Bowen Genogram

1. Introduction
A Genogram is a visual representation of a person's family relationships and medical history. Murray Bowen first introduced the core concept of Genogram in the late 1970s, where he suggested that a genogram can go beyond the traditional family tree. Several medical practitioners use Bowen Genogram methods in personal and family therapy sessions to record and explain family dynamics.
As you will learn below, a Bowen Genogram is created using simple symbols representing gender, with various lines to illustrate family relationships. Most of the Bowen Genograms include emotional and psychological relationships within the individuals as they provide an in-depth analysis of how a person from the family member reacts in any given situation.

2. What is Bowen Genogram
Murray Bowen based his family systems theory on the idea that people or any member of a particular species results from an evolutionary process. The core central concept of Bowen's Genogram methodology is the concept of multigenerational transmission, and each generation moves toward a lower level of differentiation. Unlike other professionals from similar fields, Bowen took a different approach to understanding the counsel of the family members. He normalized family challenges by discussing similar scenarios in other families, describing the reasons of individual family members instead of acting on them and asking the family members to contribute to their actions and statements as individuals rather than accusatory statements of the entire family.
As per Murray Bowen, self-differentiation starts with one individual and progresses into transforming relationships in the entire family system. Bowen also based his theory on the basic principle that everyone involved tends to think on emotional grounds regarding family and family members. He considered family as an emotional unit, a network of interlocking relationships best understood when analyzed from a multigenerational framework.

3. How to Create a Gengoram
Creating a genogram using EdrawMax Online is a piece of cake since all the necessary options are readily available within the dashboard itself. All that is needed is your creativity and the right data to make the genogram for the project.

Step 1: Login EdrawMax Online
Log in EdrawMax Online using your registered email address. If this is your first time accessing the tool, you can create your personalized account from your personal or professional email address.

Step 2: Choose a template
EdrawMax Online comes with hundreds of free genogram templates. Based on your preference or need, select a pre-designed template from the product by cycling the "Education" on the left navigation pane. Alternatively, press "+" in EdrawMax Online canvas to create a Bowen Genogram from scratch.

Step 3: Customize the diagram
Customize your genogram by changing the symbols and shapes as required. With the easy drag-and-drop feature of EdrawMax Online, you can use all the relative elements from libraries.

Step 4: Export & Share
Once your genogram design is completed, you can share it amongst your colleagues or clients using the easy export and share option. You can export the genogram diagram in multiple formats, like Graphics, JPEG, PDF, or HTML. Also, you can share the genogram designs on different social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Line.

Step 5: Work on your research
Once you have exported the Bowen Genogram, you can attach it to your ongoing research or present it right from the dashboard option. With this Bowen Genogram maker, you can do almost anything.

4. Key Takeaways
The Bowen Genograms have a set of commonly used symbols that portray information as who the family members are, their names, birth and death dates, sibling position, marriages, divorces, ethnicity, religious affiliations, occupations, socioeconomic status, relationships, and much more. Unlike other family tree diagrams, a Bowen Genogram can suggest emotional patterns for each person in a family and the similarities or differences based on the intergenerational family relationship patterns.