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.
University of Pennsylvania
MSW, 2012 · School of Social Policy and Practice
Cornell University
BS, 2008 · Human Development · Cognitive Science
LCSW · CAADC · IFS Level 1
Licensed Clinical Social Worker · Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor
Individual therapy in Pennsylvania
Contractor with a group practice · Anxiety · OCD · Addiction · Parenting · Neurodivergent presentations
NASW-PA & NBCC Approved Provider
Approved to offer continuing education credits for licensed social workers and counselors nationally
For training inquiries, organizational workshops, speaking, or anything else — use the form or email directly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How Emotions Are Made
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.
Surfing Uncertainty
The predictive processing framework in full. How the brain generates models and updates them when predictions fail. The architecture underlying the upstream signal model.
Incomplete Nature
How mind, intention, and care emerge from physical processes. The philosophical grounding for care as biological structure — why the goal is coordination, not control.
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
Stress biology made readable. Why chronic activation depletes the system. Accessible entry point to the tank concept.
The Polyvagal Theory
The autonomic nervous system as a social organ. Why felt safety in relationship is a biological state — and why co-regulation precedes self-regulation.
At Home in the Universe
Self-organization and constraint-based emergence in biological systems. Alongside Deacon, the philosophical foundation for how the framework understands nervous system architecture.
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 processingFriston, 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 emotionBarrett, 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 accuracyGarfinkel, 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 & suppressionGross, 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 neuroscienceCoan, 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-compassionNeff, 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 avoidanceHayes, 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 toleranceLinehan, 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 & regulationWalker, 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 structureDeacon, 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.
Signal Care Framework — the sequence
Philosophy & Science — essay library
For Parents — guides & kids books
Upstream Signal Model ↗
linktr.ee/insideattunement ↗
Inside Attunement — Substack ↗
@inside_attunement ↗
@inside_attunement ↗