Skip to the comparison

For your work

Genograms in family therapy

The genogram was shaped in family therapy, and the intake interview is still where most of them are drawn. This page describes what the chart records at intake, how patterns across generations are read from it, how the emotional lines are chosen, and how a chart drafted from session notes is kept current between sessions.

Last checked on 20 October 20267 minute read

The intake genogram holds three generations and the presenting problem

An intake genogram is drawn in the first session or soon after it, often with the family in the room. It holds three generations, with the index person marked, every person given a birth year, every couple joined by a union line with its dates, and every child hanging from the parents who gave birth to them. Conditions are marked on the person and named in the key, and the presenting problem goes in the notes of the index person, where it stays with the chart.

The Hawkins family on the home page is written as a family therapy intake. Ellie, in the third generation, has generalised anxiety disorder and has not been to school since March 2026. Her father has been in recovery from alcohol misuse since 2019, her grandmother has had depression since her grandfather died in 2021, and her aunt and uncle are in conflict over their mother’s care. Each fact is one symbol or one line.

771944–2021Walter HawkinsHeart diseaseRetired postman791947–Joan HawkinsDepressionRetired schoolsecretary801946–Raymond FletcherRetired electrician771949–Pauline FletcherRetired pharmacyassistant571969–Carol HawkinsDistrict nurse531973–Neil HawkinsCar mechanic541972–Dawn ReillyUnknown551971–Paul HawkinsAlcohol misuseTrain driver521974–Helen HawkinsPrimary schoolteacher202006–Jack HawkinsApprenticeplumber172009–Ellie HawkinsGeneralised anxiety disorderSixth form student
Hawkins · anxiety and lossThe Hawkins intake. Three generations, four conditions in colour and five emotional lines, with the index person in the third generation.

Patterns across generations are read down the columns and across the rows

A genogram is read in two directions. Down a column it shows what repeats in one line of a family, such as the alcohol misuse that runs from Walter through Paul in the Hawkins chart. Across a row it shows the ties among people of one generation, which is where triangles become visible. A triangle is a pair whose tension is routed through a third person, and on a chart it appears as a close line and a hostile line meeting at the same point.

Dates are the third thing to read. The year a symptom began is written beside the person, and when it falls in the same year as a death or a separation elsewhere on the chart, the family can be asked about the connection. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry call this a date convergence, and several of the clinical templates are built around one. The chart does not interpret. It puts the facts near enough to each other that the pattern is seen.

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Close

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Fused

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Distant

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Hostile

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Cutoff

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Cutoff repaired

Six emotional lines from the notation reference. Fused and close are often confused, and the distinction is worth making in front of the family.

A blended family puts the loyalty conflict on the chart

A blended family takes more of the chart than a nuclear one, and the blended family template shows why. Sophie, fifteen, lives with her mother, her stepfather, her brother and a half-sister born in 2022, and spends alternate weekends with her father. Her stepfather has a son from a former marriage in a third household. Two prior marriages are drawn with each former partner on the far side, step links sit beside the biological ones, and the three households are drawn as groups.

The loyalty conflict that brought the family in is drawn in the emotional lines. Sophie is close to her father, hostile with her stepfather and close but hostile with her mother, while her brother is close to the stepfather, which Sophie calls taking sides. A line can be changed in the session when someone in the room disagrees with it.

Mendoza–Bennett household · 2020–nowVargas household202020202020441982–David MarshElectrician421984–Laura BennettPediatric nurse461980–Carlos MendozaRestaurant manager441982–Teresa VargasBank teller152011–Sophie MarshDepression10th grader132013–Ethan MarshDyslexia8th grader42022–Lucía MendozaPreschooler172009–Mateo Mendoza12th grader
Blended family with step- and half-siblingsThe blended family template. Two households, step links beside biological ones, and a loyalty conflict drawn as close and hostile lines.

