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Genogram Assignment

The genogram for Patricia Garrett's family shows distinct patterns on each side. On her father Michael's side, the family is close-knit with no major issues besides the death of the patriarch. However, on her mother Marcia's side, there is a history of substance abuse, death, and family trauma. Marcia's parents were murdered by her step-father when she was a child. This left lasting impacts, including Marcia having a strained relationship with her daughter Patricia during her teenage years due to a lack of a maternal figure. The genogram also reveals patterns of sibling rivalry and academic/career expectations that have been passed down through the generations. However, the genogram is incomplete due to a

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304 views5 pages

Genogram Assignment

The genogram for Patricia Garrett's family shows distinct patterns on each side. On her father Michael's side, the family is close-knit with no major issues besides the death of the patriarch. However, on her mother Marcia's side, there is a history of substance abuse, death, and family trauma. Marcia's parents were murdered by her step-father when she was a child. This left lasting impacts, including Marcia having a strained relationship with her daughter Patricia during her teenage years due to a lack of a maternal figure. The genogram also reveals patterns of sibling rivalry and academic/career expectations that have been passed down through the generations. However, the genogram is incomplete due to a

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Garrett
Patricia Garrett
CNS 773 SP 15
Family Counseling
12 April 2015
Genogram For Family of Patricia Garrett
Cause-and-effect thinking which asks why? tends to blame someone for the
problem, however unwittingly, and does not seem as useful as identifying patterns and
tracing their flow (McGoldrick, 20). This quote from Monica McGoldricks book, The
Genogram Journey, aptly describes the experience I had creating the Genogram for my
family. There has often been blaming and questioning in regards to my familys past, and
rather than attempt family therapy about the past, the question of why.
The Genogram for Patricia Garrett can be categorized as very black and white. On
her fathers side of the family, Michael Wayne Garrett, the Genogram is very clean. On
her mothers side, Marcia Paben Garrett, there is a large amount of emotional discourse,
tragedy, substance abuse and death. The interactions between each side of the family have
created issues of family privacy and definition for kin for their children, Patricia Dawn
Garrett and Michael Baxter Garrett.
Ernest Wayne Garrett married Myra Hazel in July 1957. They had Michael Wayne
Garrett on May 11, 1961 and Frances Garrett on June 29, 1965. There was some sibling
rivalry that took place between the two of them, especially in the area of oldest sibling
success compared to shadow lived in by the youngest. This pattern has continued down
into the relationship of Michaels children. Frances married John Nichols in June 1999.
Outside of death of patriarch Ernest Wayne Garrett, at the age of 73, in June 2010 from
Parkinsons Disease, the Garrett side of the family has no distinct medical issues,
emotional or physical tragedies, relational discourse. This could be due to a lack of

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information provided about this side of the family, as it can be seen that the father of
Patricia Garrett, Michael Wayne Garrett, does not speak ill of his family and holds a
sincere amount of family pride and privacy.
On Marcias side, Harm Henry Paben married Patricia Jean Powell on an
unknown date. Each had been previously married, Patricia to Ray and Harm to Mary
Catherine. Harm had three sons with Mary Catherine: Paul, Gary and Mark. Mary
Catherine passed away in 2005 and Mark died from heart attack in 2007. Harm was 33
years older than Patricia when they married. Patricia had Brian Paben in 1961 and Marcia
Jean Paben in 1962, 14 months later, begging the question whether Brian was Harms son
or Rays. This information is unknown. In 1974, Patricia Paben threatened to divorce
Harm, which led him to murder Patricia and kill himself in February of 1974. Brian was
12 years old and Marcia was 11 years old.
Brian and Marcia were never officially adopted, but lived with two different
families until they graduated high school: the Gurleys and the Gillespies. They lived
with the Gurleys until 1979 when John Gurley committed suicide, leaving Sally Gurley
widowed with 4 children plus Brian and Marcia. At that time, Brian entered the military
and Marcia moved in with the Gillespies until she graduated. Though these families have
had impacts on Marcias life, they are not included in the Genogram because there is
controversy as to whether or not they are considered family. These experiences, however,
have set a precedent in the Garrett household to consider good family friends as kin. For
example, Marcia and Michaels best friends are considered aunts and uncles to Patricia
and Michael.

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Brian got kicked out of the military for drug and alcohol abuse. He has had three
marriages that have ended in divorce and has recently gotten remarried to now Patricia
Paben. During his most recent failed marriage to Donna, Brian adopted Cole Paben, the
son of an incarcerated woman. Cole is now three. Marcia and Brian had not spoken since
1974, due to increased conflict in their relationship, until recently. In recent years, Brian
has reached out to Marcia a couple times, but has quickly receded is offer to have a
relationship each time. Due to this, when Patricia and Michael have sibling fights, Marcia
gets very distressed.
Michael Wayne Garrett proposed to Marcia Paben on the anniversary of her
parents death February 1984 and they married August 12, 1984. They had Patricia Dawn
Garrett November 25, 1987 and Michael Baxter Garrett on May 28, 1992. Patricia has
always been very academically successful, like their father, while Michael has been more
musically successful and struggled in academics, like their mother. At the age of 12, some
teenage boys in the youth group sexually abused Patricia at the familys home church.
This was around the same age that Marcia lost her parents and began to struggle with a
lack of knowledge on how to be a mother, which could have passed down a stressor for
Patricia at that age.
Both Patricia and Michael are very protective of their familys privacy, which is a
pattern brought down from the Garrett side of the family. Marcia and Patricia had a
strained relationship from the time Tricia was eleven years old until she went to college.
This is partially due to mother-daughter relationships during times of puberty and the
teenage years. It is also due to the lack of mother figure in Marcias life during those
formative years, which left her not knowing how to take on that motherly during those

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times in her own daughters life. Michael and Michael Baxter have a somewhat strained
relationship due to the lack of academic success on Michael Baxters part. It can be
assumed that Michael was expected as the oldest and the only son to perform well in
academics by his parents and that pattern is now occurring between Michael and his son.
These are the initial findings for the Genogram of Patricia Garrett. Due to the lack
of information from Marcias parents death at a young age and an emphasis on family
pride and privacy from Michaels side, the Genogram is missing some significant details.
Nevertheless, there are some distinct patterns, such as sibling rivalry, age stressors, and
conflict anxiety, which have been passed all the way down to Patricia and Michael in
their relationships with each other, their family and others.

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Resources
McGoldrick, M. (2011). The Genogram Journey: Reconnecting With Your family (Rev.
ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

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