The model, in plain language
People often register a state in the body before they can say what it “is.” Tightness, heat, buzzing, collapse, or numbness show up first. Words come later.
Because raw sensation cannot be spoken directly, the mind uses a symbol: a concrete word (“tight”), a picture (“a stone in my chest”), or a body-science phrase (“my nervous system is overloaded”). That symbol is a working sketch, not a fact about anatomy and not a fixed emotion code.
Only then is it useful to try emotion concepts — and to check them against the body, the situation, and personal history. A familiar cultural label such as “anxiety” is often a guess. Heaviness is not automatically grief. Heat is not automatically anger.
The map asks about location, boundary, movement, intensity, temperature, and action impulse, through several lenses (concrete, metaphor, physiological, cultural, neurodivergent). Follow the person’s own organizing dimensions. Stay with the felt sense long enough for meaning to form.
Based on Chad Thomas, Feeling Before Knowing (2026) and the Somatic Exploration Prompts. Licensed for professional use with clients; not for resale.