What Is a Genogram?
A genogram is a diagram of a family that records both structure and relationship quality using standard symbols. Below is a live, fictional three-generation genogram with the emotional layer switched on — the part that makes it a genogram rather than a family tree.
Drag people to arrange. Click a person to edit their details.
Editable preview — your changes aren't saved here.
Quick start
- Add people with the ▢ ◯ ◇ buttons, then click the canvas.
- Use Connect… for marriages, children, and emotional lines.
- Click a person to edit name, years, deceased, notes.
- Drag to arrange, or hit Auto-arrange.
- Export as PNG or PDF — the legend builds itself.
Export
includes watermarkIncludes a title block and an auto-generated legend of the symbols you used.
The definition
A genogram is a graphic family history that maps at least three generations, using standardised notation to record who is related to whom, by what kind of bond, and with what emotional quality. It comes out of Murray Bowen's family systems theory, and the notation nearly everyone uses was standardised by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson in Genograms: Assessment and Intervention.
The premise is that presenting problems rarely belong to one person. Anxiety, addiction, estrangement, illness and loss tend to run in patterns, and those patterns are hard to see in a narrative but obvious in a diagram. A genogram makes the pattern discussable.
What a genogram records that a family tree does not
- Relationship quality. Close, fused, distant, conflictual and cut-off lines describe how people actually relate. Fused does not mean "very close" — it means low differentiation, where one person's anxiety immediately becomes the other's.
- Household versus lineage. Dashed and dotted child lines distinguish adopted and foster children, so a reader can see who was raised together as distinct from who shares descent.
- Union status and dates. Marriage, cohabitation, separation and divorce each have their own marking, usually dated on the line.
- Clinical or behavioural notes. Diagnoses, ages at death, substance use and migration are commonly annotated on or beside the symbol.
If your assignment or clinician used the two words interchangeably, the side-by-side comparison on genogram vs. family tree is worth reading — the two are graded differently for a reason.
Who uses genograms
Therapists and counselors draw them at intake and revisit them through treatment; see genograms in family therapy. Nurses and physicians use the closely related family health history to flag hereditary risk — see genograms in nursing. Social workers map household composition, placement history and kinship supports, often pairing the diagram with an ecomap. There are also focused variants: the cultural genogram used in clinical training, and the career genogram used in career counseling.
How to read one
Start at the bottom with the doubled outline — that is the index person, whoever the genogram is about. Work upward one generation at a time, reading union lines left to right and children oldest to youngest. Then switch attention to the emotional lines and look for repetition: divorce over divorce, an estranged firstborn in each generation, losses at the same age. Repeats are hypotheses rather than verdicts, but they are what focus the questions.
Every shape and line is catalogued on the genogram symbols reference, with a condensed printable version on the genogram key. To build one, start from a template or read the step-by-step guide.
Genogram FAQ
›What is a genogram in simple terms?
It is a family map that shows who is related to whom and what those relationships are actually like. Standard shapes and lines record sex, births, deaths, marriages and divorces, and a second layer of lines records emotional quality — close, distant, conflictual, cut off — so patterns across generations become visible on one page.
›What is the difference between a genogram and a family tree?
A family tree records lineage: who descended from whom. A genogram records lineage plus relationship quality, household composition, and often health or behavioural information, using standardised clinical notation. The emotional-relationship layer is the clearest dividing line — family trees do not have one.
›How many generations should a genogram include?
Three is the working standard — the index person, their parents, and their grandparents. Three generations is usually the minimum needed to show a pattern repeating rather than a single event, which is the whole point of drawing one.
›Who invented the genogram?
It grew out of Murray Bowen's family systems theory in the mid-twentieth century. The notation most people use today was standardised by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson in their book Genograms: Assessment and Intervention, which is why symbols are largely consistent across textbooks and software.
›What do the shapes on a genogram mean?
Squares are male, circles female, and diamonds mark unknown or unspecified sex. A doubled outline marks the index person — whoever the genogram is about — and a cross through the shape marks someone who has died. Full details are on the symbols reference.