Genograms: Assessment and Intervention

Genograms: Assessment and Intervention by Monica McGoldrick, Randy Gerson and Sylvia Shellenberger is an excellent resource for students and professionals seeking to understand the standard methods involved in creating, interpreting, and applying the genogram. First published under the name Genograms in Family Assessment in 1985, the book was updated and republished in 1999 to include new developments in the field, and to better illustrate the diverse family forms and patterns emerging in society.

Publisher's notes

Widely used by both family therapists and family physicians, the genogram is a graphic way of organizing the mass of information gathered during a family assessment and finding patterns in the family system. This popular text, now updated and expanded, provides a standard method for constructing a genogram. doing a genogram interview, and interpreting the results. The text comes to life for the reader through the use of genograms of famous families--those of Sigmund Freud, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, the Kennedys, Jane Fonda and Ted Turner, Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, the Roosevelts, and Thomas Jefferson--to name a few. Once the principles of family systems theory and systemic interviewing have been thoroughly explained and illustrated by genograms, the authors go on to present clinical applications in both family therapy and family medicine and to explore new frontiers of research, particularly the use of computer-generated genograms. The new edition highlights new developments, particularly those that tak e into account race, culture, and the diversity of American families, and includes many new cases. Both entertaining and instructive, Genograms is an ideal way to introduce all those involved in family treatment--family therapists, physicians, nurses, social workers, pastoral counselors, and trainees in these fields--to this essential assessment and intervention tool.

Computer-generated genograms

While this book provides the theoretical information to create and understand genograms, GenoPro provides a software for creating computer-generated genograms. Using the same basic genogram symbols found in the book and expanding on emotional and social relationships to include more possibilities, GenoPro is the perfect tool for the family therapist seeking to generate genograms quickly and efficiently in a clinical setting.

Coming soon

Monica McGoldrick's third edition of Genograms: Assessment and Intervention is set be published in 2007 by W.W. Norton.