Three-generation family assessment (divorce and remarriage)
Clinical genogram of the Bennett family — a divorce and remarriage, a deceased grandparent, alcohol use and depression shown as condition fills, and four emotional relationship lines around the index person.
For the family therapist
Scenario
A family therapist's case-file genogram. Chloe, 18, is the index person and has been referred for depression. The chart covers three generations: her grandparents Harold (died 2016) and Margaret, her father Daniel and his sister Susan, her mother Karen, and Daniel's second wife Priya. It answers the four questions a clinician asks first: who has died, who separated from whom, which children belong to which union, and where the emotional tension sits.
Annotation key
[male, 1938, deceased, death: 2016]— sex, birth year, and death marker with yearlabel: "Harold"— the name printed under the symbolconditions: alcohol-use(half-left, #FCD34D)— a condition drawn as a coloured fill over part of the symbolindex— marks Chloe as the person the case is about--with"m. 1965"— a marriage line with its date-x-— a divorced couple; the label carries both the marriage and divorce years- Indented people under a couple — that couple's children
-fused-,-conflict-,-cutoff-,-close-— emotional relationship lines between two people
How to read
Start at the top: Harold (crossed out, deceased) and Margaret, with their children Daniel and Susan below. Daniel appears in two unions — the divorced marriage to Karen, which produced Chloe and Ethan, and the later marriage to Priya, which produced Ravi. The emotional lines then show the tension around Chloe: fused with her mother, in conflict with her father, and close to her brother; separately, Margaret has cut off contact with Susan. The shared alcohol-use fill on Harold and Daniel shows a pattern repeating across generations.