Every family lives within a bigger world—connected to people, places, and systems that support or sometimes challenge them. A family ecomap is a visual tool that helps us understand those connections. It shows how a family interacts with their surroundings, highlighting both sources of strength and areas of stress.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through what a family ecomap is, why it matters, what to include, and how to make one—step by step. Whether you’re a social worker, therapist, teacher, or just someone who wants to better understand family dynamics, this guide will help you use ecomaps with care and clarity.
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.
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 do it step by step.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
These details help bring the ecomap to life and add layers of understanding. You begin to see not just who is involved in the family’s life, but how and why they matter.
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?
This conversation can open doors to healing, planning, or simply gaining new clarity. Sometimes, it helps families feel seen in a way they haven’t before.
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.
How to Draw a Family Ecomap with Creately
Creately’s ecomap maker makes it easier to visualize complex family dynamics with its intuitive, flexible diagramming features. Whether you’re mapping connections in a counseling session or collaborating with a team, Creately offers tools designed to help you create clear, professional family ecomaps with ease.
Here’s how Creately supports the process:
Ready-made templates
Creately offers pre-designed templates, so you don’t have to start from scratch. These templates come with the basic structure already in place, making it easy to customize and adapt for different families or cases.
Drag-and-drop shapes
With Creately’s drag-and-drop interface, you can easily add shapes to represent family members, institutions, or social systems. These include circles, rectangles, and icons that you can quickly move, resize, or duplicate as needed.
Customizable connection lines
One of Creately’s standout features is the ability to customize lines and connectors. You can:
- Use solid, dashed, or jagged lines to show relationship quality.
- Add arrowheads to indicate direction of influence.
- Change line thickness to reflect strength of connection.
- Label each line to provide more context about the relationship.
This flexibility helps you accurately reflect each relationship in a way that’s visually clear and easy to understand.
Quick access toolbar
Each shape and connector has a quick access toolbar that appears when you click on it, allowing you to easily:
- Change colors
- Edit text
- Add reactions or icons
- Adjust layout and positioning
This makes editing and refining your ecomap a seamless experience.
Notes and data fields
You can add notes or custom data fields to any shape or connector, which is especially helpful if you need to include more detailed information without cluttering the main visual.
Real-time collaboration
If you’re working with a team—or even involving the family directly—Creately’s real-time collaboration features let multiple users edit, comment, or discuss the ecomap together. You can see changes instantly and keep everything in one shared workspace.
Organize and present
Once your ecomap is ready, you can:
- Use folders and workspaces to organize different cases
- Present the diagram directly within Creately using its built-in presentation mode
- Export in multiple formats (PDF, PNG, etc.) for reports, case files, or printouts
Conclusion: Understanding Family Ecomaps
A family ecomap is more than just a diagram—it’s a meaningful way to see the bigger picture of a family’s life. It helps bring clarity to complex relationships and makes space for important conversations.
By taking time to map out these connections, we can better understand where support is strong, where it might be missing, and how to move forward in a more informed and compassionate way. Whether you’re using this tool professionally or personally, it offers a chance to listen more deeply and respond more thoughtfully to the real experiences of a family.
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?
