Family of Origin Paper.
Purpose of this assignment: Understanding family functioning and familial patterns will be an important foundation in your ability to help your clients work through family problems. In order for you to help your clients better understand their familial patterns, you need to evaluate and assess family systems on a personal level as well. By understanding your family and who you are within the family context you will be better prepared to identify countertransference reactions with your clients, which is an ethical responsibility for competent social work practice. Many social workers believe, “you cannot bring a client further than you have brought yourself”. Therefore, by exploring and reflecting on your own experiences, including factors of resilience and risk, this assignment will highlight ways in which you can be more empathetic towards yourself and others. General instructions: This assignment requires you to apply the concepts and theories that are discussed in your SOWK 544 classes along with the concepts and theories that are found in the required readings. Section two: (2-3 pages) Write and discuss a brief illustration from a time in your childhood which exemplifies how your family system typically operated. Issues you may cover include (choose 3 of these): 1. Boundaries (within the family as well as between the family and the world) 2. Hierarchies 3. Subsystems 4. Alliances 5. Rules (spoken and unspoken) 6. Feedback loops 7. Communication style and patterns 8. Resources/ resiliency factors 9. Intergenerational patterns You must give specific behavioral examples to back up your analysis. For example, it is not sufficient to state that there were poor communication patterns, rather, you should discuss the specific behaviors that demonstrated how those communications played out and were maintained. (The Hepworth article is an important guide for this section). In completing this section, you will need to cite at least three scholarly articles and/or books (from outside of this syllabus) that address the concepts you are discussing.