The time-line genogram: highlighting temporal aspects of family relationships

The genogram, or family diagram, is an assessment tool widely used by clinicians to study family members and their relationships over several generations. The standard genogram format is limited, however, because it does not show temporal patterns directly. An alternative, the Time-Line Genogram (TLG), which plots time on the vertical axis to display life events and changes in relationships when they actually occurred, highlights temporal aspects of family history that the standard format sometimes obscures.