The Genogram Blog
Clinically-grounded writing on genograms — the theory behind them, how to read one, the questions that make them useful, and how they're used across family therapy, social work, and nursing.
Where to start
Pick the path that matches why you are here. Each one is four reads, in order.
New to genograms
Students and anyone drawing a first genogram for a class or for their own family.
Family therapy and Bowen theory
Therapists and trainees who use the genogram to track patterns, not just people.
Social work, nursing and health
Practitioners who build genograms for an assessment, a care plan or a case file.
Building one
Practical steps: the questions that fill in a genogram, and how to draw one in Word if that is what your program expects.
- How-to
Genogram Questions to Ask in a Family Assessment
A genogram is only as good as the questions behind it. The prompts that surface structure, relationships, health, and the patterns underneath.
- How-to
How to Make a Genogram in Microsoft Word
It's possible with Word's shapes and connectors. Here's the real step-by-step — and the point where most people give up and reach for a real tool.
Reading one
How to go from a finished diagram to what it says about a family — the structure first, then the emotional lines drawn on top.
- Interpreting
How to Read and Interpret a Genogram
Building one is half the job. Here's how to actually read a genogram — structure, the emotional layer, and the patterns that repeat across generations.
- Interpreting
Reading the Emotional Relationship Lines on a Genogram
Close, distant, conflict, cutoff, fused — the emotional layer is what separates a genogram from a family tree. What each line actually means.
Using one in practice
Genograms built for a specific purpose: family health history, faith and values, nursing care plans, recovery work and family of origin.
- Clinical use
Family of Origin: What It Means and How to Map Yours
The family you grew up in becomes the template for how you do relationships now. What “family of origin” means — and why mapping yours is a standard clinical exercise.
- Clinical use
The Medical Genogram: Mapping Family Health History
When the family history is medical — heart disease, cancer, depression — the genogram becomes a risk map. What to record and how to shade it.
- Clinical use
The Spiritual Genogram: Faith and Values Across Generations
Faith travels down a family like everything else. How a spiritual genogram maps belief, conversion, and the tensions around them.
- Clinical use
Genograms in Nursing: A Practical Guide
Why nursing programs assign them, how they fit a family health assessment, and how to build one for a care plan without the busywork.
- Clinical use
Using Genograms in Addiction and Recovery
Substance use runs in patterns, not just genes. How a genogram surfaces the intergenerational picture — and the roles and cutoffs around it.
The ideas behind it
Bowen family systems theory and the patterns a genogram is designed to show — triangles, cutoff, enmeshment, family roles and trauma passed down.
- Theory
Parentification: When a Child Becomes the Parent
Some children run the house, or carry a parent's feelings, long before they should. What parentification is, why it starts, and how it looks when you draw it on a genogram.
- Theory
Dysfunctional Family Roles: The Six Parts People Play — and How to Map Them
Scapegoat, golden child, hero, lost child, mascot, caretaker — the parts people get assigned in a stressed family, what each one costs, and how a genogram makes the casting visible.
- Theory
Internal Family Systems (IFS): Parts, Self, and How It Differs from Bowen
One family systems model looks outward at the family; the other looks inward at the family of parts inside one person. What IFS actually says, and where the two meet.
- Theory
Enmeshed Family: Signs, Causes, and How a Genogram Maps It
When closeness has no boundaries, it stops being closeness. The signs of an enmeshed family, how it differs from healthy connection, and how a genogram makes the pattern visible.
- Theory
Intergenerational Trauma: How It Passes Down — and How a Genogram Maps It
Pain, fear, and survival patterns travel down a family even when no one talks about them. How intergenerational trauma works — and how a genogram makes it visible.
- Theory
Differentiation of Self: Bowen's Core Concept
The ability to stay connected to your family and still think for yourself under pressure. What Bowen meant by differentiation — and why it isn't the same as independence.
- Theory
Triangulation in Family Systems: The Three-Person Pattern
When the tension between two people pulls in a third, that's a triangle. Why families do it, the forms it takes, and how triangulation shows up on a genogram.
- Theory
What Is Family Systems Therapy?
It treats the family — not the individual — as the unit that needs to change. The main schools of family systems therapy, what a session looks like, and where the genogram fits.
- Theory
Emotional Cutoff: When Families Go Silent
Cutting contact can feel like freedom, but Bowen saw it as the most intense form of unresolved attachment. What emotional cutoff is, why it backfires, and how it reads on a genogram.
- Theory
Bowen Family Systems Theory: The Ideas Behind the Genogram
Differentiation, triangles, cutoff, the multigenerational transmission of anxiety — and why the genogram is the tool that makes them visible.