Families are deeply connected to the world around them—through people, places, and systems that offer support or create stress. This comprehensive family ecomap guide walks you through why ecomaps matter, what to include, and how to create one step by step. Whether you’re a social worker, therapist, teacher, or simply interested in family dynamics, this will help you use ecomaps with confidence and care.
What Is a Family Ecomap
A family ecomap is a visual tool that illustrates the relationships between a family and the various systems in their environment. It helps to identify sources of support and stress, providing a comprehensive view of the family’s social context.
A family ecomap is a specific type of ecomap, tailored to focus on the family unit and its interactions with external systems. While all ecomaps serve as visual tools to depict an individual’s or group’s social and environmental relationships, the family ecomap zeroes in on the familial context.
The purpose of a family ecomap is to understand what’s going on in a family’s life by looking at their connections to the outside world. It helps reveal who’s helping the family, who might be causing stress, and where extra support might be needed. It’s often used by social workers, counselors, or teachers to better support families in a real and practical way.
Components of a Family Ecomap
Creating a family ecomap involves more than just drawing connections; it’s about capturing the essence of a family’s interactions with their environment. Here’s what to include in a family ecomap:
1. Family unit
At the center of the ecomap is the family itself. This includes the people living together—parents, children, or anyone playing a key role in the household. It’s the starting point for understanding how the family connects with the outside world.
2. External systems
These are people, services, and places outside the home that the family interacts with regularly. This can include extended family, friends, schools, doctors, workplaces, religious groups, community programs, or even neighbors. These systems can either support the family or contribute to their stress.
3. Nature of relationships
This refers to how the family connects with each external system. Is the relationship helpful and positive, or is it tense and difficult? Some relationships might be close and caring, while others could be distant or even harmful. This helps paint a more complete picture of what the family is going through.
4. Strength of connections
Not all relationships are equal. Some are strong and consistent, others are weak or fading. In a family ecomap, different lines are used to show this:
- A solid line shows a strong, supportive relationship.
- A dotted line shows a weaker or uncertain connection.
- A jagged line shows a stressful or harmful relationship.
- Arrows may be used to show the flow of energy or influence—whether it’s mostly going to or from the family.
Family Ecomap Symbols
To understand a family ecomap, it’s important to know what the symbols mean. Each line, arrow, and shape carries valuable information about the family’s relationships and how they interact with the world around them. Here’s a breakdown of the most commonly used family ecomap symbols and what they represent.
1. Lines representing relationship strength
- Solid line: Indicates a strong, supportive relationship. This could represent a close bond with a family member or a trusted friend.
- Dashed line: Represents a weaker or less consistent connection. This might be someone the family interacts with occasionally or a relationship that lacks depth.
- Jagged line: Signifies a stressful or conflictual relationship. This could point to ongoing tension or unresolved issues with a particular individual or institution.
2. Arrows indicating the direction of influence
- Arrow pointing toward the family: Shows that the external system (like a school or workplace) is influencing the family.
- Arrow pointing away from the family: Indicates that the family is exerting influence on the external system.
- Two-way arrow: Depicts a reciprocal relationship where influence flows both ways between the family and the external system.
3. Shapes representing individuals
- Circle: Typically used to represent a female family member.
- Square: Generally denotes a male family member.
- Other shapes: May be used to represent individuals who identify outside traditional gender categories, depending on the context and the family’s preferences.
Note: While some traditional guides suggest using circles for females and squares for males, in family ecomaps, especially in modern or professional practice, circles are often used universally—for individuals, institutions, and systems.
4. Additional symbols
- Thickened line: Emphasizes a particularly strong and positive relationship.
- Line with a cross through it: Indicates a relationship that has ended or is no longer active.
- Color coding: Sometimes, colors are used to convey additional information, such as red for stressful relationships or green for supportive ones.
How to Make a Family Ecomap in 6 Easy Steps
Creating a family ecomap isn’t just about drawing circles and lines—it’s about really listening, observing, and understanding the story behind a family’s relationships and connections. Here’s how to build one meaningfully, while using Creately to make the process smoother and more visual.
Step 1. Prepare your materials and mindset
Before you begin, gather what you need—this could be paper and pens, or a digital drawing tool. But more importantly, prepare yourself to be open and empathetic. The goal isn’t just to map relationships—it’s to better understand the family’s life and support system in a non-judgmental way.
Creately offers ready-made ecomap templates to help you get started quickly and organize your work by case or family.
Tip: If you’re working directly with the family, explain what the ecomap is and why it’s helpful. Involve them in the process from the start.
Step 2. Place the family at the center
Draw a large circle in the middle of the page to represent the immediate family. Inside it, include the names (and roles) of the family members—parents, children, caregivers, or whoever makes up the household.
This center isn’t just a shape—it’s symbolic. It represents the family’s inner world. Everything else in the ecomap will show how that world is influenced by what surrounds it.
Reflection: Ask, “Who makes up your home or family life?” It’s okay if the definition of “family” is non-traditional—what matters is who the family identifies as their core.
With Creately you can drag-and-drop shapes to represent the family visually. You can add names, roles, and even photos or icons using Creately’s quick access toolbar, which lets you edit text, colors, layout, or add small reactions to personalize the family unit meaningfully.
