REFLECTION PAPER 1

Genogram Reflection Paper

Kamryn M. Mattison

University of South Carolina

SOWK 312

Professor Holbert
REFLECTION PAPER 2

Genogram Reflection Paper

Dynamics of the Family

My role in my immediate family is unique because I am the only girl out of four children,

so, naturally, I am a daddy’s girl and spoiled. Growing up, I learned from the mistakes of my

older brothers, and I started to be seen as the “golden child” for a while. I knew what to do and

what not to do, so I was always the one who was expected to be perfect and do everything

correctly. I have also played a role as my little brother’s caretaker since his birth. According to

my mom, I have been telling her how to take care of him since the time he got home (I was only

4 when he was born). Eventually, I started taking after my second oldest brother; when I got

older, I realized that I did not have to do everything my parents wanted and how they wanted it; I

moved into more of a “troublemaker” role with him because I became more rebellious. My little

brother moved into the “golden child” role and my oldest brother has always been a mediator and

the peaceful one of all of us.

Additionally, I use nonverbal communication with my family, and they just understand

because they know me; this is something that I get from my mother because facial expressions

are a big way in which we both convey feelings and emotions. On the other hand, I am a lot like

my dad (according to the Myers-Briggs personality test- we scored the same letters). I am the

one who is going to say what I have to say and do what I have to do. Much like my dad is the

head of the household, I am the head of my siblings. Since I am the only girl and spoiled by my

brothers as well, they listen to the things that I say. Being the only daughter in my immediate

family gives me a lot of power because my brothers do not question what I say. I get what I want,

and they usually do what I tell them to do. I pose a different dynamic for everyone because I am

my father in a girl's body.

A huge strength of my family is our spiritual guidance and faith. My paternal grandfather

is a pastor and raised the family in the church. The faith in our family has been a huge part of us

all getting through any challenges or issues that we have gone through. As a family, we have not

gone through many challenges or experienced mental or physical problems (on either side).

However, in 2019, we experienced a death that tested all of us. My cousin, Victoria, passed away

at 20 years old while attending Clemson University; it was very unexpected to all of us. She was

one of the most vibrant and outgoing people in our family. This was the first death that we had

experienced, and we all used our faith and spirituality to get through it. Victoria’s death was the

biggest challenge that we have gone through, so, because we have not gone through many other

challenges and/or issues, it tested the faith of some of my family members. It was hard to accept

the fact that the first death and extreme hardship that we had was one of our youth, so some

people started to question God (our faith). However, my grandad brought us all back together

and helped everyone remember what we believe and why we have always trusted in God. My

[paternal] grandparents had already been through something like this because their first-born

child, Brendella, passed away at age 4; they helped to guide the rest of the family through

Victoria’s passing by using their faith and earlier experience with Brendella.

On my mother’s side, a strength in my family would be the strong leadership and love for

family that my grandad holds. He has been through a lot since he was born, but he overcame

many hard situations and pushes all of us to do our best. Some of the problems that my grandad

had to endure included that his father (my great grandad) was beaten and killed by KKK

members in Georgia, his family struggled with money issues while he was growing up, and he

stopped going to school for a little while, without telling his mom, to help make money.

However, he did not let any of this affect his future; my grandad eventually got a full scholarship
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to SC State University for football, was drafted by the NY Jets, went to graduate school at

Clemson, and became the first black football coach at Clemson as well. My grandfather’s

resilience is a big part of why I, my siblings, and my cousins accomplish the things we set out to

do. He has passed it down and continues to push us to do our best and provides support in

whatever way possible.

Lastly, a strength that runs through my family is having so many solid marriages. This is

important for the youth and younger generations of our family because it can lead to happier and

healthier relationships with significant others as we get older. Being able to see so many long-

lasting marriages will help our youth know what a healthy relationship looks like. My [paternal]

grandparents have been together for 60 years; my grandad has passed down good advice and

traits on how to take care of a family to both of his sons (and his son-in-law). Also, the men in

my family are all strong, hard-working, and caring. They were all raised as leaders and always

make sure everyone is taken care of. The Mattison men always make sure that everyone has

whatever they want or need, whether it be one of my uncles giving me something, or my dad

giving his nieces and nephews something, they all take care of the family.

Self-Assessment

A strength that I feel I demonstrated during the interview was conducting and managing

the conversation. I think that it was easy for me to come up with follow-up questions based on

what my mother was saying, and this is a vital part of the assessment process. However, I do feel

that a small part of being able to come up with more questions while she spoke was because I

already had an idea of what she would say. For example, when I asked her what she thought were

the strengths and weaknesses of our family, I was also thinking about what my answer would be

to that question. The answers that I got from her were the same responses that I was thinking
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about or that I would have given, so I based the next questions on how I felt about certain

answers she gave. Another strength I displayed was following along with what she was talking

about and focusing while she was talking. I cannot always multitask very well, so I get focused

on one task, and I think that this contributes to how well I was able to listen during the interview.

I feel that this would be a good trait when interviewing a real client. I am a good listener in

general because I prefer to listen instead of talk, so it was easy for me to let her speak and

understand everything that she was saying.

As far as weaknesses, I think that they stem from the comfort I had with whom I was

interviewing. Since it was my mother that I was interviewing, I feel that I wasn’t treating it as

much like a real interview as I was supposed to for this assignment. It felt more like I was just

having a normal conversation with her about our family, and I was not worried about doing the

things that are important for a real assessment. With that being said, I think that one of my

weaknesses was that, even though I was very focused on what she was saying, I was not

completely showing her that I was listening. By this, I mean that I was not demonstrating the

physical queues that show someone that you are paying attention to them, these queues being eye

contact, leaning in, head nodding, and things of that nature. I remember thinking to myself,

during the process, that I was not looking at her enough or showing her signs that I am listening.

I had to explicitly tell myself to make eye contact and show that I was hearing her. However, I do

feel it may be a strength that I was able to recognize that I did not seem (to her) engaged in the

conversation.

Another weakness that I would say I had during this interview was that I was not using

enough reflection statements. Last semester, we learned about how restating what a client says

(in different words) is an important part of the assessment process so that social workers can
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make sure they know exactly what their client is saying and understand the feelings the client is

trying to explain. However, I do not feel like I did enough reflection on what my mother was

saying in this interview; I feel that it may have been because we were talking about our own

family, so I was just assuming I knew what she was talking about. This could have been me

adding my thoughts and feelings about my family to what she was saying instead of asking her to

clarify.

I think I could improve my limitations by being more aware of all the physical queues

related to conducting a good interview. I usually am not comfortable with eye contact, so it is

something that I must continue to work on and recognize. Furthermore, until I started social

work, I have never focused on my body language because I didn’t know how important it is in

conversations. Previously, I never looked at body language as something that could tell you

information about someone, and I also did not pay attention to my own or other people’s body

language during conversations. Now, I am trying to work on being more aware of my own and

being observant of others’ body language. I think that all my limitations are things that I must

work on and be more aware of throughout the interviews and assessments that I conduct in the

future.