Comprehensive Assessment of Interoception Awareness
What It Measures
The Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (CAIA) explores how a person notices and interprets signals from inside their own body — hunger, thirst, needing the toilet, a racing heart, the physical build-up that becomes anxiety. Some people feel these signals faintly, some overwhelmingly, and some notice them without knowing what they mean.
Three sub-assessments gather that picture from different angles. An Interoceptive Awareness Interview asks the person directly, using open-ended and rating-scale questions about noticing body signals. An Assessment of Self-Regulation with picture cards explores how they experience and respond to different emotions. A Caregiver Questionnaire gathers observations from someone who knows them well. It is designed to describe an individual experience, not to produce a score.
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: Sold as the CAIA-3 Kit, which includes an instructional manual, 25 assessment forms, and 12 picture cards. Replacement form packs are sold separately. Reproduction requires the author's permission.
Learn More: The CAIA is designed as the front end of The Interoception Curriculum — used first to establish a baseline and identify where to focus, then repeated afterward to see what has changed.