Step 3. Identify external systems
Now think outward. What people, groups, or institutions play a role in this family’s life? Around the central circle, draw smaller circles for:
- Extended family: grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.
- Friends and neighbors: informal support systems.
- Schools and teachers: especially for families with children.
- Workplaces: include employers, co-workers, or job support agencies.
- Healthcare providers: doctors, therapists, or clinics.
- Community/religious groups: churches, support groups, sports teams.
- Legal or financial supports: such as child services or housing assistance.
- The local environment: neighborhoods, public transport, safety, etc.
Creately’s quick editing tools let you add and customize these elements easily, using icons, colors, and labels to show what they represent.
Tip: Ask open questions like, “Who do you go to for help?” or “Are there any services or people that feel draining or stressful?”
Step 4. Draw and label the relationships
This is where the ecomap becomes more than a list—it becomes a living diagram.
Use different line types to show the quality of the relationships:
- Solid lines for strong, supportive relationships (a helpful neighbor or a trusted teacher)
- Dotted lines for weaker or distant ties (a family member who’s rarely in touch)
- Jagged lines for relationships that cause tension or stress (a landlord, a difficult ex-partner)
Add arrows to show who gives and who receives the most energy, help, or pressure:
- An arrow pointing toward the family means the outside source impacts them.
- An arrow pointing away from the family shows that the family gives more.
- Arrows in both directions reflect a two-way relationship.
In Creately, lines can be fully customized in style, direction, and thickness, and you can label each one to describe the connection.
Insight: Sometimes families don’t realize how much energy a certain relationship takes until they see it drawn out. The visual can be very powerful.
Step 5. Add notes for deeper context
Alongside each line, you can add short labels that describe what’s happening in the relationship—“emotional support,” “helps with childcare,” “financial stress,” “infrequent visits,” or “ongoing conflict.”
With Creately, you can either write text directly next to a line or attach more detailed notes to shapes and connectors without cluttering the diagram. This helps you keep the ecomap readable while still including important background information.
Step 6. Review together and reflect
Once the ecomap is drawn, take time to talk through it. This might happen in a counseling session, a classroom, or a meeting with a social worker. Ask questions like:
- What connections feel most supportive to you?
- Are there any relationships that feel more draining than helpful?
- Are there areas where you wish you had more support?
- What patterns are you noticing as we look at this together?
If you’re using Creately, this reflection process can happen collaboratively. Its real-time collaboration features allow multiple people—counselors, family members, caseworkers—to view and edit the ecomap at the same time, even remotely. You can also present it directly within the tool or export it in formats like PDF or PNG for sharing or record-keeping.
Family Ecomap Examples
These ready-to-use family ecomap examples offer a starting point—you can customize them to reflect the unique connections, challenges, and supports in any family’s life. Use them as they are, or adapt them to fit your work, whether you’re in social work, counseling, education, or healthcare.
Family Ecomap
Ecomap Template
Simple Ecomap
Ecomap Template of a Family
Ecomap Family Assessment
When to Use Family Ecomaps
A family ecomap can be helpful any time you need to understand how a family connects with the world around them. It gives you a clearer picture of what supports them, what challenges them, and how they’re doing overall. Here are some common situations where using a family ecomap makes sense:
1. Starting a new case or assessment
When working with a new family, an ecomap helps you quickly understand their relationships with schools, workplaces, healthcare, extended family, and community services. It gives you a snapshot of their current situation.
2. Identifying sources of stress or support
If a family is going through a tough time, an ecomap can show what support systems they have—and what might be missing. It helps highlight both the stressors and the people or places that bring comfort and help.
3. Planning interventions or support
By mapping out the family’s connections, you can make more informed decisions about what kind of help they might need. It’s easier to see where to step in, what resources to connect them with, or where to strengthen relationships.
4. During major life transitions
Ecomaps are especially useful when families go through big changes—like moving, divorce, job loss, a new baby, or a health crisis. These moments can shift how families relate to the world, and an ecomap helps capture that shift.
5. Encouraging family reflection and communication
Families can use ecomaps to better understand their own dynamics. Creating one together can spark honest conversations and help everyone feel heard. It’s a tool for reflection, not just analysis.
6. Tracking progress over time
When used regularly, ecomaps can show how things change. Maybe a once-strained relationship improves, or a new support system appears. It’s a way to track growth and notice patterns in the family’s journey.
References
Rempel, G.R., Neufeld, A. and Kushner, K.E. (2007). Interactive Use of Genograms and Ecomaps in Family Caregiving Research. Journal of Family Nursing, 13(4), pp.403–419. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1074840707307917.
McCormick, K.M., Stricklin, S., Nowak, T.M. and Rous, B. (2008). Using Eco-Mapping to Understand Family Strengths and Resources. Young Exceptional Children, [online] 11(2), pp.17–28. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250607311932.
FAQs About Family Ecomaps
Who typically uses family ecomaps?
Are family ecomaps only used in difficult situations?
Can families create their own ecomaps?
What’s the difference between a family ecomap and a genogram?
Is it okay to include pets, online relationships, or virtual support systems?
