Ecogram - Who's Around Me?

This is a useful tool for relationship building. You may know the young person quite well already, but you may not know much about their views on relationships or have explored how they feel about the relationships in their own family. The aim is for the young person to name themselves and other family members and friends they have around them. Do make sure they put all their immediate family members onto the ecogram, even if they don’t currently have contact with them. It is incredibly useful to explore the nature of estranged relationships and how this impacts the person. Young people often find using animals as representations of people a fun and creative way to describe others. It can be surprising how much detail using animals can bring to the conversation. Describing animals rather than people gives enough distance to help the young person to feel safe in the discussion. On the other hand, some children, particularly those who struggle with imagination may find it difficult to use animals. To be responsive to the learning style of the young person, it is helpful to have a box of buttons, shells, pebbles, or other small objects available for times when you want to complete an Ecogram. The young person then picks the buttons or shells that best represent them and the people around them. You can share little pieces of information about your own family and relationships to help strengthen your bond prior to doing the work. As always, only share what is safe and comfortable to do so.