School refusal keeps a composite teenager's mother needed and her parents' distance unspoken; NU672's Unit 7 genogram and formulation traces that function through three generations using Bowen theory. Searches like "nu 672 unit 7 assignment example", "nu672 unit 7 sample" and "nu672 unit 7 example" land here.
What a finished NU672 Unit 7 genogram and formulation looks like
A one-page genogram, a one-page timeline and about three pages of formulation. The genogram's emphasis is relational rather than medical: fused lines join the daughter and her mother, a distant line runs from the father, and a cutoff line separates him from both of his brothers after a dispute over the family trucking business. The maternal grandmother, rarely out of her house after being widowed, and the grandfather's drinking sit one generation up, with the mother drawn as the daughter who stayed. The timeline lists nodal events with bracketed dates, including the father's move to night shifts [one] month before the refusal began. The formulation names the triangle, the family projection process and the pattern repeating down the maternal line, then states what the symptom does for the system. A final section proposes Bowen coaching with both parents.
How a NU672 Unit 7 example is structured
The figure and the timeline carry the evidence, and every claim in the formulation points back to a line or a date on one of them. Bowen's concepts are used selectively: four of the eight appear, triangles, the family projection process, multigenerational transmission and emotional cutoff, each paired in the same sentence with the relationship it explains. The central paragraph answers one question, what the stomachaches stabilize, and gives three answers in order of confidence: the mother's role as caretaker, a shared parental focus that stands in for the marriage, and a household sealed off from the father's side. A medical cause is not dismissed; the paper records that the pediatric evaluation came back [unremarkable] before the systems reading began. The intervention follows from the model, working with the parents on their own positions rather than treating the daughter alone.
Lines that carry emotion
The drawing uses relationship lines for fusion, conflict, distance and cutoff, explained in a small key. Medical history is kept to what bears on the pattern, so the figure reads as a map of closeness and distance rather than of disease.
A timeline beside the drawing
Nodal events run down the page with bracketed dates: the grandfather's death, the business dispute, the father's switch to nights, the first missed school day. The sequence lets the formulation argue timing instead of asserting it.
The daughter who stayed, twice
The mother remained home through her late teens for her own mother, and her daughter now remains home with her. The paper names this multigenerational transmission and calls it a hypothesis the family has not yet confirmed.
What the stomachaches stabilize
Three functions are ranked by confidence. The symptom keeps the mother needed, gives both parents a problem to discuss that is not their marriage, and keeps the household closed to the father's estranged brothers.
Coaching the parents, not fixing the child
Bowen work usually proceeds through the most motivated adults. The plan meets the parents, coaches the mother on defining her own position and the father on stepping back in, and treats the daughter's return to school as a result rather than the target.
Where marks go in NU672 Unit 7
Systems thinking shows in the formulation, not the figure, which is why a carefully drawn genogram left uninterpreted tends to draw the sharpest criticism. Another familiar weakness is a model mixed from several schools, boundaries from structural therapy in one sentence and differentiation from Bowen in the next, with no single account holding them together. Graders look for the function of the symptom stated outright, and a paper that describes the family without saying what the presenting problem does for it has not formulated anything. Blaming language, such as an enmeshed mother causing the refusal, draws a comment, since systems work locates problems in patterns. Losses also come from an intervention that does not follow from the model, from missing dates, and from a medical cause ignored for a physical complaint.
Get a NU672 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Genogram prompts in NU672 differ in the model they want, Bowen, structural or strategic, and in whether a family is supplied. Share the case or the constraints for an invented family, the model and the rubric. Ready in 24-48h, with no fee on a first request, the sample pairs a relational genogram and timeline with a formulation stating what the symptom does.
NU672 Unit 7 questions, answered
Does the genogram need medical history as well as relationships?
Include medical and psychiatric history where it bears on the pattern, such as a grandparent's untreated anxiety or a parent's drinking. A family therapy genogram is mainly a map of relationships and events, so a figure crowded with unrelated diagnoses can hide the emotional process the formulation depends on. Relationship lines, nodal events and a household boundary usually matter most.
What does it mean to say a symptom serves the family?
It means the symptom, whatever its origins, has come to stabilize something in the system, such as keeping a parent occupied or giving a strained couple a shared concern. The claim is not that anyone chose it. Systems formulations describe function to explain why a problem persists, which then suggests where an intervention could loosen the pattern.
Which of Bowen's eight concepts should appear?
Only those the family's material supports. Triangles and multigenerational transmission appear in most formulations; emotional cutoff, sibling position and the family projection process when the history shows them. Listing all eight with a sentence each reads as a summary of theory. Four concepts, each tied to a line on the genogram, usually make the stronger paper.