Help with Family Mapping

Family Mapping is a fun, unique and innovative way to find out more about the way your family works. It enables people to visualise and understand their family dynamics, potentially leading to healthier and happier relationships. Objects are chosen to represent people and positioned to highlight the closeness and distance between important people in your life. Seeing the arrangements, and moving “people” around, will highlight where changes can be made. 

Family mapping is fun and interactive, but it can have significant outcomes, which is where Relate’s unique multi-media support library provides the encouragement and support people need to make those changes.

Family Mapping is a completely free online service. You don’t have to be a member of Relate for Parents to use Family Mapping. Non-members can use Family Mapping now and print at the end, but can’t save for later. Members can make several maps and save them to look at or print later. Non-members can create an account at the end.

Family Mapping is carried out in three stages:

1. Map your current family situation and see it as it really is
2. Make changes to the map and see how you would like things to be
3. Get support, advice and encouragement from our support library, Live Chat  SMS and other services to enable you to make positive changes for the future

Stage 1 - Map your current family situation and see it as it really is:

• Click on the Family Mapping link above or from the menu on the left
• Click the link to start mapping now and the Family Mapping screen will open
• To start your map, select a theme by clicking on it. You can choose either a beach or a space theme.
• The main mapping screen will open. You will see an Objects box on the left, a Profile box on the right, a Virtual Counsellor box toward the bottom of the screen, and a series of buttons and options to choose from.
• Follow the on-screen prompts from our Virtual Counsellor, who will guide you through the process.
• To start, choose an object that will represent you and use your mouse to click and drag the object from the Objects box onto the background (beach or space).
• Next, enter some information about yourself into the Profile box and remember to click Save.
• Now, choose objects to represent other people and place them onto the background.
• For each object, you might like to enter some information about them in the Profile box so that you can remember who they are, and how you are currently feeling about them.
• Use the drop-down menus to help you choose who this person is in relation to you and what your relationship with them is like at the moment. You might like to type some notes with your thoughts and feelings about this person. Remember to click Save after entering each piece of information.
• You can use one object to represent a group of people, perhaps a group of friends or family, maybe an object would represent hobbies and interests, maybe even pets !
• Objects can be moved around by clicking and dragging them.
• You can delete objects by dragging them into the bucket or black hole, just below the Objects box.
• If you want to use a different object than the one you have chosen, you can drag the new object over the existing one to replace it without losing the Profile information.
• When you are happy that the map represents your current situation, click Continue.
• Our Virtual Counsellor will ask if you are ready to continue to the next stage, click Yes when you are ready or No if you would like to go back and change something.
• The Virtual Counsellor will ask some questions to prompt you to think about what you see in your map. Using the keyboard, you can type any observations you have made. You may have seen something interesting about the objects you have chosen and the people they represent; how close or distant they are from you or from each other. These notes are completely private and remember there are no right or wrong observations.
• You have now completed the first part of your map. Click View Map to see it again and then click Continue to move to Stage 2.

Stage 2 – Make changes to the map and see how you would like things to be:

• Our Virtual Counsellor will now suggest that you make changes to show how you would like things to be. You can move people around by clicking and dragging them. You can add or delete people, or change the Object that represents someone. You might need to move yourself to make the map look better. Remember that some moves may not be possible or might mean that something else has to move as well.
• Follow the Virtual Counsellors guidance as you make changes to your map.
• When you have finished moving people around, click Continue.
• The Virtual Counsellor will ask if you are ready to continue to the next stage, click Yes when you are ready or No if you would like to go back and change something.
• Our Virtual Counsellor will now ask some questions to prompt you to think about the changes you have made.
• You can click View Map to see your map at stage 1 to compare to the new map.
• Using the keyboard, you can type any thoughts you have about your new map. You may have noticed changes that you would like to make. Some changes may be easier than others and some may take longer than others, you might like to try to put timescales on making changes. These notes are completely private and remember there are no right or wrong answers.
• When you are ready, click Continue to move to the next stage.
• You can now Save your map to come back to at another time, or Print it out or you can Exit Family Mapping.
• If you decide to Save your map, you will be prompted to login or create a Relate for Parents member account. Membership is completely free and your map and data is secure and completely private and confidential.
• Once you have logged in, you can access your map again by clicking the My Maps link in your member area.
• You can Exit when you are ready to move to the next stage.

Stage 3 – Get support, advice and encouragement from our support library, Live Chat, SMS and other services to enable you to make positive changes:

• When you decide to exit Family Mapping, you will be taken to our Support Library where you will find interesting articles, videos and podcasts that are directly relevant to your family map.
• You may have seen something in your map, or in our Support Library that you would like to talk to someone about. Our Live Chat service has real, fully trained counselling professionals available to answer your questions.
• Click here to find out more about Live Chat.