Draw an emotional relationship
A relationship line shows the quality of the bond between two people, for example whether it is close, distant or hostile. You can draw one between any two people on the chart.
McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (2020) define a set of relationship lines, also called interactional lines, that describe how two members of a family relate to each other. These lines are drawn in addition to the couple lines and child lines, which record the structure of the family. A relationship line records an assessment made at a particular time, and it should be revised when that assessment changes.
Procedure
- 1
Hover over the first person, and click Emotional relationship, the heart button to the right of Parents on the ring.
- 2
Click the second person. A list of relationship lines opens, grouped by meaning.
- 3
Hover over a line in the list to preview it on the canvas.
- 4
Click the line that describes the relationship, such as Close or Hostile.
A relationship line can also be drawn with the Connect tool. Press C, click both people, select the Emotional tie tab in the card, and click a line.
Lines that have a direction
Six of the lines have a direction, which is shown by an arrowhead. The arrowhead points at the second person clicked, so the person who focuses on, cares for or harms the other should be clicked first. If the direction is wrong, click the line, and then click Swap direction in its toolbar.
Changing a line later
Clicking a relationship line shows a toolbar above it, from which the kind of line, its shape and its label can be changed. More options in the toolbar opens the same settings in the side panel. These tasks are described in Choose the right relationship line, Bend or reshape a relationship line and Label, hide or delete a relationship line.
Keyboard shortcuts
- C
- Choose the **Connect** tool, which also draws relationship lines.
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