At a glance
Who each one suits
A genogram is the right diagram when
The question is about the family itself. Who is related to whom, which unions have ended, which relationships are close or hostile, what conditions run through the generations and who lives in one household are all questions a genogram answers in a notation that a reader can check against the key. It is the diagram of pattern over time.
An ecomap is the right diagram when
The question is about the family and the world. Whether a household has a doctor, whether the school is a support or a source of pressure, whether the benefits office, the church and the grandmother across the road are connections of strength or of stress are questions an ecomap answers in one picture. It is the diagram of resources and pressures now.
A genogram looks inward at the family, and an ecomap looks outward
A genogram is drawn around one person, the index, and records the family for three generations or so in the notation of McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry. Squares and circles are people, horizontal lines are unions, vertical lines are children, and a second line between two symbols shows whether they are close, fused, distant, hostile or cut off. Conditions are coloured and named in the key, and a dashed boundary shows who lives together. The chart is read for pattern across time, such as a loss in one generation and an anxiety in the next.
An ecomap, which comes from social work practice, puts the household in a large circle in the middle of the page and arranges the outside world around it in smaller circles, one each for school, work, health services, extended family, friends, faith, agencies and anything else that touches the family. A line from the household to each circle shows the connection, drawn thick for a strong one, thin or dashed for a weak one and hatched for a stressful one, with arrows to show whether energy flows in, out or both ways. The chart is read for resources and pressures as they stand today.
Both use lines for the quality of a connection
The two diagrams share one idea, which is that a line can say more than that two things are joined. In a genogram the emotional lines are a fixed set, so that a double line always means close, a triple line always means fused, a jagged line always means hostile and a line with a break always means cut off. In an ecomap the convention is looser, and the thick, thin, dashed and hatched lines are explained in a legend that the author draws, often with arrows to show the direction of support or demand.
The difference is in what the lines join. A genogram line runs between two people, and the people are nearly always relatives. An ecomap line runs between the household and something outside it, which may be a person, such as a friend or a neighbour, or may be an institution, such as a school, a clinic or a benefits office. A genogram can also join a person to an institution, since the notation provides for it, and that is where the two diagrams meet.
Close
Distant
Hostile
Cutoff
Focused on
Genogram Builder can hold the outside supports on the same chart
Genogram Builder does not draw the circle of an ecomap, and this page does not pretend otherwise. What it offers is the part of an ecomap that fits the genogram notation. A household group draws the dashed boundary around the people who live together, so that the household at the centre of an ecomap is visible on the genogram. An institution, which can be a school, a hospital, an agency, a religious community, a support group or a care home, is joined to a person with its own line and the years of the connection. A note beside a person records the quality of a support in a sentence.
People outside the family can also be drawn as ordinary people beside the client, which is what the template below does. A coach, a school counsellor, a best friend and a youth pastor stand beside a teenager and her family, joined to her by the same support, pressure and closeness lines that join the relatives, and the household boundary shows who lives with whom. The result is one chart that answers the genogram question and most of the ecomap question.
A genogram with its supports is drawn in a few steps
Begin with the family. Draw the three generations around the client by hand with the Person and Connect tools, or write them down in a few sentences and let the draft place them, then add the emotional lines and the conditions. Mark the household with a group so that the boundary is visible. Then add the outside world. Each institution is joined to the person it serves with its kind and its dates, and each outside person who matters, a friend, a coach, a neighbour, is drawn beside the family with the line that describes the connection.
When the assignment or the case file asks for a classic ecomap with the household in a circle, draw that on paper or in a whiteboard tool from the same information, and keep the genogram for the family itself. The two then agree, because they were drawn from one set of notes, and the genogram carries the key that lets a reader check every line.
- Draw the family
Three generations around the client, by hand or from a few sentences of notes, with the emotional lines and the conditions.
- Mark the household
Group the people who live together so that the dashed boundary shows on the chart.
- Add the institutions
Join each school, clinic, agency, faith community or support group to the person it serves, with its dates.
- Add the outside people
Draw the friend, the coach or the neighbour beside the family and join them with the line that fits.
Feature by feature
Each row states what the two products offer in their own terms. Checked on 20 October 2026 against the notation reference on this site.
| Feature | A genogram | An ecomap |
|---|---|---|
| What sits at the centre | ||
| An index person | Included. Marked with a double line, with the family around them. | In part. A person or, more often, the whole household in one circle. |
| The household | Included. A dashed boundary around the people who live together. | Included. The large circle in the middle of the page. |
| Generations | Included. Usually three, with dates. | Not included. None. The chart is a snapshot of now. |
| What surrounds it | ||
| Relatives | Included. Parents, grandparents, siblings, partners and children, each as a symbol. | In part. Extended family as one circle, or a few circles. |
| Institutions | Included. Schools, hospitals, agencies, faith communities and support groups joined to a person. | Included. A circle each, joined to the household. |
| Friends and neighbours | In part. Drawn as people beside the family when they matter. | Included. A circle each, or one circle for friends. |
| Work, money and housing | In part. An occupation label and a note. | Included. A circle each, with the strength of the connection. |
| Lines | ||
| Unions and parent lines | Included. Married, cohabiting, separated, divorced, and biological, adopted, foster and step children. | Not included. None. |
| Emotional ties | Included. Close, fused, distant, hostile, cut off and the rest of the standard set. | In part. Strong, weak or stressful, between the household and the world. |
| Direction of support | In part. Focused-on lines and caretaker lines carry a direction. | Included. Arrows on every line. |
| A fixed notation | Included. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, with a key on every chart drawn here. | Not included. Conventions vary, and the author draws the legend. |
| Health and time | ||
| Conditions | Included. Shaded or coloured symbols, named in the key. | In part. A health service as a circle, not a condition on a person. |
| Dates and deaths | Included. Birth, death, marriage and separation dates. | Not included. None. |
Sources: Genogram symbols and relationship lines, the documentation.
Before you decide
Whether an ecomap needs a genogram first
Not strictly, but the two are usually drawn together, and the genogram is the better place to start. It establishes who is in the household and who the relatives are, and the ecomap then shows what surrounds that household. Drawing both from one set of notes keeps them in agreement.
Who draws ecomaps
Social workers, family nurses, care coordinators and students on those courses draw them most, because their work is about resources and pressures around a household as much as about the family itself. Therapists tend to draw genograms and add the supports that matter to the case.
Whether Genogram Builder draws a classic ecomap
No. It does not draw the household circle with the outside world arranged around it. It records the outside supports on the genogram through household groups, institutions, notes and people drawn beside the family, which answers most of the ecomap question on one chart. A classic ecomap is drawn on paper or in a whiteboard tool from the same notes.
What this page leaves out
It describes the two diagrams as they are commonly drawn and the notation as this site draws it. Ecomap conventions vary between textbooks and agencies, and this page does not prefer one over another.
Draw a genogram in the browser now, or open the ecomap template and change it for your own case. No account is needed to begin.
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