Assessment is as essential to family therapy as it is to individual therapy. Although families often present with one person identified as the “problem,” the assessment process will help you better understand family roles and determine whether the identified problem client is in fact the root of the family’s issues. 

Learning Resources

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). 
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/book/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787

 

Nichols, M., & Davis, S. D. (2020).
The essentials of family therapy (7th ed.). Pearson.

Introduction

· Chapter 2, “Basic Techniques of Family Therapy” 

· Chapter 3, “The Fundamental Concepts of Family Therapy”  

· Chapter 4, “Bowen Family Systems Therapy

Therapist Aid. (2012–2020).
Genograms for psychotherapy. https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-guide/genograms

Therapist Aid LLC. (© 2012-2020). Genograms for psychotherapy. https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-guide/genograms

THE QUESTION

To prepare:

· Review this week’s Learning Resources and reflect on the insights they provide on family assessment. Be sure to review the resource on psychotherapy genograms.

· Download the Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation Note Template and review the requirements of the documentation. There is also an exemplar provided with detailed guidance and examples. 

· View the 
Mother and Daughter: A Cultural Tale video in the Learning Resources and consider how you might assess the family in the case study.

The Assignment

Document the following for the family in the video, using the Comprehensive Evaluation Note Template: 

· Chief complaint

· History of present illness

· Past psychiatric history

· Substance use history

· Family psychiatric/substance use history

· Psychosocial history/Developmental history

· Medical history

· Review of systems (ROS)

· Physical assessment (if applicable)

· Mental status exam

· Differential diagnosis—Include a minimum of three differential diagnoses and include how you derived each diagnosis in accordance with 
DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria

· Case formulation and treatment plan

· Include a psychotherapy genogram for the family

Note: For any item you are unable to address from the video, explain how you would gather this information and why it is important for diagnosis and treatment planning. 

NRNP/PRAC 6645 Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation Template

Week (enter week #): (Enter assignment title)

Student Name

College of Nursing-PMHNP, Walden University

NRNP 6635: Psychopathology and Diagnostic Reasoning

Faculty Name

Assignment Due Date

Subjective:

CC (chief complaint):

HPI:

(include psychiatric ROS rule out)

Past Psychiatric History:

·
General Statement:

·
Caregivers (if applicable):

·
Hospitalizations:

·
Medication trials:

·
Psychotherapy or
Previous Psychiatric Diagnosis:

Substance Current Use and History:

Family Psychiatric/Substance Use History:

Psychosocial History:

Medical History:

·
Current Medications:

·
Allergies:

·
Reproductive Hx:

Objective:

Diagnostic results:

Assessment:

Mental Status Examination:

Differential Diagnoses:

Reflections:

Case Formulation and Treatment Plan:  

References

© 2021 Walden University Page 1 of 3

NRNP/PRAC 6645 Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation Template

Week (enter week #): (Enter assignment title)

Student Name

College of Nursing-PMHNP, Walden University

NRNP 6635: Psychopathology and Diagnostic Reasoning

Faculty Name

Assignment Due Date

Subjective:

CC (chief complaint):

HPI:

(include psychiatric ROS rule out)

Past Psychiatric History:

·
General Statement:

·
Caregivers (if applicable):

·
Hospitalizations:

·
Medication trials:

·
Psychotherapy or
Previous Psychiatric Diagnosis:

Substance Current Use and History:

Family Psychiatric/Substance Use History:

Psychosocial History:

Medical History:

·
Current Medications:

·
Allergies:

·
Reproductive Hx:

Objective:

Diagnostic results:

Assessment:

Mental Status Examination:

Differential Diagnoses:

Reflections:

Case Formulation and Treatment Plan:  

References

© 2021 Walden University Page 1 of 3

_____________________________________________________________________ 

00:00:00BEGIN TRANSCRIPT: 

00:00:00[music] 

00:00:35A MOTHER and A DAUGHTER: 

00:00:35A CULTURAL TALE 

00:00:35AN INTERVIEW WITH 

00:00:35GONZALO BACIGALUPE, PhD 

00:00:35Produced by 

00:00:35Andrews & Clark 

00:00:35Explorations, Inc. 

00:00:35copyright 2003 

00:00:35GONZALO BACIGALUPE When I’m asked to do a consultation, one of the first things I ask is, what will be the most benefit for the client and the therapist and in the case that you’re going to see I’m basically asked to have a reflecting team and what we did was first have an interview with the therapist and the family and ask them what they will find useful for the interview and basically to ask them about the history of the therapy and the history of what are the kinds of things that they have been working on. I ask the reflecting team to come in and I instructed them to think of themselves as so let the god mothers of the therapist, who in a way, put them, himself, or in this case herself at risk in front of her peers and another people. So, I wanted them, the reflecting team to address the therapeutic system as a whole not just to address the family, I wanted them to talk also about the therapist and to be protective of them. I also ask the reflecting team not to be too much of clinician, but to really react on a more personal level around the family. I sometimes reflected on what they were saying to clarify or to expand the idea or how I understood it to give voice to other possibilities, but respecting the personal peace, and then, I ask I ask the family to come back to, in a classical way, to respond to those comments what strike them. In the case that we watch, it seems that the family was dealing with sort of like two forms of trauma and/or three forms of trauma; one is, history of battering the domestic violence, child sexual abuse, a history of immigration that in some ways we lay it to that trauma getting away from it and basically the mother of five children deciding that they need to move out of the home, but in the process leaving one behind who is later on sexually, I mean, raped by the father. And then at the present moment mother dealing with a fairly traumatic illness that have her, very disable, unable to walk and to work. So, it’s sort of like the interview trying to address this different forms of trauma and the way in which the young adults are trying to make sense of their bicultural life and how the whole family is trying to make sense of being bicultural and being immigrants. The session doesn’t end with a need or incredible intervention of my part because I feel that this is the part of the therapist to try to decide, this is the family that’s been working this therapist for year and half. Therefore, they have a relationship I feel that I need to respect and so those are t

Genograms for Psychotherapy

I.


What is a Genogram?

II.


How to Create a Genogram

a.

Gender

b.

Family Relationships

c.

Emotional Relationships

d.

Children

e.

Lifespan

f.

Additional Information

g.

Putting it All Together

III.


Using Genograms in Psychotherapy

a.

Assessment

b.

Individual Therapy

c.

Family Therapy

d.

Don’t Forget Strengths

IV.


References

Every generation, families pass a piece of themselves to their kin. The things that are passed down can be beautiful or valuable, like stories, culture, knowledge, and belongings. Or, they can be mostly insignificant, like a cowlick and green eyes from one’s grandfather.

Other times, more insidious traits can be passed through generations. Sometimes there’s a genetic predisposition to addiction or depression. Other times, unhealthy ways of thinking and behaving are passed down socially, through example.

Genograms provide a way for us to examine these patterns. They bring a family’s strengths and weaknesses out into the open. G