.
A genogram must be included in your paper.
Be mindful that you are writing about your own family of origin, with only your instructor as your audience, this assignment should be written in first person. For example, you can say “my aunt” instead of “this writer’s aunt” or “the aunt.”
Family of origin is described as your current family or the family in which you were raised. You decide who your family was or is.
Attention will be given to correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure, and APA guidelines and citations.
Your paper should be organized in the following format:
1) Identifying Information:
Include a narrative (e.g., a bio-psycho-social-spiritual background story of your entire family). Include identification with or membership in one or more racial/ethnic/cultural/religious groups, their lifestyles, socioeconomic class, education, professions/jobs, oppressed group membership, members of at-risk population(s), where they have lived, grew up, etc.
Include a genogram (graphic representation of your family).
Genogram will include all family members (living or dead), typically three generations. Names, gender, ages, relationships, education, death (cause and date), chronic conditions, significant traumas, and other information significant to each individual, etc. according to accept genogram guidelines.
Include other information that may be relevant: adoptions, pregnancies, separations, current locations, etc. Use general genograms instructions to guide this section.
2) Assessing the presenting problem/issues/dysfunction/goal:
Nature of the problem/issue/dysfunction/goal.
When did it start, how bad/severe is it, and how long has it persisted?
Is it correlated to any developmental events in any family members, traumas, crises, etc.?
What has its impact been on family/functioning?
What is each family member’s perception of the problem? (To what does each member attribute its cause, exacerbation, duration, severity, etc.?)
What are the problem’s implications for the family’s future functioning if not resolved, e.g., further exacerbation of the problem, will it eventually/likely affect other spheres of family functioning such as communication, weakened family bonds, etc.
How willing is each family member to receive outside, professional help?
What types of outside help that may have already been used or not to be used, how helpful/successful those previous efforts were. What is different this time around that has prompted this family to seek help (again)?
What are the expectations of each family member about resolving the problem? What results would each member like from this family counseling?
What strengths does this family and each family member possesses in terms of being able to address the problem/etc. (Think strengths based practice, and the numerous sources of strengths that clients and their environments may provide them)
Are there any scales/inventories available to assess the nature of this problem? If so, what scale/inventory might that be? (e.g., family communication, substance abuse scale, depression scale, etc. Please identify the scale by name and cite appropriately).
3) Family System
Structures/boundaries
Roles (formal/informal) that each family member plays in your family, how satisfied are members about these roles and/or role changes?
Support and expectations, who feels and/or receives support and who does not?
Relationships: hierarchy, triangles, alliances, subsystems. How do any factions within your family help/hinder the family progress at this stage, as related to problem resolution?
Power: Who holds it, is subjected to it, how is power expressed/exercised, and does power have any relation to the presenting problem/issue/dysfunction/goal?
External boundaries, loyalty to family, relationships with outsiders, particularly as related to this problem/etc.
Communication
How are thoughts, feelings, and conflicts expressed by each family member? Directly, indirectly, implicitly to some extent, do young adults or children have a say in family decision making?
Do members avoid talking about problems, or do they openly discuss them whenever problems arise, or are they expressed passive-aggressively, etc.?
Is there anything taboo in your family, and not openly/comfortably discussed or mentioned out of shame, embarrassment, etc.?
4) Your family through the life span
What are the significant historical background/information/details that are at the center, perpetuation, exacerbation, etc. of this family problem/issue/dysfunction/goal?
Is it a history of trauma, crisis, alcohol or other substance abuse, some type of abuse, poor communication or problem solving skills, etc.?
Does this problem/issue/dysfunction/goal relate to developmental issues of a specific family member or members, e.g., somebody marrying and leaving the house, the birth of a child, death of a child or another family member, moving away from home to attend college, somebody becoming ill and needing caregiving from family members, etc.?
5) Select a model or theory of social work treatment that you find useful to help resolve the presenting problem/issue/dysfunction or reach its goal.
Please provide information regarding the theory and application to your family identified problem (e.g., its key concepts/tenets, logic, purpose, strategies, etc.) and the rationale behind you choosing it to address your family’s problem. Include a brief discussion of any pertinent diagnostic information only as it would be a consideration for selecting your particular theory/approach.
How would the family problem/issue/dysfunction/goal be conceptualized using this theory/approach? Is the problem the result of distorted cognitions, attachment issues, communication problems, unresolved trauma, etc.?
How would you implement this theory/approach to help the family resolve their problem, e.g., what are the family therapist and the family members supposed to do to resolve the family problem?
What specific treatment techniques might be used in this model/theory that would be particularly helpful toward resolving the problem, and why do you think this?
6) Include any information that you feel would add clinical or theoretical richness and depth to your family of origin paper. For example, during the process of writing this paper, did you gain any new insights or epiphanies about anything related to the problem, its cause/origin, resolution, and/or the approach that you would use to work with your family, etc.?
Here is additional information:
James and Annie Hughes were born in Holmes County. They were both
sharecroppers and had other jobs they did on the side. From this union came five children’s. They were Lily Mae, James Jr., Beatrice, Irene, and Emma Lue. From the five children came 36 grandchildren’s. They were Patrica, James Jr.II, Robert Earl, Thedore, Alfonzia, Jeff, Thelma, Dorothy, Eddie, Walter, James Earl, Joyce, Willie, Terry, Katie B., Mary, Lonazo, Bernice, Joe Ruee, Jimmy, Lewis, Shirley, Rocose, Victoria, Timothy, Elimra, Johnny Lee, Tommy Lee, Willie B., Frank James, Earnest, Annie Mae, Glenda, Roosvelt, and Jessie James. From the 36 Grandchildren came 117 great grand children, and 81 great, great grandchildren.
So as you can see from two people James and Annie Hughes life was given to 239 lives. Thank god for them. The James and Annie Hughes family reunion startaqwed back in 1993 in Beatrice Harvey’s home
