A transparent process of mapping emotion into a system humans and AI can understand
Methodology is not an afterthought — it is the foundation of trust. By showing how TEG-Blue was created, we make it clear that this is not a random invention but a process rooted in both lived experience and rigorous design.
The Origin
TEG-Blue began during a time of personal collapse. In order to survive, I needed to make sense of what was happening to me — emotionally, relationally, and systemically (Map of lived events).
I turned to what I’ve always done as a designer: make sense of chaos by simplifying, connecting, and translating complexity into clear visual form.
This survival-driven act of sensemaking became the seed of TEG-Blue.
The Designer’s Method
TEG-Blue isn’t replacing existing models — it’s aligning their magnetic fields.
Each theory, framework, and model already holds truth. But most were built in isolation — like scattered magnets, each pointing in its own direction.
Our work is to bring them into alignment — feeling where they pull toward or repel each other, and adding just enough force to let them click into coherence.
We use the same logic those frameworks are built on — not to replace them, but tofill the gaps and link them together.
Through this process, TEG-Blue becomes a unifying map, connecting what psychology, neuroscience, education, and sociology have each discovered about human emotion — but rarely integrated.
This is the method:
- Identify core emotional logics across traditions.
- Connect them into one coherent system.
- Translate them into visual, accessible designs that anyone can understand.
The approach is both practical and rigorous: weaving established knowledge into a system that is usable, testable, and teachable — so that human understanding can finally evolve together, not apart.
The Tools I Used to Build It
- Design thinking — 25+ years of experience simplifying complexity into visual clarity
- Systemic analysis — Seeing how emotional behaviors repeat in families, workplaces, institutions
- Emotional pattern recognition — Rooted in lived experience with trauma, neurodivergence, and CPTSD
- Language engineering — Building emotionally precise, neurodivergent-friendly ways of naming experience
- Survival tracking — Logging daily emotional states, mapping nervous system triggers, tracking shifts, and observing how others respond to pain or emotions they can’t manage. Much of this work came from watching the patterns of those who hurt me, and trying to understand what made them act the way they did.
2. How I Think, How I Work
I see emotions as data.
Emotions are biological signals, not abstract feelings. They aren’t flaws — they’re information. They show us what’s happening inside and around us. When we treat them as signals, not weaknesses, we can learn from them instead of fearing them. And when people see that’s possible, they start doing it too.
I think in systems. And I feel in systems too.
Where others see separate issues, I see patterns. Where others avoid complexity, I organize it. Where others turn away from pain, I stay with it—until it shows me something useful.
I don’t shrink emotions—I map them. I don’t oversimplify—I create structure.
To me, language is like code or music.
Each word has a role. Each part matters. I write to make things clear, not complicated. This is how I see the world — and how I build systems that hold both emotional depth and structural integrity.
I’m always willing to unlearn.
I don’t hold tightly to what I already know. I stay open — looking for what truly works. My goal isn’t to be right. It’s to find the question that leads to real understanding.
Mistakes don’t threaten me, they guide me. Each time something fails, it points me away from illusion and closer to truth.
What This Makes Possible
- A system that is transparent about its roots.
- A framework that invites testing, refinement, and critique.
- A methodology that honors both lived experience and academic knowledge.
TEG-Blue is not a finished doctrine. It is a living blueprint — a system built to evolve with research, practice, and collaboration.
Core Principles Guiding the Work
- Clarity over complexity — plain, precise language instead of jargon.
- Accessibility — design choices that support neurodivergent readers.
- Trauma-awareness — avoiding re-traumatization and honoring lived experience.
- Global synthesis — connecting multiple frameworks instead of reinventing.