01
Describe the pattern, not the person.
Stay with behaviour you can observe, what repeats, and what changes for the people involved. A tool result cannot establish a diagnosis, personality type, motive, or fixed identity.
A useful question
What can I observe, what effect is it having, and what remains possible now?
This keeps the focus on evidence and consequence. It also leaves room for what is still uncertain and for the support, boundary, clarification, protection, or repair the situation may need.
Six guardrails
Keep observation, impact, and interpretation separate.
02
Keep impact and explanation separate.
Understanding why a response may have developed can add context. It does not make harm harmless, remove responsibility, or replace changed behaviour and repair.
03
Do not confuse calm with safety.
Pressure and control can look composed. Distress can also appear in someone who is overwhelmed or responding to harm. Look at actions, power, consequences, and what other people remain free to say or do.
04
Let uncertainty remain visible.
A feeling is real information, but it may not establish the whole account. Missing evidence should remain unknown rather than being turned into certainty.
05
Look for what happens afterward.
An explanation or apology is not repair by itself. Notice whether the unresolved issue can be discussed, responsibility stays clear, and behaviour changes in a concrete way.
06
Keep decisions in context.
A public tool cannot decide whether to confront, stay, leave, report, or seek treatment. Those choices belong with the real situation, available support, professional judgement, and safety needs.
Do not use a TEG-Blue tool for
- proving what someone secretly feels or intends
- deciding that one response defines a whole person or relationship
- excusing coercion, punishment, retaliation, or harm
- replacing therapy, medical care, legal advice, safeguarding, or crisis support
- pressuring another person to accept your interpretation of them
When the situation is urgent
TEG-Blue is educational. It is not therapy, treatment, medical or legal advice, crisis support, or a substitute for qualified care.
If there is immediate danger, abuse, coercion, risk of harm, or a mental-health crisis, use local emergency services, crisis resources, qualified professionals, and trusted support. Do not rely on a public tool page for an urgent safety decision.
More context
The framework and formal terms live elsewhere.
Methodology and research grounding are documented on teg-blue.org. Permission, attribution, professional use, and reuse are covered by the legal and licensing pages.
A tool can make a pattern easier to see. The conclusion still belongs with the evidence, the context, and the people who have to live with what happens next.