A tree of generations, and a map of the surrounding flow

A change in one family member does not stay with that person. It moves through the household in a circular way. The family is the next unit after the individual, and often already knows a problem the person has not yet seen, which is why a family can help objectify how someone is seen. Family practice usually takes the form of counseling or therapy. that Mary Richmond also brought an eco-systemic view into practice and took family-level work seriously. Family rules, it adds, set the range of behavior a family can accept, a point it explains through cybernetics — the idea of a self-regulating machine, applied to the mental world.

A genogram presents members and relationships across three or more generations as a family tree. It shows how a repeating problem is tied into the family's context. The questions asked while it is being drawn can show how the presenting problem reflects the family's interactions, and from that a hypothesis can be set. The family itself may also gain insight into emotional systems and patterns that run across generations. An ecomap, by contrast, draws the family's living space: relationships, work, and institutions, as a map of resource flows and of the family's position in a wider society. Interior information and the surrounding environment are read together.

What the family hopes for, not only what the worker hopes for

The aim of an intervention, the account insists, is not the state the social worker hopes for, but a state the whole family hopes for. Early on, a family may treat the visit as an invasion and resist. The worker is asked to focus on the family's needs, respect autonomy, avoid creating dependence, reassess that resistance, keep a professional distance, and hold expectations at a moderate level. The steps run: a list of problems, ranked with the family by urgency; a review of the problem's history, earlier efforts, and outside help; a provisional hypothesis, which can change as work is repeated; and goals stated clearly enough that a drop in the problem behavior can be measured. As a general rule, more than two sessions a week, or more than two in a day, should be avoided.

Relationship skills sit underneath those steps. A worker should listen calmly and to the end, and make the room feel safe. Public matters should be stated honestly, and sometimes a careful self-disclosure is used. Alcohol abuse is a major factor in domestic and sexual violence and in a decline of family function. If serious violence or abuse is suspected, the approach should be individual counseling. Gender discrimination and cultural differences in multicultural families should be handled with respect and a sense of balance. The two drawings remain different tools: the genogram for a tree of generations, the ecomap for the flow around the house.

Sources

1. genograms and ecomaps as family-assessment tools, and on the social worker's methods and roles in family intervention.

Last updated: 14 November 2026