System Map: An Internal Parts Mapping Program
See the whole system.Keep it on your machine.
A visual mapping tool for clinicians working with structural dissociation and Internal Family Systems. Chart a client's internal parts, the relationships between them, the trauma zones they cluster around, and their movement toward cohesion — every record encrypted, nothing ever leaving your computer.
A whole internal system, on one screen.
System Map turns the structure you hold in your head — and scatter across session notes — into a single picture you and a colleague can read at a glance. Three visual rules carry the meaning.
- Each part is a circle. Add as many as the system needs. Name them by code, set the part type, and drag them anywhere on the canvas — position is yours to control.
- Distance from the center is cohesion. The core identity sits at the middle. The closer a part sits to it, the more cohesive — or, in IFS, the more blended with Self. Parts far out toward the dashed rim are the dissociated, walled-off ones. Moving a part in or out is a drag, and the underlying score updates with it.
- Color and line carry the rest. Node color encodes the cluster or part type; relationship lines connect parts by how they relate; a red ring marks a manifest aggressive role; a corner dot flags suicidality. Nothing is buried in a menu — the clinically urgent things are visible on the face of the map.
Two parts can see each other completely differently.
Most mapping tools draw a single line between two parts, as if a relationship were one shared fact. In real systems it rarely is. A protector may guard a young part that is, in turn, terrified of it. System Map records each direction independently — what A makes of B, and what B makes of A — and you set both in one place in the editor.
- Four relationship types — allied, in conflict, protective of, and afraid of — each with its own color and line style, so the texture of the system is legible without a legend.
- An arrowhead at each end, colored by that direction's type, shows whose perception is whose. Mutual agreement draws as a shared line; a one-way perception draws a single arrow.
- Automatic divergence flag. When the two directions disagree, the line turns neutral grey and a red marker drops at its midpoint — the clash also surfaces in the part's detail card. In IFS mode this reads as polarization.
Group the system by what it organized around.
Parts rarely scatter at random. They cluster around events, perpetrators, or themes. Trauma zones are adjustable pie-shaped sectors laid over the map: drag a wedge to rotate it, pull its handle to widen or narrow it, and any part that falls inside is tagged to that zone automatically. Turn them on when they clarify and off when you want a clean canvas.
- Resize, rotate, and rename each wedge directly on the map. Add as many as the system needs; remove them just as easily.
- Labels sit outside the rim and follow each zone's size and position, so the names never crowd the parts inside.
- Deliberately translucent, so the dissociation rings and every part stay fully visible through the overlay — the zones add a layer of meaning without hiding the structure beneath.
- Parts auto-tag by sector, and a part's zone shows in its detail card — useful when you're tracing which cluster carries which burden.
Two frameworks, one map.
Switch between Structural Dissociation and IFS from a single toggle. The change is map-wide, instant, and fully reversible — and because the underlying data is framework-neutral, the same client record reads correctly through whichever lens serves the session. Nothing is duplicated or lost in the switch.
Detailed enough for the record. Quiet enough to read.
Click any part to open a locked, tabbed detail card — Overview, Clinical, and Notes — so the full depth of a part is one click away but never clutters the map. Every field below lives on that card.
Identity & presentation
Name or code, part/type from an editable list, reported age and sex, activity level (Missing / Low / Moderate / High), and primary emotional state from an expanded palette that includes positive states.
BASK & somatics
Behavior, Affect, Sensation, and Knowledge associations as a multi-select, plus a somatic signature marking where in the body a part is felt — with custom locations you can add yourself.
Defense mechanisms
Vaillant's full hierarchy across four maturity levels, plus a fifth psychoanalytic group and free-text notes. Collapsed by default with a running count, so it's there when you want it and out of the way when you don't.
Risk & safety
Suicidality level with a color-coded corner flag on the node, past-attempt notes, and co-consciousness. Per-part Safety and Trust sliders, plus a whole-system Harmony slider, track stability over time.
Self-energy (IFS)
The 8 C's and 5 P's rated 0–3 on any part — not just the Self — with hover anchors for each rating. A green map badge shows the total, and the detail card lists which qualities are present or strong.
Subjective Self-cohesion
A side-panel composite of average blending, system harmony, and relational health, weighted toward the Self. Weights are adjustable; it shows "needs more data" rather than fabricating a number, and is labeled subjective — not a validated measure.
| Name | Type | Age | Activity | Emotion | Cohesion | Group | Suicidality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core | Host | -- | High | Calm | 100 | -- | -- |
| P-02 | Caretaker | 34 | Moderate | Hope | 72 | Allies | -- |
| P-04 ● | Protector | 17 | High | Anger | 48 | Guards | Low |
| P-06 | Persecutor | -- | Moderate | Shame | 30 | Guards | Severe |
| P-09 | Child part | 6 | Low | Fear | 22 | Exiles | Moderate |
One encrypted file per client. Clean PDFs on demand.
The map on screen and the saved file are two distinct things — saving writes the current map out; opening reads one back in. The workflow is built to keep that simple and keep the data protected.
Name it, password it
Each client's map saves to its own encrypted .smap file — AES-256 with a password you choose. Name it with a code you'll recognize. The file you're editing is shown in the top bar.
Pick up where you left off
Open a .smap file from inside the app and enter its password. On Edge and Chrome, "Save" overwrites the same file in place, after a confirmation, so revisions stay in one record.
Export to PDF
Produce a clean PDF of the map, the roster, or both — formatted for print and marked confidential — for your records, supervision, or case consultation.
Privacy isn't a feature. It's the foundation.
System Map runs entirely on your computer. There are no servers, no accounts, and no cloud — so there is nowhere for client data to go. This isn't a setting you switch on; it's how the tool is built.
Encrypted at rest
Every client file is encrypted with a password you control, using AES-256 with PBKDF2 key derivation. Without the password, the data cannot be recovered.
Nothing transmitted
No network calls, no analytics, no telemetry. The application opens and runs locally and works with the internet switched off entirely.
De-identified by design
A code-not-name convention keeps records de-identified, with prompts that nudge you to label parts by code rather than legal name.
Own the tool.
A one-time purchase. No subscription, no recurring fees, and no vendor holding your data hostage.
A single desktop application, licensed to you.
- Unlimited client maps, stored locally and encrypted
- Structural Dissociation and IFS frameworks
- Trauma zones, directional relationships, full clinical detail
- Clean PDF export of the map, the roster, or both
- Works fully offline — no account required
System Map is a clinical documentation and visualization aid intended to support, not replace, professional judgment. It is not a diagnostic instrument, and the Subjective Self-cohesion readout is not a validated measure. This material is for presentation to colleagues and is illustrative; all maps and data shown are fictional.
Internal Family Systems Option
