Reframe uses two evidence-based frameworks to guide reflection: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). You don’t need to know the research to use Reframe — but knowing where the prompts come from explains why they’re shaped the way they are.
The ACE assessment was developed by researchers studying how early life challenges might shape long-term health and wellbeing. It asks about difficult experiences that may have occurred during childhood — things like household dysfunction, neglect, or exposure to instability.
ACEs aren’t about labeling or pathologizing your past. The framework simply recognizes that early experiences — both hard and supportive — can influence how we see ourselves and navigate the world. Understanding these patterns can be a starting point for reflection, not a diagnosis.
We don’t ask you to score yourself or count trauma. Instead, we use ACE-informed prompts to help you reflect on challenges in a way that’s contained, creative, and non-clinical. The goal isn’t to relive hardship — it’s to turn it into language you control.
The PCE framework emerged as a necessary counterbalance to ACEs. It focuses on the protective, affirming experiences that build resilience — things like feeling supported, having safe relationships, or experiencing moments of belonging and joy.
Positive experiences aren’t just the opposite of adverse ones. They’re foundational. PCEs help people recognize sources of strength, connection, and growth that shaped who they are. Reflection isn’t only about what was hard — it’s also about what held you up.
We use PCE-informed prompts to help you identify moments of strength, support, and grounding. These aren’t just happy memories — they’re the building blocks of how you’ve learned to move through the world. And they make for powerful lyrical material.
The most resonant lyrics hold both weight and light.
Reframe asks you to reflect on both adversity and strength because that’s how real stories work. Life isn’t one-dimensional.
You’re not filling out a diagnostic checklist. You’re building the foundation for lyrics that reflect the fullness of your experience.
ACEs and PCEs are research tools, not medical assessments.
There’s no tally, no threshold, no label.
You choose how much to share. The prompts are guides, not demands.
Reframe uses these frameworks to inform creativity, not extract trauma. The questions are structured to help you reflect — then we turn that reflection into rhythm.
Landmark research examining the relationship between childhood adversity and lifelong health outcomes.
Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences — research on how positive childhood experiences promote resilience, complementing ACEs by focusing on protective factors.
Reframe is a creative tool, not a research platform. These assessments inspire our prompts, but we’re focused on music — not measurement.
Reflection, turned into something sayable, singable, and yours.
ACEs and PCEs give Reframe a foundation — a way to ask questions that matter without being invasive. We’ve translated evidence-based frameworks into creative prompts. You don’t need to understand the research to use the tool.
But if you’re curious about why the questions are shaped the way they are, now you know: they come from decades of work understanding how early experiences shape us — and how we can shape our stories in return.