Abuse and cutoff are drawn with the client and with care

The notation has directed lines for emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and the domestic violence template uses them down three generations, from a grandfather who beat his son to a husband who pushed his wife down the stairs and later hit her daughter. It also draws a protective order with supervised contact, a shelter, a kinship placement, a cutoff between a son and his father, and a cutoff between a mother and daughter that has since been repaired.

In practice an abuse line is drawn only when the client knows it is being drawn and agrees with the wording of the key, because the chart may be seen by the other party in a custody dispute or by a court. Some therapists keep two charts, one for the session with every line present and one for the record with the structure and the dates alone. A line that rests on a suspicion is left off.

Follow-up changes keep the chart current between sessions

Between sessions the chart changes. A grandparent dies, a couple separates, a line that was hostile at intake softens. The draft feature takes a few sentences of session notes and returns every person, union, parent line and emotional line it found, each marked as stated or inferred and each with the sentence that supports it. Once the first draft has been added, each follow-up sentence, such as that a grandfather died in the spring, becomes a change with its own card and an undo, with four follow-up changes on each draft.

The draft draws what the notes say and nothing else. It does not weigh the evidence for a hostile line, it does not decide between close and fused, and it sets aside anything the notes leave open, such as a marriage whose ending is implied but not dated. The therapist writes the clinical judgement in the notes, and the draft places it on the chart where it can be checked. A free account drafts five families a month, and Pro has no monthly limit.

Your notes

Ellie Hawkins, born 2009, is the index person and has generalised anxiety disorder. Her parents, Paul Hawkins, born 1971, and Helen Hawkins, born 1974, married in 2003 and are distant. Paul’s parents, Walter Hawkins, born 1944, and Joan Hawkins, born 1947, married in 1968 and were fused. Walter died in 2021 and Joan has had depression since.

Found in the notes

  • Ellie Hawkins, 2009, index
  • Paul Hawkins, 1971
  • Helen Hawkins, 1974
  • Walter Hawkins, 1944, died 2021
  • Joan Hawkins, 1947
  • Paul and Helen, married 2003, distant
  • Walter and Joan, married 1968, fused
  • Joan, depression since 2021

On the chart

771944–2021Walter HawkinsHeart diseaseRetired postman791947–Joan HawkinsDepressionRetired schoolsecretary801946–Raymond FletcherRetired electrician771949–Pauline FletcherRetired pharmacyassistant571969–Carol HawkinsDistrict nurse531973–Neil HawkinsCar mechanic541972–Dawn ReillyUnknown551971–Paul HawkinsAlcohol misuseTrain driver521974–Helen HawkinsPrimary schoolteacher202006–Jack HawkinsApprenticeplumber172009–Ellie HawkinsGeneralised anxiety disorderSixth form student
Session notes on the Hawkins family drafted into the chart. A later sentence about a death or a separation arrives as a change with its own card.

Before you decide

Drawing with the family rather than for them

The chart is most useful when the family watches it being drawn and corrects it. The editor runs on a tablet with nothing to install, so the chart can be turned towards the family and changed with them.

Dating the emotional lines

A close line records how two people were at the time it was drawn, not a permanent truth about them. Write the date in the notes of one of the two people, and change the line when the relationship changes rather than leaving the intake reading on a chart that is two years old.

Where the chart is kept

Work stays in the browser until it is saved to an account, and an account holds the chart from any computer. The record copy belongs with your other clinical records, so export a PDF for the file and keep the JSON backup, which reopens the chart with its notes and lines.

What the draft makes of feelings in the notes

The draft draws an emotional line when a sentence names a tie in the terms of the notation, such as that two people are close, distant, hostile or cut off. It does not read tone, and it does not turn a description of an argument into a hostile line unless the notes call it one, so the words in the notes should be the words you want on the chart.

Open the Hawkins intake and change a line, or paste a few sentences of session notes and review the draft. The first chart needs no account.

Open the editor