How to Make a Genogram
Build it the way a clinician actually does: from the inside out. You start with one person, work up to their grandparents and down to their children for three generations of structure, then go back over the chart twice — once for the facts, once for the feeling. The order matters. Try to draw the emotional relationships before the family is laid out and you will redo half of it. The eight steps below follow the real build sequence, and you can work along in the free genogram maker as you read.
A three-generation genogram — couples, children, and the emotional lines between them.
- Male
- Female
- Deceased
- Index person
- Close
- Conflict
Standard notation here follows Monica McGoldrick's system, the one most MFT and social-work programs teach and most supervisors grade against.
- 1
Place the index person first
Everything anchors to one person: the index person (the proband, or in a session, your identified client). Square for male, circle for female, age inside the symbol. Give them the double-line border that marks them as the person the genogram is about. Put them low and centered on the page — you are about to build a generation above and below, so leave room.
- 2
Fill in their generation
Add the index person's partner to the side, then their siblings in birth order, oldest on the left. Connect a couple with the union line that fits the facts: solid for marriage, dashed for cohabiting, one slash for separated, two for divorced. Note the marriage year on the line. This horizontal row is the spine the rest of the chart hangs from.
- 3
Build up to the parents and grandparents
Run a vertical line up from each partner to their parents, then up again to the grandparents. Two parents and four grandparents per side reach the three generations a genogram needs — fewer than three and you cannot see anything repeat. This is the step people rush; the patterns you are looking for live in the generation above the client, not in the client's own row.
- 4
Add the children below
Drop a sibling line down from the couple to each child, again oldest on the left. Solid line for biological children, dashed for adopted or foster, a jagged line for twins joined at the same point. With parents above and children below, you now have a three-generation skeleton — structure done, facts and feeling still to come.
- 5
Record names, dates, and deaths
Now load the chart with fact. Name beside each symbol, birth and death years above it, current age inside. Put an X through anyone deceased and write the year they died. A genogram is also a timeline: a parent who died at 41 and a client who is turning 40 is the kind of detail this format is built to surface.
- 6
Layer the emotional relationships
This is the layer that turns a chart into a genogram, and the one assignments most often miss. Draw the relationship lines between people: two or three parallel lines for close or fused, a single thin line for distant, a jagged sawtooth for conflict, and a line cut by two short bars for an emotional cut-off. McGoldrick's convention is to keep these lines a different weight from the structural lines so the reader can tell family structure from family feeling at a glance.
- 7
Mark medical and behavioral history
If the genogram is tracking health — addiction, depression, heart disease, a hereditary condition — shade or color each symbol against a legend in the corner. One condition fills the symbol; two or more split it into quadrants. This is what makes a genogram a clinical instrument and not a decorated family tree.
- 8
Read it back, then export
Step away from the symbols and read the whole thing as one picture: does a pattern jump out across the three generations? Fix any crossed lines or crowded corners, then export a clean PDF or PNG for the case file, the assignment, or the licensure portfolio.
The mistake graders see most: handing in a family tree
The single most common reason a genogram comes back marked down is that it stops at structure. Squares, circles, marriage lines, three clean generations — and nothing else. That is a family tree. A genogram is only a genogram once the emotional layer is on it: who is close, who is cut off, where the conflict runs. If a supervisor cannot see a relationship pattern, you have drawn the family's skeleton and left out its life.
Two others worth checking before you submit: the index person needs the double-line border (without it, no one can tell whose chart this is), and the relationship lines should sit at a different weight from the structural lines so the two layers do not blur into one tangle.
Build a genogram now — free
Add people, draw relationships, and export a clean PDF or PNG. No download, works on any device.
Open the genogram makerFrequently asked questions
- How many generations should a genogram include?
- At least three. A standard genogram covers the index person, their parents, and their grandparents — three generations is the minimum needed to see patterns repeat across a family.
- What is the difference between a genogram and a family tree?
- A family tree records who is related to whom and stops there. A genogram keeps that structure and adds two clinical layers on top: the emotional quality of each relationship (close, distant, conflict, cut-off) and the medical or behavioral history that runs through the family. The structure is the part both share; the relationship and health layers are what make a genogram worth a clinician's time.
- Do I need special software to make a genogram?
- No, but it helps. You can draw one by hand or in McGoldrick's notation on paper. A dedicated tool keeps the symbols correct and the lines from crossing as the family grows past a dozen people. This genogram maker runs in your browser on any device, needs no download, and exports a clean PDF or PNG you can drop straight into an assignment or case file.
- How long does it take to make a genogram?
- A basic three-generation genogram takes about 10–15 minutes once you know the symbols. Using the Add parents / partner / child shortcuts in the maker, you can build the structure in a few clicks and then fill in details.