Free genogram template

Grief Counseling Genogram Template (Free, Editable)

Map loss history, complicated grief, and intergenerational bereavement patterns across the family system.

Updated October 2026 · PDF, PowerPoint, PNG and SVG · no sign-up

Quick answer

A grief counseling genogram template maps every significant loss across three generations: deaths with years, ages and causes, miscarriages and stillbirths, and how relationships shifted afterwards. Grief counselors use it to spot complicated grief, clustered losses and anniversary reactions. GenogramAI offers a free printable PDF and an editable loss-focused example.

Open in GenogramAI (free) Download blank PDF

Download the grief counseling genogram template

Free files, no sign-up or email. Print the blank, edit the PowerPoint, or reuse the example image with a credit to genogramai.com.

When to use a grief counseling genogram template

Use this template in bereavement work: complicated or prolonged grief, a hospice family assessment, a child whose behaviour changed after a death, or a client whose low mood returns at the same time every year. The prompts under each symbol ask for the year and cause of death, so clustered losses and anniversaries are visible without a separate timeline.

Include the losses families leave out: miscarriages, stillbirths, infant deaths, and deaths that were not talked about. Then look at how the family reorganized afterwards. A parent who withdrew after a child's death often shows up as a new distant line; a grandparent who stepped in shows up as a new close one. The notes area is for anniversary dates and what the family says, or does not say, about each loss.

If the loss was a suicide, an overdose or another death linked to a condition that runs in the family, combine this with the Mental Health Genogram Template or the Substance Use and Addiction Genogram Template.

The blank template and a filled-in example

Left: the blank printable. Right: the same template filled in for a fictional family in GenogramAI.

Blank grief counseling genogram template: A three-generation structure (grandparent couples, parents with sibling slots, three children with the index person in a double outline), a Client / Clinician / Date header, a key with deceased (X), pregnancy loss symbols (miscarriage, stillbirth) and distant and cutoff lines, a "year and cause of death" prompt under each person, and notes for anniversaries and losses. — Blank: A three-generation structure (grandparent couples, parents with sibling slots, three children with the index person in a double outline), a Client / Clinician / Date header, a key with deceased (X), pregnancy loss symbols (miscarriage, stillbirth) and distant and cutoff lines, a "year and cause of death" prompt under each person, and notes for anniversaries and losses.

Grief Counseling Genogram Template filled in: Grief and Loss Pattern drawn in GenogramAI with a genogram key — Filled in: The example is a fictional family centred on Laura Calloway (b. 1973) after three losses close together: a young daughter who died of leukemia, a grandmother who died six months later and her husband's brother killed in an accident, with depression shaded across generations and distant lines where the family pulled apart. Read the full example

Open this example in GenogramAI to start from the finished layout: it copies into your account (the Free plan holds 2 genograms) and every person, line and condition stays editable.

How to fill in a grief counseling genogram template

1
Map all significant losses
Draw an X through each deceased relative and fill in year, age and cause of death. Add miscarriages, stillbirths and early childhood deaths in their place in the sibship.
2
Annotate grief responses
Mark relatives with prolonged or complicated grief. Note anniversary dates, unresolved mourning, and deaths the family does not discuss.
3
Identify relational shifts after loss
Add emotional lines that changed after each death: who became closer, who withdrew, who cut off. Note who took on new roles.

Symbols this template uses

Drawn the way GenogramAI draws them. Every other symbol is in the genogram symbols guide and the genogram key.

Symbol	What it means
X through the symbol	Deceased; write the year, age and cause of death underneath.
Small filled circle on a short line	Miscarriage, drawn in the sibship in birth order.
Small circle with an X on a short line	Stillbirth.
Widowed partner line	A partner line with an X, used when a spouse has died.
Distant: dashed line	Emotional withdrawal, often appearing after a loss.
Cutoff: line broken by two bars	Contact broken, for example after a dispute over a death or an estate.
Close: two blue lines	A bond that carried someone through the loss.

Common mistakes to avoid

Leaving out pregnancy losses and infant deaths because the family "doesn't count them".
Recording deaths without years, which hides clusters and anniversary reactions.
Drawing only the bereaved household instead of the generations where earlier, unresolved losses sit.
Treating the chart as finished after one session; grief genograms usually grow as clients disclose more.

Who uses this template?

Grief counselors, bereavement therapists, hospice social workers, chaplains, and graduate counseling students.

Common uses

Mapping loss history in complicated grief assessment
Identifying anniversary reactions and transgenerational grief
Hospice family assessment and bereavement follow-up planning
Traumatic loss (suicide, homicide, sudden death) documentation
Children's grief counseling: understanding the family loss context

What the template covers

Deceased, miscarriage and stillbirth symbols in the key
Year and cause of death prompt under each person
Distant, cutoff and close lines for relationship shifts
Client / Clinician / Date header
Notes area for anniversaries and losses

What is free?

Free and paid, plainly

All five files on this page (blank PDF, PowerPoint, SVG, example PDF and PNG) are free to download and use, with no sign-up. In GenogramAI, the Free plan includes 2 genograms, 5 AI credits a month, all 64 relationship types, medical shading and PNG export, with no card. PDF, SVG and GEDCOM export, file import and photo import are on paid plans; Professional is $12/month.

Frequently asked questions

How is a genogram used in grief counseling?

It maps significant losses across at least three generations, including deaths, pregnancy losses and losses the family does not talk about. That makes clusters of loss, anniversary reactions and grief passed between generations visible. McGoldrick and Walsh's work on loss in the family life cycle is a common reference for this use.

What is transgenerational grief?

Grief patterns, attitudes about death and unresolved mourning that pass from one generation to the next, often without being discussed. A grandparent's unspoken loss of a sibling can shape how the whole family handles death decades later. A genogram makes those links visible.

Should genograms include miscarriages and stillbirths?

Yes. Perinatal losses are clinically important and often left out of family histories. In GenogramAI a miscarriage is a small filled circle on a short line and a stillbirth is a small circle with an X, both placed in the sibship in birth order.

How do I create a grief genogram with a client?

Explain that you want to map the family's experience of loss, then work through relatives one at a time: when they died, how old they were, what it was like for the family. Leave room for silence. The finished chart is often returned to throughout grief work as new connections come up.