Free Therapist Training›Family Therapy Toolkit›Structural Map
Last updated: November 11, 2026
Structural family therapy mapping is a way of drawing a family's organization: its subsystems, the boundaries around them, its hierarchy, and the alliances and coalitions that keep a problem going. Salvador Minuchin introduced structural mapping in Families and Family Therapy in 1974, and it remains a common way to sketch a structural hypothesis in a few lines. The key in this template adapts his notation.
The template below has the symbol key, a blank map with a band for each generation, and a worksheet that walks through the map's parts. Maps of an invented family at assessment and at the goal of treatment follow it. The template is part of the Sentio MFT program's free family therapy toolkit.
An optional template from the Sentio MFT program's family therapy toolkit, free to adapt.
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Worksheet
| Area | Questions to answer |
|---|---|
| Subsystems | Who forms the parental or executive subsystem? The couple? Sibling groups? Does a grandparent or a child act as a parent? |
| Boundaries | Between each pair of subsystems, is the boundary clear, diffuse or rigid? Who crosses it, and how? |
| Hierarchy | Who makes and enforces rules? Is authority shared by the adults, contested, or held by a child or grandparent? |
| Alliances and coalitions | Who sides with whom, and against whom? Is a child drawn into a conflict between adults? |
| The problem sequence | What happens just before, during and after the problem: who does what, then who responds, then what happens next? |
| Strengths | Where does the family already work well together? |
| Structural hypothesis | One or two sentences linking the way the family is organized to the problem. |
| Goal map | What change in boundaries, hierarchy or alliances would make the problem unnecessary? |
| First interventions | For example an enactment in session, boundary making, unbalancing or a reframe. |
Structural Family Therapy Mapping Example
The maps below show the Hale-Carter family, the invented blended family used throughout the toolkit. Map 1 shows the organization at assessment and Map 2 the organization the family and therapist agreed to work toward. The worksheet under them explains each part of the maps in words.
| Area | Hale-Carter family |
|---|---|
| Subsystems | Jenna and Chris married in 2021, but parenting runs through Jenna for Ava and Ben and through Chris for Tyler. Diane acts as a second parent alongside Jenna. |
| Boundaries | Diffuse between Jenna and Ava: Jenna confides in Ava about money and the marriage, and Ava texts Jenna at work when Chris sets evening rules. Rigid between Chris and Ava. Diffuse between Diane and Jenna, who speak daily about discipline. |
| Hierarchy | Chris's rules are reversed when Ava appeals to Jenna, so Ava holds a veto over evening limits. |
| Alliances and coalitions | Jenna and Ava against Chris over evening rules. Diane sides with Jenna on discipline, which Chris resents. |
| The problem sequence | Chris tells Ava to hand over her phone at 10 p.m. Ava refuses and texts Jenna at work. Jenna calls and asks Chris to let it go. Chris withdraws, then shouts the next time it happens. Ava's outburst escalates, Ben goes to his room, and the next morning Ava misses first period. |
| Strengths | Both adults want Ava back in school. Chris is steady with Ben and Tyler. Jenna and Ava are close, and Diane is reliable help. |
| Structural hypothesis | Each escalation ends with Jenna and Ava on one side and Chris on the other, so the couple never has to settle how they will parent together, and Ava's outbursts keep that question from being answered. |
| Goal map | Jenna and Chris agree on house rules and back each other in front of the children. Jenna stays close to Ava without sharing adult worries. Diane supports Jenna as a mother rather than as a coparent. Chris builds a relationship with Ava before he enforces rules on his own. |
| First interventions | An enactment in which Jenna and Chris agree on the phone rule while Ava waits; blocking Ava's interruptions and Jenna's turning to Ava for support; reframing the outbursts as Ava's protest about changes the family made without her. |
Structural Family Therapy Mapping Symbols
This key, adapted from Minuchin's notation, uses line types for boundaries and relationships. A clear boundary, drawn as a dashed line, separates subsystems while letting them communicate: parents make decisions together and children can still reach them. A diffuse boundary, drawn as a dotted line, lets members intrude on each other's roles, as when a parent confides adult worries in a child; Minuchin called families organized this way enmeshed. A rigid boundary, drawn as a solid line, keeps members apart and leaves them out of touch, the pattern he called disengaged.
