Behavioral, Intergenerational, and Structural Approaches Paper
Luisita Alvarez
University of Phoenix
MFCC/556
GA13MFC09
John Vangerov
May 11, 2015
Behavioral, Intergenerational, and Structural Approaches Paper
Family is an important component in any individual’s life. In forming a part of a family it allows you to feel comfort and love. Some families build bonds within the individuals that form part of the family structure, while others experience certain situations that may cause different separation or differences within one another. In some cases some families experience situations such as addictions, violence, poverty, or racism. Many of these patterns can cause conflict between the family structure and family members will no longer have a bond between one another.
While reviewing my family Genogram I can clearly see that we are a lucky family, we have not experience any problems with addictions, alcoholism, poverty, or racism. The only pattern that is visible is the bond we established through the grieving process we all shared due to the loss of our loved ones. The pattern that was established with the death of both of my grandfathers, with their deaths both of my grandmothers became single parents. Then two years after my mother’s father passed away and our family was still dealing with the grieving process, my father becomes ill and passes away too and once again the pattern is similar, my mother becomes a single parent. Once again the story seems to repeat itself my mother is left to raise five of us all on her own.
In the past both my grandmother’s never remarried they remained single and just focused on raising their children and the pattern continued the same, my mother never remarried either. She focused fully in raising her children, when my father passed away my mother was pregnant of my youngest sister. My baby sister was born two months after my father passed, my mother always said that God needed an angel and that was the reason why he had taken my father, but she also explained that God did not want us to be sad so she send us our baby sister so she could bring happiness to our little family.
While working on my Genogram, I looked at the final product and it looked so small, but that is how my family is, it consists of only my mother, my siblings their partners, their children and my children. I am the oldest of my siblings, when my father passed away I was 11 years old. Looking back at the past, when my father was with us our family consisted of a large amount of people. My mother’s family and my father’s family were all very close. Every holiday, every birthday, and at times every weekend everyone joined together, but as soon as my father passed everything changed. My mother and her children were left alone to fend for themselves. As time went by we became more and more distant no one bothered to come by and find out if we were ok, if we had food to eat, or if we had any needs. We grieved on our own the dead of my father and that established a bond between us all.
I remember growing up hearing comments from uncles and aunts from my father’s side of the family, that all of my father’s children were going to grow up in gangs, with addictions, and so on due to my father not being with us anymore. Thanks to God none of that happened we are all blessed and have never had any of those problems. In hearing those types of comments we have never had any type of relationship with them my mother, my siblings and I have emotionally cut them off from our family bond. On my mother’s side of the family once in a while we talked briefly and say hello they live up north in San Jose so we do not get to see each other very often and that is the reason why my family structure is small. My mother worked hard and raised us on her own, and we are all responsible and hard working adults.
Now the pattern continued with me, I was married for 11 years and about 1 year ½ I divorced and became a