Sarah Martinez
About · Inside Attunement

Sarah Martinez,
LCSW.

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 15 years of experience at the intersection of cognitive science, affective neuroscience, and clinical practice. The Signal Care Framework is my attempt to build something that could account for why people understand their patterns perfectly — and still can't change them. I teach the new neuroscience of emotion to clinicians, organizations, and anyone who wants to understand what's actually happening inside them.

Clinical degree

University of Pennsylvania

MSW, 2012 · School of Social Policy and Practice

Science degree

Cornell University

BS, 2008 · Human Development · Cognitive Science

Licenses

LCSW · CAADC · IFS Level 1

Licensed Clinical Social Worker · Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor

Clinical work · PA only

Individual therapy in Pennsylvania

Contractor with a group practice · Anxiety · OCD · Addiction · Parenting · Neurodivergent presentations

CE approval

NASW-PA & NBCC Approved Provider

Approved to offer continuing education credits for licensed social workers and counselors nationally

Get in touch

Say hello.

For training inquiries, organizational workshops, speaking, or anything else — use the form or email directly.

Or email: insideattunement@gmail.com
Thank you — your message has been sent. I'll be in touch.
Disclaimer

This is education.
Not therapy.

What Inside Attunement is

Everything on this site — all essays, framework pages, guides, workbooks, trainings, and tools — is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute mental health treatment, therapy, medical advice, diagnosis, or clinical care of any kind. Using this site, purchasing a product, or attending a training does not create a therapist-client relationship.

Two lanes — clearly separated

Lane 1 — Therapy (Pennsylvania only). Sarah Martinez is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Pennsylvania (#CW026190). She provides individual therapy to clients in Pennsylvania through her private practice. That is clinical work governed by Pennsylvania licensure.

Lane 2 — Education (everywhere). Inside Attunement — this site, all products, all trainings, all content — is educational. It teaches a framework for understanding nervous system signals. It is not therapy. It is available globally because it is education, not clinical practice.

Not a substitute for professional care

If you are experiencing significant mental health difficulties, please contact a licensed mental health provider. This content is not a replacement for professional support. If you are working with a therapist, these tools may complement that work — they do not substitute for it.

If you are in crisis: Call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room.

Evidence base & references

The framework draws on peer-reviewed research and established theoretical frameworks across affective neuroscience, clinical psychology, and philosophy of biology. Key books and full academic references below.

Emotion

How Emotions Are Made

Lisa Feldman Barrett

The scientific case that emotions are constructions, not fixed biological signals. Why your emotion vocabulary shapes what you experience — not just how you describe it.

Prediction

Surfing Uncertainty

Andy Clark

The predictive processing framework in full. How the brain generates models and updates them when predictions fail. The architecture underlying the upstream signal model.

Biology of care

Incomplete Nature

Terrence Deacon

How mind, intention, and care emerge from physical processes. The philosophical grounding for care as biological structure — why the goal is coordination, not control.

Capacity

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Robert Sapolsky

Stress biology made readable. Why chronic activation depletes the system. Accessible entry point to the tank concept.

Relational

The Polyvagal Theory

Stephen Porges

The autonomic nervous system as a social organ. Why felt safety in relationship is a biological state — and why co-regulation precedes self-regulation.

Self-organization

At Home in the Universe

Stuart Kauffman

Self-organization and constraint-based emergence in biological systems. Alongside Deacon, the philosophical foundation for how the framework understands nervous system architecture.

Allostatic regulation & body budget

Barrett, L.F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Sterling, P. (2012). Allostasis: A model of predictive regulation. Physiology & Behavior, 106(1), 5–15.

McEwen, B.S. (1998). Stress, adaptation, and disease: Allostasis and allostatic load. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 840(1), 33–44.

Juster, R.P., McEwen, B.S., & Lupien, S.J. (2010). Allostatic load biomarkers of chronic stress. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(1), 2–16.

Predictive processing

Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138.

Clark, A. (2016). Surfing Uncertainty. Oxford University Press.

Constructed emotion

Barrett, L.F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kashdan, T.B., Barrett, L.F., & McKnight, P.E. (2015). Unpacking emotion differentiation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 10–16.

Interoception & signal accuracy

Garfinkel, S.N. et al. (2015). Knowing your own heart. Biological Psychology, 104, 65–74.

Critchley, H.D. & Garfinkel, S.N. (2017). Interoception and emotion. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 7–14.

Emotion regulation & suppression

Gross, J.J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299.

Gross, J.J. & John, O.P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes. JPSP, 85(2), 348–362.

Relational neuroscience

Coan, J.A. & Sbarra, D.A. (2015). Social baseline theory. Current Opinion in Psychology, 1, 87–91.

Coan, J.A. et al. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1032–1039.

Porges, S.W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. Norton.

Self-compassion

Neff, K.D. & Germer, C. (2013). A pilot study and RCT of the Mindful Self-Compassion program. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69(1), 28–44.

Breines, J.G. & Chen, S. (2012). Self-compassion increases self-improvement motivation. PSPB, 38(9), 1133–1143.

Psychological flexibility & experiential avoidance

Hayes, S.C. et al. (1996). Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders. JCCP, 64(6), 1152–1168.

Kashdan, T.B. & Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 865–878.

Distress tolerance

Linehan, M.M. (1993). Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Guilford Press.

Leyro, T.M. et al. (2010). Distress tolerance and psychopathological symptoms. Psychological Bulletin, 136(4), 576–600.

Sleep & regulation

Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep. Scribner.

Yoo, S.S. et al. (2007). The human emotional brain without sleep. Current Biology, 17(20), R877–R878.

Philosophy of biology & care as structure

Deacon, T.W. (2011). Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter. W.W. Norton.

Kauffman, S.A. (1995). At Home in the Universe. Oxford University Press.

Also