The Genogram Casebook

Monica McGoldrick has long been a leader in developing, perfecting, and utilizing the genogram in understanding and working with complex and difficult family relationship issues. With the publication of her long-awaited Genogram Casebook, she is at the very acme of her expertise and career. Her superbly detailed, clinically rich casebook is a must-read textbook on how the genogram can be skillfully and insightfully used to help individuals, couples, and families explore and resolve some of their most difficult relationship issues. This book should be an essential companion, instructor, and wise supervisor for therapists at all levels of experience.–DeWitt Baldwin, Jr., MD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Nevada Medical SchoolToday, genograms have been fully integrated into most family systems models and are an essential starting point in couples and family therapy. McGoldrick’s Genogram Casebook, however, is not just a manual about how to use genograms: It is literally the best guide for how to do family practice I have ever seen. Grounded in the ever-evolving Bowen family systems model to which McGoldrick is a major contributor, this casebook takes the reader on a therapeutic tour from personal/professional preparation, through engagement and assessment, to multiple models and examples of highly effective treatment. This is now the textbook for how to conduct family therapy.–James Robert Bitter, Professor of Counseling, East Tennessee State UniversityWith clarity, depth, and heart, this book shows us how the genogram can be used to engage clients, master resistance, restore broken connections, and help our clients (and ourselves) resolve issues and move forward. The Genogram Casebook is so rich in theory and practical advice that as soon as I finished reading it, I started again.–Harriet Lerner, PhD, author of The Dance of AngerThe Genogram Casebook is like having a personal conversation with Monica McGoldrick. She makes Bowen theory come alive as she shows how to help clients move beyond their immediate situations to connect with a broader sociohistorical sense of self. The goal? To be able to create the kind of connections our clients want in life. This book is so very helpful–full of wisdom and step-by-step advice for how to build relationships founded on self-responsibility and openness to learn about another.–Carmen Knudson-Martin, PhD, Professor and Director, Marriage, Couple, & Family Therapy Program, Lewis & Clark College

Monica McGoldrick, MSW, PhD, Director of the Multicultural Family Institute and on the Clinical Faculty of the Psychiatry Department of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is the “godmother of genograms.” She has an international reputation as a trainer and author, and lives in Highland Park, New Jersey.