Suicide Loss and Anniversary Reactions
Clinical genogram of suicide loss across generations: death dates, a family secret, depression and alcohol patterns and an anniversary reaction.
Interactive Suicide Loss and Anniversary Reactions
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About This Genogram
A three-generation clinical genogram of a fictional Norwegian-American farming family with two suicides in April, 21 years apart, and a granddaughter whose depression returns every spring. It shows death months, a hidden cause of death, alcohol use and recovery, a cutoff that was never repaired and the chronology a clinician uses to spot anniversary reactions.
How to Read This Genogram
Clinicians typically introduce this type of genogram during an intake assessment to build a three-generation picture of the family before treatment planning begins. The map helps the therapist apply Bowen Family Systems Theory by locating triangles, differentiation levels, and the emotional processes that link presenting symptoms to earlier family patterns. Squares represent male family members, circles represent female family members, horizontal lines connect couples, and vertical lines descend to their children. Dates near symbols mark births, marriages, separations, and deaths, giving the reader a timeline of key family transitions.
Multigenerational transmission patterns become visible when you trace the same relational or behavioral theme across two or more generations. A therapist reading this genogram looks for repetitions in relationship roles, anxiety management strategies, and symptom locations that span grandparents, parents, and the current generation. Identifying those threads allows the clinician to distinguish what belongs to the individual from what was absorbed from the family system, which is often the first step toward lasting change in family or individual therapy.
Key Patterns in This Genogram
Multigenerational Transmission
How conditions and behaviors are passed across generations through family dynamics.
Emotional Relationships
Patterns of enmeshment, cutoff, conflict, and closeness between family members.
Family System Dynamics
How the family operates as a system with roles, boundaries, and recurring patterns.
Clinical Analysis
Sara Halvorsen (40), a veterinarian, started therapy in March 2026 for low mood and insomnia that return every April. The genogram shows why the month matters. Her grandfather Erik, a dairy farmer with depression and heavy drinking, died by suicide in April 1978. Her uncle Jon died by suicide in April 1999 at 38, 21 years later.
The family coped with the first death through secrecy: the children were told their father died in a tractor accident, a secret attached to Ingrid on the chart. Nils, Sara’s father, learned the truth at 30, drank heavily for years and stopped only after Sara’s first depressive episode in 2008. He and Jon were estranged when Jon died. Sara was close to Jon, and the anniversary pattern links her symptoms to two unmourned losses.
The chart supports several clinical tasks: naming the pattern with Sara, involving her partner Malik in a safety plan for the spring, and inviting conversation with her father about both deaths. Her cousin Rebecca, a grief counselor, and her aunt Karin, a hospice nurse, show how the family also turned loss into caring work.
Build a Similar Genogram
A practitioner documenting a family similar to this one would typically record three generations of household composition, significant life events such as births, deaths, marriages, and separations, any relevant medical or mental health history, and the quality of key relationships between members. That information comes from a combination of the client's verbal account, intake questionnaires, and, where available, collateral records. The completed diagram captures both the factual structure of the family and the practitioner's clinical observations about relational patterns, making it a reference that can be shared across disciplines or reviewed at future stages of treatment.
GenogramAI's AI genogram generator allows you to build a diagram like this one from a plain-language description of the family. You type or paste a narrative, such as the basic structure and any key relationships or health history you want to include, and the AI parses that text, places the correct symbols, draws the appropriate relationship lines, and arranges the layout automatically. The result is a fully editable diagram that you can refine, annotate, and export for clinical records or educational use. Try the AI genogram creator to generate your own genogram from a text description in seconds.
Genogram Symbols Used in This Example
The following standard genogram symbols appear in the Suicide Loss and Anniversary Reactions. Each symbol follows McGoldrick and Gerson clinical notation conventions.
Person Symbols
- Male (Square)
- A square represents a male family member.
- Female (Circle)
- A circle represents a female family member.
- Index person (highlighted outline)
- The person at the centre of the assessment is drawn with a highlighted outline.
- Deceased (X)
- An X through the symbol marks a person who has died; birth and death years are written above it.
- Age inside the symbol
- The current age (or age at death) is written inside each symbol, with years above it.
Couples
- Marriage
- A solid line between partners; the marriage year is written on the line (m 90 = married 1990).
- Widowed
- A small x on the couple line marks the end of a marriage through death (wid 15).
- Cohabitation
- A dashed couple line marks partners who live together without marrying.
Emotional Relationships
- Cutoff
- A line broken by two short bars marks an emotional cutoff.
- Close
- Two parallel blue lines mark an emotionally close relationship.
Other
- Family secret
- A red marker beside a person holds a secret that is revealed on click.
- Medical shading
- The left half of a symbol is shaded for a physical or mental illness and the bottom half for alcohol or drug use; each condition has its own colour, listed in the key. Hatching means suspected, a partial fill means in recovery.
Related Resources
- Read more about genograms in grief counseling.
- A mental health genogram tracks depression and substance use across generations.
- Compare with our depression across generations genogram.
- The estranged relationship symbol marks the brothers’ unresolved break.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an anniversary reaction?
How does a genogram help with suicide risk assessment?
Should the cause of death be shown when the family hid it?
Is this a real family?
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Create Your Own Genogram
Use GenogramAI to build your own family genogram with AI assistance. Describe your family and let AI do the rest.
Educational disclaimer: This genogram example is an educational illustration of genogram notation and family systems concepts. Examples based on public figures use publicly available information. They are not clinical documents. All examples are intended for learning genogram symbols and patterns.