What is a genogram?

A full genogram includes these parts:

• People. A square for a male, a circle for a female and a diamond for a person of unknown gender, with the birth year above the symbol and an X through it for a death, as on the genogram symbols chart.
• Couple and child lines. A line joins each couple, with slashes across it for a separation or divorce, and each child is joined to that line, oldest on the left. The relationship lines guide has every couple line.
• Emotional bonds. A line between two people for how they relate, such as close, distant or in conflict, or the cutoff line when contact has stopped.
• Health conditions. A colored fill in part of a person's symbol for each condition. These fills are the core of a medical genogram.
• Households. A dashed outline around the people who live together, as in the multigenerational household example.
• Notes. Short facts under a name, such as a cause of death or, on a career genogram, each relative's job.
• The key. A list of each person symbol, couple and child line, emotional bond and condition fill used in the genogram, explained on the genogram key page.

On a family tree you can find names, dates and who is descended from whom. A genogram has the same structure in a standard notation, with relationships, health conditions and life events added, so a reader can see how the family works as well as who is in it. The genogram vs family tree example has one family drawn both ways.

Family therapists use a genogram to look for patterns that repeat across generations, such as triangles, cutoffs and fused relationships, which are concepts from Bowen family systems theory. The guide to genograms in family therapy has more on their use in practice, and the page on genograms in marriage and family therapy has a 3 generation example.

Social workers draw genograms in assessments, at intake or in a child welfare case, to see who is in a client's family and who could offer support, often next to an ecomap of the services around the family. The page on genograms in social work has a kinship care example.

Nurses and physicians use a medical genogram to take a family health history and look for conditions that run in the family, such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer, and a medical genogram is also the usual assignment for nursing students. The page on genograms in nursing has a family health history example.

School, career and pastoral counselors use genograms to understand the family a client comes from. On a career genogram each relative's job is written under their name, and a cultural genogram has each person's heritage, religion and migration added. Students who draw a family systems genogram for coursework can start from the example on the page about genograms in psychology and counseling.

Genograms grew out of the family diagram that Murray Bowen used to follow emotional patterns across generations in his family systems theory. Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson standardized the notation in their 1985 book Genograms in Family Assessment, and most clinicians still follow its symbols and its three-generation default.

A genogram is drawn in layers, starting with the people and the couple and child lines, then the emotional bonds, health conditions and notes. Each step is described in the how to make a genogram guide, and in the free genogram maker you can draw one in your browser without an account and export it with its key.