The guide

The genogram guide

Four reference pages on the clinical genogram: the notation, the method, a worked example, and what sets it apart from neighbouring objects. They are written for practitioners, with no sign-up and nothing asked in return.

• Genogram symbols

  The reference table: shapes, unions, parent-child lines, relationship quality, cutoffs and loss symbols. With the ten core symbols drawn, and what the notation does not provide for.

• How to draw a genogram

  The method in six steps, from the index person to three generations, in the order that saves you redrawing everything. And the four mistakes that cost the most.

• A genogram, explained

  Four generations read step by step: dated unions, deaths, households, twins, the emotional layer. And what the diagram does not say.

• Genogram, génosociogramme, family tree

  Three objects that are often confused: what they look for, what they record, and in whose hands they belong.

What this guide rests on

The notation described here is that of McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (Genograms: Assessment and Treatment, 4th edition, 2020), and the emotional layer comes from Murray Bowen (Family Therapy in Clinical Practice, 1978). It is standardised by no authority: it is professional usage, very widely shared, with variants.

Where SpatioPsy Genogram adds something the notation does not provide for, these pages say so.

Last updated: 23 August 2026