Lines between people show the relationship. Two parallel lines mark an affiliation and three an overinvolvement. A line crossed by short bars marks conflict. A brace joining two people marks a coalition, an alliance of two against a third, and an arrow from a conflict toward a third person marks detouring, where a conflict between two people is expressed through, or about, someone else, often a child. This key also shows hierarchy by position: people with more authority are drawn higher on the map.
How to Draw a Structural Map
- Place each person by generation and role: grandparents at the top, the parents or other adults who run the household in the middle, and the children below.
- Draw the boundary between each pair of subsystems and decide whether it is clear, diffuse or rigid, using what you saw in the session rather than what the family told you.
- Add the relationship lines: affiliations, overinvolvement, conflict, and any coalition or detouring.
- Write the problem sequence in a sentence: who does what, who responds, and what happens next.
- State the structural hypothesis: how the organization keeps the problem going.
- Draw the goal map: the change in boundaries, hierarchy or alliances that would make the problem unnecessary.
A map is a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. Watch for the sequence in the session, especially when you ask family members to talk to each other, and redraw the map when what you see does not fit it.
From Map to Intervention
The difference between the two maps points to the work. Minuchin and Charles Fishman described the techniques in Family Therapy Techniques (1981). In an enactment, the therapist asks family members to deal with each other in the session, which brings the sequence into the room where it can be changed. Boundary making changes who talks to whom, for example by asking a parent to answer for themselves rather than through a child. Unbalancing means the therapist supports one member for a time to shift a fixed pattern, and a reframe offers the family a new way of understanding the problem that makes a different response possible.
More Structural Mapping Examples
A few patterns recur often enough to recognize on sight. A map in which a parent and child are overinvolved, with the other parent outside a rigid boundary, is common when one parent has stepped back from parenting. A cross-generational coalition, a parent and child joined against the other parent, appears in some divorced and blended families. A parentified child sits above the sibling subsystem, caring for brothers and sisters or for a parent. Detouring shows up when parents who cannot resolve their own conflict unite in worrying about a child, so that the child's problem holds the couple together. Each pattern is a starting point for questions, and each family's version is its own.
Practice next: holding boundaries
A goal map with a clear boundary around the parents is only useful if the therapist can hold that boundary in the session, when a child interrupts or a grandparent speaks for a parent.
Watch episode 14: Systemic BoundariesSystemic therapy pagePractice set in the toolkit
Rehearse the boundary statements in the toolkit's practice set until you can stop an interruption and return the conversation to the parents without shaming the child.
Keep reading
Genogram Template, the family's history across three generations
Circular Questions in Family Therapy, questions that bring the problem sequence into view
Family Therapy Treatment Plan, turning the goal map into goals and objectives
Systemic Therapy, free Practice Time episodes on boundaries, triangulation and de-escalation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is structural family therapy mapping?
It is a way of drawing a family's organization, introduced by Salvador Minuchin in 1974: the subsystems, the boundaries between them, the hierarchy, and the alliances, coalitions and conflicts around a problem.
What do the symbols in a structural map mean?
In this key, a dashed line is a clear boundary, a dotted line a diffuse boundary and a solid line a rigid boundary. Two parallel lines mark affiliation and three mark overinvolvement; a line crossed by bars marks conflict; a brace marks a coalition; and an arrow toward a third person marks detouring.
What is a diffuse boundary in family therapy?
A diffuse boundary is one that lets family members intrude on each other's roles, such as a parent who confides adult worries in a child. Minuchin described families organized around diffuse boundaries as enmeshed.
What is the difference between an alliance and a coalition?
An alliance is two people sharing an interest. A coalition is two people joined against a third, which in structural terms often means a parent and child against the other parent.
What is detouring in structural family therapy?
Detouring is when a conflict between two people is expressed through or about a third, usually a child, so that the child's problem takes the place of the conflict.
References
Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Harvard University Press.
Minuchin, S., & Fishman, H. C. (1981). Family therapy techniques. Harvard University Press.
