Ecomap Maker: Map Supports, Stresses and Circles of Closeness

About the technique

This tool combines two ways of drawing a person’s relationships. The ecomap, introduced by social worker Ann Hartman in 1978, places the person or family in a center circle and connects it to the people and systems around them, such as school, work, faith community and services, with lines that show whether each tie is strong, weak or stressful (Hartman, 1978). Circles of closeness use concentric rings, as in Toni Antonucci’s hierarchical mapping technique from the social convoy model (Antonucci, 1986); a related measure, the Inclusion of Other in the Self scale, uses overlapping circles to rate closeness to one person (Aron et al., 1992).

Seeing a support network on one page helps both assessment and planning. It shows where support is thin or concentrated in one person, where a relationship drains more than it gives, and who could be asked for help, which makes it useful at intake and for safety and discharge planning. The ecomap is a standard social work tool with limited psychometric study. The Inclusion of Other in the Self scale showed good reliability and validity with adults (Aron et al., 1992). Using circles in therapy, and with children, is practice-based.

Let the client decide who counts as family, which matters for foster, adoptive, blended and chosen families. Distance on the map shows how a relationship feels, not a fact about it. A sparse map can be painful to see, so pace the conversation and move toward what could be built. If someone on the map frightens or harms the client, follow up on safety and, with children, on your reporting duties.