how it was built
how the self-inventory was built, and what it is not.
If you are going to answer honest questions about yourself, you should know where the questions came from, how your answers are counted, and where the whole thing falls short. Here it is, in plain words.
the short version
a way of noticing, built from practice. not a clinical test.
What it is. A set of plain statements about everyday moments. You say how much each one sounds like you. Your answers are counted toward twelve Frames: moves many of us learned to stay safe, which still run today.
What it is not. It is not a diagnosis, not a personality type and not therapy. It has not been through clinical trials, so we never call it validated or proven. A result is a starting point for noticing, not a verdict about you.
where the frames came from
twenty years of watching, and the tools people already use.
The twelve Frames were gathered from twenty years of watching capable people repeat the same protective moves under pressure. They were shaped by studying the instruments people already use, and the research behind them. They are a working framework.
Each Frame is named for what it does, behavior first. Guarding is staying on watch. Rescuing is solving other people’s problems, often before they ask. Withdrawing is stepping back when things get to be a lot. Read all twelve.
how your answers are counted
simple sums, done the same way every time.
The Introductory Self-Inventory has 24 statements, two for each Frame, and takes about five minutes. It is free.
The Full Self-Inventory has 60 statements, five for each Frame, and takes about fifteen minutes. It is part of Navigator.
For each statement you choose one of five answers, from “not like me” to “very like me.” Each answer counts from 0 to 4 toward the Frame it belongs to, and the counts for each Frame are added up. The Frame with the highest total is the one leading for you right now.
The counting is done on our server, by a fixed rule, the same way every time. The AI does not decide your scores. It writes the report around them, in plain words.
A higher total means that move showed up more in your answers today. It does not mean something is wrong, and it is not a measure of you. Frames shift with the season and the room, which is why you can take the Introductory again after 30 days and the Full after 45.
what testing has happened
honestly: member feedback, not a study.
The Frames and the Self-Inventory have not been through a clinical trial or a published reliability study. What we do have is members telling us whether what they read fits them, and we change what does not hold.
What a result cannot tell you: why something happened in your life, whether you have a condition, or what you should do. It can help you notice a move sooner, and ask yourself one honest question about it.
echo, the ai guide
what echo does, and where it stops.
What it does. Echo reads your Self-Inventory back to you, asks questions, and suggests one small thing to notice or try. It writes your report from your scores.
What it is. Echo is an AI. It runs on Anthropic’s Claude models, reached through OpenRouter, with backups described in our Privacy Policy. Those providers may not use what you write to train their models.
Where it stops. Echo is not a person, a therapist or an emergency service, and every Echo window says so. If you tell Echo you are not safe, it answers the same way every time, with people who can help right now. Read exactly what Echo does.
the ideas it draws on
we did not invent these ideas. we put them into plain words.
The ideas underneath the work are public and widely studied. The traditions most relevant to it:
- Cognitive reframing: how the meaning we give a moment changes how it lands.
- Mindfulness-based practice and attention to the body.
- Self-compassion research.
- Narrative work: how people tell, and retell, their own story.
- Parts-oriented self-understanding, such as Internal Family Systems.
- Jeffrey Young’s schema model, and attachment research.
- Motivation research, and the science of social connection.
- The instruments people already use, among them Myers-Briggs, CliftonStrengths, the Enneagram and the Big Five.
Framed Minds draws on these, and we say so. What is ours is the plain language, the pacing, and the way the Frames are named for what they do. Read more about the ideas behind it.
see it for yourself
start small.
A first glimpse is eight everyday moments, about two minutes, with no account. Your answers stay in your browser.