Explore the Model
The Signal Map
Something happens — and before you have a word for it, your nervous system runs it through five layers. See how a raw signal becomes an emotion label, and why the word and the signal are not the same thing.
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How the System Works
Your tank, your burners, the signal in your body — before any word arrives. A visual walkthrough of what your nervous system is actually doing, and why you feel it as pressure.
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The Model Explained
A plain-language walkthrough of the upstream model — the predictive brain, what emotions actually are, what a signal is, and why working at the label level often isn't enough. No science background required.
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The Compression System
An interactive diagram of how the signal moves through the full system — salience, structural matching, strategy assembly, and the reflective layer. Where things get compressed, and why the loop closes.
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The Framework Essays
One concept per essay. Read in order to build the full model, or jump to wherever you're stuck. Nineteen essays available now, with three more coming.
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Glossary
Every term the model uses — clinical precision on one side, plain language on the other, felt sense on expand. The bridge between the technical framework and the experience it describes.
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About This Work
About Sarah Martinez, the theoretical foundations of the model, and the full reference list — predictive processing, attachment theory, complexity science, and embodied cognition.
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"The signal isn't asking to be solved. It's asking to be met."
This site presents a conceptual and educational model of nervous system function. It is not clinical advice, therapy, or a substitute for professional mental health care. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact a licensed clinician or crisis service.
Reference Map
THE COMPRESSION SYSTEM — Full Architecture Map
click to expand ↗
From prediction error to narrative — and how change actually happens. Tank, burners, procedural priors, construction zone, symbolic layer, relief vs. completion.
"Insight lives at the top of the stack. Change lives at the bottom."
The Compression Stack
Signal → Word: Four Layers of Compression
Narrative
"I've always been this way"
MAX COMPRESSION
Emotion Labels
"anxious" · "depressed" · high compression
HIGH
Constructed Emotion
prediction-assembled state
MID
Belief / Strategy Priors
"if I withdraw, I stay safe"
LOW-MID
Procedural / Embodied
pre-verbal · built before language
MINIMAL
Arousal · Pressure · Valence
the alarm's output — raw signal
RAW SIGNAL
Body + Environment
interoception · sensory input · context
INPUT