Here is a video describing an first essential step in entering a case into a family diagram.
An essential first step in making use of the app for a case is to organize the known data into a factual timeline. All individual app consultation sessions to date have been spent reaching this first step. The lesson as I see it is that a consultation session can be most productive if a timeline is constructed beforehand. In fact, real progress using the app cannot occur until a timeline is constructed.
The initial timeline can be on paper, excel, or any other format, so long as it is put together in one place. It does not have to be comprehensive, but it is the backbone of the diagram. A timeline is an ordered table with two columns: 1) Date, and 2) Normal fact/Functional fact.
An example “normal” fact is something like a diagnosis or a hurricane occurring on a date. An example “functional” fact is that a person’s political orientation flipped on a given date, or that a pattern of negativity between two people shifted to a pattern of positivity. Either way each entry in the timeline has as precise a date as possible, and approximate date, or is written as an important event but where the order is not known.
Everyone I have consulted with individual to date does in fact possess this information in a consultation session, but in every case it has not yet been organized it all in one place on a single table. This task of thinking in terms of a timeline does get much easier once it is prioritized and accomplished once or twice.