Attachment Style Pattern View
Highlights emotional or behavioral patterns connected to family context.
Attachment Style Genogram
Family Structure
Shows relatives and relationship lines before deeper notes are added.
Generational Context
Connects current concerns with patterns across parents, children, and relatives.
Relationship Dynamics
Leaves room to mark closeness, stress, conflict, or support.
Assessment Notes
Supports brief clinical notes for review and discussion.
Risk and Support Cues
Helps identify protective factors and areas needing follow-up.
Therapy Ready View
Gives clinicians a clear starting map for sessions or case reviews.
Editable Pattern Map
Can be expanded as new symptoms, relationships, or histories emerge.
Explore attachment-relevant family dynamics across three generations, including emotional distance, separation, abuse, and neglect.
About the Attachment Style Genogram
This attachment-focused genogram maps relational distance, separation, abuse, and neglect across three generations, providing context for exploring how experiences within the family system may shape attachment.
The first generation includes Arthur and Rose Thompson, and Carlos and Maria Lopez. Both couples are married and their relationships are marked distant or poor. The Lopez relationship also includes an abuse marker directed from Carlos toward Maria.
In the second generation, David Thompson and Elena Thompson are marked as separated in fact, with a distant or poor relationship. The third generation includes Ethan Thompson and Isabella Thompson. A directional neglect or abuse marker runs from Elena toward Isabella.
The diagram shows attachment-relevant experiences and relationship dynamics, but it does not assign secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized attachment styles to any person. Practitioners should add those classifications only when supported by an appropriate assessment and should not treat the genogram as a diagnosis.
- Shows repeated emotional distance across three partner relationships
- Connects current family dynamics with experiences in earlier generations
- Distinguishes separation status from relationship quality
- Makes abuse and neglect visible as directional safety concerns
Who Should Use This Example?
This attachment style genogram example helps professionals and learners organize attachment-relevant family relationships and caregiving experiences in one clear view.
Therapists and counselors
Explore attachment-relevant patterns, relationship quality, and caregiving experiences across generations
Social workers and care teams
Document family structure, separation, safety concerns, and support relationships for shared case discussions
Psychology students and educators
Practice distinguishing structural relationships from emotional and attachment-related information
Supervisors and multidisciplinary teams
Review relational patterns and supported observations during case formulation
Symbols Used in This Genogram
The example combines structural genogram notation with emotional and abuse-related relationship markers. Because abuse and neglect are directional, the arrow should clearly identify the reported direction of harm.
Square
Represents a male family member
Circle
Represents a female family member
Marriage line
Connects Arthur and Rose Thompson, and Carlos and Maria Lopez
Separation in fact
Marks David and Elena Thompson as separated without implying a legal divorce
Distant or poor relationship
Identifies limited emotional connection or poor relationship quality between partners
Abuse or neglect arrow
Shows the reported direction of abuse from Carlos to Maria and neglect or abuse from Elena to Isabella
When to Use This Example
Use this example when attachment-focused work needs to consider emotional distance, disrupted partnerships, and harmful family experiences across generations. Review immediate safety and safeguarding needs before using the diagram for broader pattern exploration.
- Attachment-focused assessment involving intergenerational relationship history.
- Marriage and family therapy exploring repeated emotional distance or disrupted partnerships.
- Child psychology or counseling where caregiving, neglect, and family safety are relevant.
- Clinical supervision or case formulation requiring a clear distinction between structure, relationship quality, and harm.
How to Customize This Genogram
- 1
Replace and verify the family structure
Replace the fictional Thompson-Lopez details with the relevant family members. Confirm parent-child connections, partnerships, and the three-generation structure before adding clinical information.
- 2
Record partnership status and quality separately
Use the appropriate structural relationship type for marriage, separation, or divorce. Add a separate emotional relationship marker for distance, closeness, conflict, fusion, cutoff, or another supported dynamic.
- 3
Document safety concerns carefully
Add abuse or neglect markers only when supported by the information available. Confirm the direction, use neutral and precise labels, follow applicable safeguarding procedures, and limit access to sensitive details.
- 4
Add and review attachment information
Use the Family Therapy field pack to record secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized attachment information where it is supported by assessment. Explore possible patterns collaboratively without presenting them as fixed diagnoses.
Creately Clinical Capabilities for This Example
Creately Clinical supports professional attachment-focused workflows with clinical relationship notation, structured family-therapy fields, collaboration controls, and case-ready reporting.
For this example, the most relevant capability set is the Base and Family Therapy field packs, paired with the standard genogram view. The Family Therapy pack can store attachment style, family roles, trauma history, and coping strategies, while distinct relationship encodings keep structural status, emotional quality, and reported harm visually separate.
- Relevant field pack: Base and Family Therapy field packs.
- Best-fit view mode: the standard genogram view.
- AI support: text-to-genogram drafting, relationship suggestions, and pattern detection for review by the practitioner.
- Collaboration support: real-time co-editing, role-based sharing, comments, and auto-save during live sessions.
- Reporting and export: PDF or DOCX clinical case files with the diagram, profiles, relationship matrix, observations, and symbol legend.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this example assign attachment styles?
No. It shows relationship quality, separation, abuse, and neglect, all of which may be relevant to attachment-focused assessment. Secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized attachment classifications must be added separately when supported by appropriate assessment.
Is 'distant or poor' an attachment style?
No. It describes the quality of a relationship between two people. An attachment style is recorded for an individual, while an emotional relationship marker describes a specific interpersonal dynamic.
How should abuse and neglect be represented?
Use the appropriate directional relationship marker so the diagram identifies who reportedly directed the harmful behavior toward whom. Verify the information, distinguish reports from confirmed findings, and follow applicable safeguarding and documentation requirements.
Can this example be used with real client information?
Yes, when appropriate privacy, consent, organizational, and safeguarding requirements are followed. Use role-based permissions, restrict sensitive information to authorized collaborators, and avoid including unnecessary identifying details.
Start in Creately Clinical, then deepen the case view
Open the example, map the structure quickly, and use Creately Clinical for AI-assisted drafting, collaborative editing, and report-ready outputs. This keeps the first draft simple while making it easy to turn the same diagram into a stronger working artifact later.