Erin Joy Bernardi – The Author

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. This is because in my experience, having anxiety is 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 insecure and then uses those things against you as it whispers anxious thoughts into your ear. After a while, those whispers become louder until it’s hard to hear anything else. I wanted to personify anxiety because anxiety is not a part of you. Anxiety is its own entity, and you can make it go away with the right tools and support. You are you; you are not anxiety. You have control over your thoughts as you are the one aware of the thoughts, not the thoughts themselves. I hope this book helps trigger children’s awareness of who they actually are at their essence. Once that awareness emerges anxiety has no control over you at all.

I chose a Monster to personify anxiety. This is because in my experience, having anxiety is like having a Monster following you everywhere you go. I hope this book helps trigger children’s awareness of who they actually are at their essence. Once that awareness emerges anxiety has no control over you at all.

About Erin Joy Bernardi

My name is Erin Joy Bernardi. I am the author and illustrator of the children’s book, ‘Theres a Monster on my Shoulder’. I am a teacher, qualified and experienced in both primary and early childhood education. I am also a mum. It is my experiences in these roles that compelled me to take action to help address what I feel is a growing problem in both adults and children alike. Every day I see more and more children suffering with anxiety, from very mild to quite extreme. To some extent, everyone suffers from anxiety in one form or another. It is particularly hard to converse about anxiety with young children and to explain it in a way that helps them understand and cope with it. This was the reason behind writing my first children’s book. My hope is that this book will be a highly effective tool in starting the conversation with children about anxiety in an easy-to-understand way and that equips them with tools to cope and deal with anxiety. I also hope that it can enhance children’s understanding of who they are at their essence. I hope it will help them know that the thoughts circling around in their minds are not who they are, and that they are the ones aware of those thoughts and they can exercise much more choice about them.

I am so passionate about helping people, particularly children gain a true and meaningful understanding of who they are and the innate value they hold by being their unique selves. This book along with other resources are great ways to achieve the above goal. Every person deserves to love who they are. This journey starts 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 we're 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.

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About the book

About Erin Joy Bernardi

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'I am me joyfully, and always will be, and how I see, think and feel, is always up to me.'