Solution-Focused Genogram
Map family strengths, resilience, coping strategies, and exceptions to problems across generations. Discover the resources your family already has for change.
What Is a Solution-Focused Genogram?
A solution-focused genogram applies the principles of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) to multigenerational family mapping. Developed from the work of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, SFBT holds that clients already possess the resources they need for change. The therapist's job is to help them discover and amplify those resources.
When applied to genograms, this means deliberately seeking out family strengths, successful coping, and exceptions to problems rather than cataloging pathology. The question shifts from "What went wrong in this family?" to "What has gone right, and how can we build on it?" Kuehl (1995) was among the first to formally describe this approach, noting that traditional genograms often reinforced clients' sense of being doomed by family history.
Research Support
The strengths-based approach is supported by research in positive psychology (Seligman), resilience theory (Walsh, 2006), and the SFBT outcome literature showing that focusing on what works is at least as effective as analyzing what doesn't. A 2019 meta-analysis by Gingerich and Peterson found SFBT produced positive outcomes across a range of clinical populations, supporting the strengths-based genogram as a clinically sound approach.
When to Use a Solution-Focused Genogram
Clinical scenarios where a strengths-based lens transforms the assessment
Early Therapy Engagement
Starting with strengths rather than pathology builds rapport, reduces defensiveness, and communicates that the therapist sees the family as more than its problems.
Demoralized Families
Families who feel hopeless or defined by their struggles benefit from discovering a legacy of resilience and resourcefulness they did not know they had.
Resilience After Trauma
Following traumatic events, mapping how previous generations survived adversity provides templates for coping and evidence that recovery is part of the family story.
Building on Exceptions
When the SFBT "miracle question" or "exception question" reveals moments when the problem was absent, the genogram can trace where those exceptions came from in the family system.
Positive Youth Development
In work with adolescents, mapping family strengths gives teenagers positive models to identify with and counterbalances the problem-saturated narratives they may have internalized.
Discharge and Aftercare Planning
When planning post-treatment support, the strengths genogram identifies the specific family resources, relationships, and coping strategies that can sustain recovery.
Key Elements to Map
Strengths-based information to capture for each family member
Strengths per Person
Character strengths, talents, skills, and positive qualities attributed to each family member. What were they good at? What did people admire about them?
Coping Strategies
How each generation managed hardship: humor, faith, community involvement, physical activity, creative expression, education, or practical problem-solving.
Resilience Factors
What helped the family bounce back from adversity? Strong marriages, community connections, cultural identity, economic resourcefulness, or spiritual practices.
Exceptions to Problems
Times when the presenting problem was less severe or absent. In a family with depression, who did not develop depression, and what was different about their circumstances?
Supportive Relationships
The family members, mentors, teachers, clergy, friends, or neighbors who provided crucial support. Relationships that were a source of strength rather than conflict.
Resources and Assets
Education, professional skills, financial security, property, community standing, religious community, and other tangible and intangible resources across generations.
Successful Transitions
How the family navigated major life transitions: immigration, career changes, retirement, death, divorce. What strategies helped them adapt successfully?
Legacy Strengths
Positive qualities that have been passed down: work ethic, generosity, humor, loyalty, creativity, entrepreneurship, or commitment to education.
Clinical Example: The Williams Family
Fictional composite case for educational purposes
Presenting concern: The Williams family entered therapy after their 16-year-old son, Marcus, was suspended from school for fighting. His mother, Denise, was overwhelmed as a single parent. The family had been through multiple treatment programs, and Denise described feeling "like we're a problem family" after years of being assessed for deficits.
Traditional genogram findings: The standard genogram revealed significant challenges: three generations of single motherhood, substance abuse in several male family members, poverty, and Marcus's father's incarceration. Previous therapists had focused entirely on these risk factors.
Solution-focused genogram findings: When the lens shifted to strengths, a different picture emerged. Denise's mother had worked two jobs while earning a nursing degree, modeling extraordinary perseverance. Her grandmother had been a pillar of her church community, someone who organized neighborhood mutual aid. Denise herself had maintained stable employment for 12 years. Marcus, despite the suspension, was a talented artist whose teachers praised his creativity.
The exception question revealed that Marcus had gone six months without any incidents at school the previous year, when he was enrolled in an art program. The genogram traced a pattern: in each generation, the family members who thrived had found a creative or community outlet.
Therapeutic impact: The solution-focused genogram transformed Denise's self-perception from "problem family" to "family of survivors with a creative streak." The intervention focused on building on what had already worked: reconnecting Marcus with art programs (the exception), strengthening Denise's connection to her church community (the grandmother's legacy), and honoring the family's proven resilience rather than remediating deficits.
How to Create a Solution-Focused Genogram with GenogramAI
Build Family Structure with Strengths in Mind
As you describe your family to GenogramAI, include positive attributes alongside basic facts. For each person, note what they were good at, what they valued, and how they contributed to the family. The AI will build the structure while you annotate with strengths.
Map Coping and Resilience Across Generations
For each generation, identify how the family coped with its specific challenges. What strategies worked? Who provided support? When were problems absent or less severe? Use GenogramAI's notes and relationship features to highlight supportive connections and successful adaptations.
Identify Exception Patterns and Legacy Strengths
Look across the completed genogram for patterns of strength: creativity, perseverance, community connection, humor, faith, or practical resourcefulness that repeat across generations. These become the building blocks for the current family's path forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a solution-focused genogram?
A solution-focused genogram applies the principles of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) to family mapping. Instead of cataloging problems and pathology, it deliberately maps family strengths, successful coping strategies, resilience, supportive relationships, and exceptions to problems across generations. It asks: "What has worked in this family?" rather than "What has gone wrong?"
How does a solution-focused genogram differ from a traditional genogram?
Traditional genograms tend to emphasize pathology: diagnoses, conflicts, trauma, and dysfunction. Solution-focused genograms deliberately reverse this lens. While they acknowledge difficulties, they prioritize mapping what family members did well, how they coped with adversity, who provided support, and when problems were less severe or absent. The result is a more balanced, empowering family portrait.
Is a solution-focused genogram still clinically useful?
Absolutely. Research shows that identifying family strengths and past successes is as clinically useful as identifying problems. Strengths-based information provides resources for intervention: coping strategies that already exist in the family system, supportive relationships that can be activated, and evidence that change is possible because the family has changed before.
What questions do you ask when creating a solution-focused genogram?
Key questions include: "Who in your family handled stress well? How did they do it?" "Tell me about a time your family got through something difficult." "Who was the most supportive person in each generation?" "When was the problem less present, and what was different?" "What strengths run in your family?" These questions deliberately elicit resource information.
Can you combine solution-focused and problem-focused genogram approaches?
Yes, and many clinicians do. A common approach is to first complete a standard genogram, then overlay solution-focused questions to create a more balanced picture. Some therapists use the strengths-based lens from the start, finding that clients become more engaged and hopeful when their family is not reduced to its problems.
Who developed the solution-focused approach to genograms?
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy was developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee. While they did not specifically develop a genogram protocol, clinicians like Kuehl (1995) and others adapted SFBT principles to genogram work, creating what is now known as the solution-focused or strengths-based genogram.
Discover Your Family's Strengths
Build a solution-focused genogram that highlights what your family does well and the resources available for positive change.
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