The Spiritual Genogram in Training and Supervision

Abstract

Religious and spiritual issues often surface in couple and family counseling. In this article, the author describes the spiritual genogram, which is a blueprint of family members' multigenerational religious and spiritual affiliations, events, and conflicts. Used as a tool in both training and supervision, the spiritual genogram enables students and supervisees to make sense of their own religious and spiritual heritage and to explore the ways in which their experiences may affect their work with clients.

Using Spiritual Genograms in Family Therapies

“…Some of these genograms are cultural genograms (Hardy & Laszloffy, 1995), color-coded genograms (Lewis, 1989), sexual genograms (Hof & Berman, 1986), solution-oriented genograms (Kuehl, 1995), socially constructed genograms (Milewski-Hertlein, 2001), time-line genograms (Friedman, Rohrbaugh, & Krakauer, 1988), career genograms (Gibson, 2005), and spiritual genograms (Dunn & Dawes, 1999;Frame, 2001;Hodge, 2001;Willow, Tobin, & Toner, 2009). This study deals with the spiritual genogram approach, which therapeutically uses the spiritual dynamics in the family history during family therapy.…”

Spirituality, religion and counselling practice: a guide to competent integration

“…The spiritual genogram is a process that "enables people to gather intergenerational data about their religious and spiritual traditions, practices, beliefs, and experiences" (Frame, 2001, p. 114). According to Frame (2001) the spiritual genogram can also assist clinicians in increasing self-awareness of how religious and spiritual issues in their own families could affect their efficacy in working with clients.…”

“…As a genogram relates to religion and spirituality it is "a multigenerational map of family members' religious and spiritual affiliations, events and conflicts" (Frame, 2000, p. 211). This tool assists clinicians and clients in exploring clients' religious/spiritual heritage, looking for ways generational beliefs, practices and experiences impact one's present issues; it also includes the opus and organization of the client's family and the emotive and interactive methods ofthe family (Frame, 2001). This tangible representation can be a useful assessment tool considering the structural, relational, and functional information about a family both horizontally across the family context and vertically through the generations (McGoldrick & Gerson, 1985).…”

“…This information can be gathered from one's own recollections and knowledge, and from parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins; face-to-face contact is preferable (Frame, 2001). As supervisors work through the spiritual genogram with their supervisees, several questions may be appropriate to enhance greater self-awareness.…”

“…This interaction can be therapeutic in its self; such contact can enable clients to not only obtain the desired information but can also help to renegotiate relationships in the present (Frame, 2001 ).…”