The chart begins with the index person and grows outwards from them
Decide first who the genogram is for. In therapy this is the client, in social work the child or the adult whose case is open, in a medical history the patient and in a student assignment usually the student. Draw that person low on the page, as a square or a circle with the double outline that marks the index person, and write the name beneath and the year of birth above. Everything else on the chart is placed in relation to this symbol, which is why starting anywhere else leads to a crowded corner.
In the editor the same step is to choose Person on the tool rail, click the canvas, type the name and click the crown at the top of the side panel to make the person the index. Then add the generations above. Pointing at the person shows a ring of buttons, and Parents places a father and a mother on the row above, already joined to each other and to the child. Pointing at each parent and choosing Parents again adds the grandparents, which completes the three generations. On paper, leave more room above than seems necessary, because the row of the grandparents is nearly always wider than the one below it once the aunts and uncles are added.
- Start with the index person
Draw the person the chart is for near the bottom of the page, with a double outline, a name and a year of birth.
- Add the generations
Place the parents on the row above and the grandparents above them, so that three generations are in place before anyone else.
- Add the unions and the children
Join each couple with a line beneath them, mark its kind and its years, and hang every child from the right couple line in order of age.
- Add the ties and the conditions
Draw the emotional lines you can stand behind, fill the symbols for conditions and write the cause beside each death.
- Add the key
List every symbol and line the chart uses, with its meaning, the name of the family and the date.
- Check the chart
Read it once against the facts and once against the page, and redraw anything that a stranger could misread.
Unions and children are drawn before any emotional line is added
With the three generations in place, add the brothers and sisters of the index person and of each parent, from the eldest on the left to the youngest on the right, and then the partners and children of anyone who has them. Each couple is joined by a line that drops from both symbols and runs beneath them, and each child hangs from that line. The kind of union is written into the line itself, with a solid line for a marriage, a dashed one for a couple who live together, one slash for a separation and two for a divorce, with the years on the line. A former partner is drawn on the far side of the person, so that the present couple stays together on the page.
Draw all of this before any emotional line. The structure of a family is a matter of record, and if it is complete and correct the emotional lines can be added or removed later without disturbing anything. In the editor the Sibling, Partner and Child buttons on the ring do the placing, and Arrange evens out the rows and seats the siblings by age.
The ties, the conditions and the key turn the structure into a genogram
Now add the emotional lines, which run between any two people regardless of where they stand on the chart. Use them sparingly and only for what you have been told or have observed, since every line is a claim about two people. Six of the lines have a direction, shown by an arrowhead, and the arrow must point at the person who receives the care, the attention or the harm. In the editor the heart button on the ring, Emotional relationship, opens the list of lines grouped by meaning, and the first person clicked is the one from whom a directed line starts.
Conditions are recorded on the symbol itself. Fill the left half for a psychological or physical problem and the lower half for alcohol or drug misuse, and give the condition a name and a date in the key. A death is a cross through the symbol, with the year above and the cause beside it. Finally, draw the key. On paper that means a column at the side of the page listing every symbol and line the chart uses and what each one means, with the name of the family and the date at the top. The editor builds this key as the chart grows and places it beside or beneath the family.
A finished genogram is checked against the facts and against the page
Check the chart in two passes. The first pass is against the facts. Every person has a name and a year, every couple has a kind and a date, every child hangs from the right couple, and the ages agree with the dates, so that no child is older than a parent and nobody is married before they were born. The second pass is against the page. No line should cross a name, no two symbols should touch, each generation should sit on one row and the key should list nothing that the chart does not contain. A chart that fails the second pass is redrawn, which takes less time in the editor, where Arrange rebuilds the rows in one step and every emotional line is routed around the symbols in its path.
The blended family below shows what a finished chart carries. Two former marriages are drawn on the far sides, the step links sit beside the biological ones, two households are outlined, and the loyalty conflict that brought the family to therapy appears as a close line to the father and a close but hostile line to the mother.
The same chart can be drafted from notes and reviewed item by item
The steps above are the order in which a genogram is thought through, and they remain the order even when the drawing is done for you. The editor can take a page of written notes, such as an intake summary or a case vignette, and draft the chart from them. Choose Describe in the top bar, say what kind of text it is, paste the notes and choose Draft genogram. The assistant finds the people, their dates, their unions, their children and the ties and conditions the notes describe, draws them by generation and ties each item to the sentence it came from.
The draft is not the chart until you have reviewed it. Items that the notes state plainly are ready, and items that were inferred or that touch something sensitive are numbered and listed for a look, with the quotation beside each. You keep, edit or remove each one, answer any question the assistant asks about a sentence that could be read two ways, and then add the whole draft in one step, which one undo reverses. The chart is then checked in the same two passes as one drawn by hand.
Your notes
Ellie Hawkins, born 2009, is the client and has generalised anxiety disorder. Her grandparents Walter and Joan Hawkins married in 1968 and were fused. Walter had heart disease and died in 2021, and Joan has had depression since his death. Her aunt Carol and her uncle Neil are in conflict over the care of their mother.
Found in the notes
- Ellie Hawkins, 2009, index person
- Ellie, generalised anxiety disorder
- Walter and Joan, married 1968
- Walter and Joan, fused
- Walter, heart disease, died 2021
- Joan, depression since 2021
- Carol and Neil, hostile
On the chart
Before you decide
How long a genogram takes to draw
A three generation family of ten or twelve people takes an hour or so on paper, most of it spent on the layout, and perhaps twenty minutes in the editor, where the rows and the spacing are handled for you. Drafting from notes is faster still, but the review should not be hurried, because it is where the mistakes are caught. Gathering the facts takes longer than any of this, and it is usual to draw the chart over two or three conversations rather than one.
What to do when a fact is not known
Leave it blank. A symbol without a year and a couple line without a date are honest, and a guessed date is a mistake that will be repeated by everyone who copies the chart. The notation has a diamond for a person whose sex is not known and a line for parentage that is uncertain, and a note on the chart can say what is missing and whom to ask.
Whether to draw on paper or in an editor
Paper is faster to start and better in the room with a family, and many therapists draw the first version by hand with the client watching. An editor is better for the version that will be kept, since it can be corrected without being redrawn, it keeps the key in step with the chart and it exports a clean figure for a file or an essay.
How much of a family to include
Enough to show the pattern you are looking for and no more. Three generations around the index person is the norm, with the siblings on each row. Cousins, great-grandparents and the former partners of relatives are included when they bear on the question and left out when they do not, and a note can record that they exist. A chart with sixty people on it is a family tree with lines drawn over it, and nobody will read it.
Draw a genogram by hand in the browser, or paste your notes under Describe and review the draft. No account is needed to begin.
Open the editor