Erin Joy Bernardi – The Author

Helping children grow in wellbeing, self-awareness, and a lifelong love of learning

Welcome to a space dedicated to supporting children’s mental and emotional wellbeing through meaningful stories, practical resources, and compassionate guidance.

At the heart of this website is my children’s book There’s a Monster on My Shoulder and its companion educational resource. Together, they gently explore emotions, anxiety, self-awareness, and resilience, helping children understand their feelings and realise they are not alone in their experiences.

Building on the message of the book, I have also developed a School Wellbeing Program designed to support early childhood educators, teachers, wellbeing professionals, and families in nurturing children’s emotional development. The program provides structured lessons, activities, and discussion prompts that help children recognise emotions, develop positive self-talk, build resilience, and strengthen their sense of self.

Alongside these core resources, you will find a range of materials designed to support children’s learning, emotional growth, and wellbeing across early childhood settings, schools, therapy environments, and homes.

Although the website is organised into sections for educators, families, and wellbeing professionals, you are warmly encouraged to explore all areas. Many of the resources can be adapted for different environments, allowing children to be supported wherever they learn and grow.

My hope is that this space empowers the adults in children’s lives to guide them with confidence, compassion, and understanding — helping every child to know who they are, and feel seen, supported, and strong.

Anxiety can be a Monster…
but guess what? YOU are stronger than that Monster!
Want to learn how to make Monsters disappear?

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About the book

I chose a Monster to personify anxiety because, in my experience, living with anxiety can feel like having a Monster following you everywhere you go. A Monster that knows everything about you — what scares you, what worries you, what makes you feel unsure — and then uses those things against you, whispering anxious thoughts into your ear.

Over time, those whispers can grow louder, until they begin to drown out everything else.

I wanted to personify anxiety because anxiety is not who you are. It is not a part of your identity. Anxiety is something separate — something that can be understood, managed, and quietened with the right tools and support.

You are you.

You are not anxiety.

You are the one who notices your thoughts. You are the awareness behind them. And when that awareness begins to grow, anxiety begins to lose its power.

My hope is that this book helps children recognise who they truly are at their core — strong, capable, and separate from their worries. Because once that understanding emerges, the Monster no longer has control.

About Erin Joy Bernardi

Hi, I’m Erin Joy Bernardi – author and illustrator of the children’s book There’s a Monster on My Shoulder. I’m a qualified teacher with extensive experience in both primary and early childhood education, and I’m also a mum. My experiences in these roles inspired me to take action on an issue I see growing every day: anxiety in children and adults alike.

Anxiety can affect everyone to some degree, but it’s particularly challenging to talk about with young children. Explaining it in a way that helps them understand and cope can feel overwhelming. This inspired me to write my first children’s book – a gentle, accessible way to start conversations about anxiety. My hope is that this book not only equips children with practical tools to manage anxious thoughts but also helps them discover a deeper understanding of themselves. I want them to know that the thoughts circling in their minds are not who they are – they are the ones noticing those thoughts, and they can choose how to respond.

I am deeply passionate about helping children and adults alike recognise their innate value and the uniqueness that makes them who they are. There’s a Monster on My Shoulder, along with my other resources, are designed to support this journey. Every person deserves to know, love and embrace who they are – and that journey begins here.

Highly recommend this book. I have read it to my grandchildren who love it and who ask to read it over and over again! We use the techniques in this book to help with their 'Worry Monsters' all the time. It's been a lifesaver!

I am a teacher and since reading this book to my class, we often use the techniques to help when they become anxious or worried and they work so well! It was a great way to begin the conversation with children about what anxiety is and I was surprised at how many children were happy to openly talk about their 'Worry Monsters'. My students not only now know what anxiety is, but how to cope with it. I have recommended this book to the parents of my students as a must-have on the book shelf.

I work with children with anxiety and I use this book all the time to introduce them to the concept of anxiety and coping techniques in a fun way that isn't daunting to them. They love the colourful illustrations and fun rhyming story and barely realise that we are reading this as an educational exercise! The page at the back of the book for children to draw their own 'Worry Monster' has been a great tool to talk to children about how their worry monster makes them feel so it really helps to get the conversation going. I'm so thankful that I was introduced to this book

I bought this book as a gift for my niece and nephew and have heard nothing but great things about it! They use the techniques daily and it has had such a powerful impact on their lives.

I found that personifying anxiety as a Monster was so helpful in helping my child disidentify from it and know that they are not the anxiety, but that anxiety just happens to them. I think it helped them to get a greater understanding of themselves and know that they actually have much more control over how they feel, think and react because they are the ones aware of their life events and thoughts, and so are in a much greater position to exercise choice over how they react to them. I even found these concepts valuable as an adult! An invaluable book!

This is not only a great story book that children will love to read again and again, it is an educational resource! We have multiple copies in our school library and use it often as part of our well being curriculum.

A beautifully written and illustrated book with an even more beautiful and powerful message. With anxieties heightened over the past few years, the words and strategies in this book really helped my son fight off his "monsters". It is a timely book for children (and adults) of all ages, and I can’t wait to introduce this resource into our kinder program too.

I love reading this book with my girls. It helps them feel confident to tell me things that have been worrying them, that they are usually embarrassed to talk about. We practice the breathing exercises together and they like to act out the emotions they have been feeling that day. It gives us a great opportunity to connect and share.

Both my boys aged 6 & 9 thoroughly enjoy this book and choose it from a large selection, regularly. I feel it's well written and helps the kids relate to their emotions and open the conversation for us as a family. Exceptional messages of love understanding and kindness delivered and written by an educator with loads of experience in the field. Thanks To Erin for going above and beyond with her desire to teach our kids! Highly recommended to all kids parents grandies and schools- we need more of this taught to our kids! Many thanks 🙏! "Thanks for sharing your wisdom- couldn't have got through kinder without you"

This book gave my class the language to support what they were feeling.

When going through our 6th lockdown, I noticed my little miss 3 started to have socialisation difficulties, separation difficulties because of worry, an unwillingness to leave the house and sleeping difficulties because she was scared and worried. I had seen a friend share a picture of 'There's a monster on my shoulder' a book about anxiety for children and thought I'd give it a go, the book arrived quickly and we found it really helpful. My daughter took to the blowing bubbles strategy and found it fun and enjoyable. The book has a variety of strategies in it and explains why everything is happing and how to fix it very well. It’s not just a great resource for children but a great resource for parents too. I definitely recommend this book.

I bought this book as a gift for my niece and nephew and have heard nothing but great things about it! They use the techniques daily and it has had such a powerful impact on their lives.