# Primal Trust: practice, progression and proposed change

**Display revision:** The coupled system map now joins the source-described progression below with illness, regulation, practice, observation and interpretation. It supersedes the earlier two-view display; these source findings remain applicable. See [the coupled model specification](coupled-systems-model-2026-09-17.md).

17 September 2026. Codex source reconstruction for Wyatt’s review. Read alongside the whole-program audit; this is a correction to the compressed landscape, not a newly validated clinical model. Sources are authorized August 2026 captures, not a claim about today’s portal. No course text or files are redistributed.

**Source-version correction, 22 September 2026:** A bounded independent recheck found that the later retained portal FAQ removed the weekly release and completion gates. The original reconstruction relied on the older 2024 FAQ without incorporating this update. The latest retained guidance provides immediate access while strongly recommending module order and encouraging 1–2 weeks per module. Source: `source:pt:portal:faqs`, captured 2026-08-31T05:44:12.932Z (August 30 local), lines 358–389; verified SHA-256 `9a16282645b823da0214f972e875f606c57c46376f5727e73db817abd5d7bf0d`. Historical source versions and the frozen audit run remain unchanged.

## What the earlier map missed

Both levels are offered as changing nervous-system regulation. Level 1 builds a repertoire; Level 2 adds deeper protective-pattern, attachment and identity work while those tools continue. The early overview explicitly allows some people to skip deeper trauma work. Symptoms alone are not the documented progression gate. Introductory emotion and protective-pattern work also occurs in Level 1; these are not completely disjoint levels.

The revised map integrates practice, progression, observation and the proposed maintenance/change pathways in one system. It distinguishes instruction from causal claims at the level of each relationship. Connecting review and adaptation instructions is an editorial reconstruction, not discovery of a tested algorithm.

## Source-grounded reconstruction

| Question | What the inspected course says | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| How fast? | The later retained portal FAQ, lines 358–389, provides immediate access with recommended sequencing and 1–2 weeks per module. The older FAQ 2024 pp. 3, 9 describes weekly release, at least 2–3 months overall and a favored two-week-per-module pace. Lesson 1036592, captured lines 44–49, asks for pacing and mastery of a module’s tools or ideas; that differs from complete self-regulation before Level 2. | Access rules changed between retained versions. Suggested pacing and the older claim of best outcomes at 14 weeks are provider guidance, not an independently established optimal dose or biological timetable. |
| What accumulates? | Module 4 workbook p. 30 and lesson 1036644 keep earlier practices while adding ABC, with simplified and fuller routines. Module 5 workbook p. 22 supports creating a personal routine. | No independently established optimal dose or requirement to perform the whole menu. |
| When review? | Module 1 Lesson 3 chronic-stress checklist p. 3 asks for monthly physical and behavioral ratings. Lesson 1091271, lines 14–17, asks about thoughts, behavior and emotions as well as symptoms. | No exclusive ban on other monitoring, validated measurement instrument, or evidence that behavioral changes prove neural rewiring. |
| How adjust? | Lesson 1091271, lines 24–27, invites choosing tools for needs and changing the routine; not every practice is for daily use. | No formal score-to-practice switching rule or prospective per-practice efficacy test. |
| When Level 2? | Module 7 Quick Start Guide p. 6 asks for knowledge of the tools, not mastery of regulation. Module 6 workbook p. 20 keeps the daily toolkit active; p. 24 describes capacity, inner work and emergence. Overview lesson 1036592, lines 45–46, says inner work is not for everyone. | Symptoms persisting do not automatically require Level 2. The overview’s optionality and quick-start invitation have different emphases and should both remain visible. |
| What goal? | Module 7 workbook pp. 9–10, 16–17 and lesson 1091271 describe conscious choice, meeting needs, values and ongoing self-regulation, including continuing outside membership. | No verified symptom-free graduation threshold, requirement that all skills become unconscious, or measured “regulated state” endpoint. |
| When reassess or leave? | Lesson 1091271 line 17 proposes at least six months then reassessment; FAQ p. 2 describes cancellation and returning. | Monthly progress monitoring remains alongside this proposed commitment. No universal criterion here for separating delayed benefit from ineffective treatment or a wrong formulation. Specific practice cautions elsewhere are not replaced by the six-month commitment. |

The certificate-page capture (lesson 1100709) exposes its title and no substantive body. It cannot establish health-related completion criteria. Administrative completion, stopping membership, continuing useful habits, improved function and disease change remain different endpoints.

## Fidelity, inference and uncertainty

High confidence in the explicit timing, monthly worksheet, tool-choice and Level 2 statements above, subject to the captured versions and source variants. Moderate confidence in the integrated feedback-loop diagram: it combines guidance distributed across lessons, rather than reproducing one official flowchart. No confidence estimate about efficacy follows from this source-fidelity assessment.

The illness map reproduces a selected learned-threat account. It should not imply that Primal Trust explicitly denies every ongoing infection or pathological process; lesson 1036599 (captured lines 17–21) explicitly lists infection/exposure, proposes effects on bodily defenses and acknowledges uncertainty about causal order. FAQ 2024 pp. 6–8 claims benefit with infections and permits continuing medical care/body support. These are attributed claims, not independently established benefits or causal laws. Conversely, acknowledging those caveats does not validate its broad maintenance explanation.

The most useful correction is not simply adding more arrows. Each arrow should distinguish **course instruction**, **interpretation of progress**, **proposed biological change**, and **measured outcome**. Monthly review is not a mechanism experiment. Changes in behavior need not imply disease improvement. Nonresponse must be allowed to challenge the model rather than always imply hidden resistance.

## Practices behind the blocks

The expandable practice block contains the mapped families: interruption/ABC, visualization, bodily attention, breathing, orienting and self-touch, somatic movement, emotion work, meditation and pacing. These summaries point to the existing inventory. They do not reproduce the complete proprietary exercise menu, advanced instructions or all safety exclusions. The surrounding library extends the core course.

## Research comparison

The separate [interacting-processes evidence note](interacting-processes-evidence-2026-09-17.md) examines network physiology, coupled inflammatory models, learning, tissue constraints and interventions during active illness. It is a research comparison, not an additional Primal Trust claim or a validated universal alternative theory.

## Review status

Source re-reading and implementation review completed by Codex. A separate agent reproduced the key scheduling, checklist, repertoire, Level 2 and reassessment passages from freshly extracted PDFs. This is a bounded check, not independent reproduction of the entire synthesis. The added illness/immune-function passage was checked by the author. Wyatt’s whole-program review, participant comprehension testing and clinical review remain outstanding. No raw curriculum, private interview or personal-health material belongs in the public preview or GitHub proposal.