🧠 Beyond the Monster – Therapeutic Guide (downloadable)

Description

Beyond the Monster – Mental Health Professional Guide

The Beyond the Monster – Mental Health Professional Guide is a practical therapeutic resource designed to help counsellors, psychologists, wellbeing practitioners, social workers, therapists, and other professionals support children experiencing anxiety, emotional overwhelm, low self-esteem, school-based stressors, and worry-based thinking.

Built around the themes explored in There’s a Monster on My Shoulder by Erin Bernardi, this guide uses child-friendly language and engaging activities to help children externalise anxious thoughts, strengthen emotional awareness, and develop practical coping strategies in a safe and supportive way.

At the heart of the program is the understanding that children are not their thoughts, feelings, or worries. Through guided discussion, reflection, mindfulness, and therapeutic activities, children are encouraged to recognise that they can notice their thoughts and emotions and choose how to respond.

Designed for children aged approximately 4–12 years, the guide includes adaptable strategies suitable for individual sessions, small groups, wellbeing interventions, and therapeutic settings.

The guide includes:

• Therapeutic discussion prompts
• Emotional regulation and grounding activities
• Self-awareness and mindfulness exercises
• Cognitive reframing activities
• Reflection worksheets and creative tasks
• Coping strategy and resilience-building tools
• Printable visual supports, posters, and cards
• Practical wellbeing resources for supporting anxious children

The flexible nature of the guide allows professionals to adapt activities to suit the developmental needs, emotional capacity, and individual circumstances of each child.

This resource is ideal for supporting:

• Anxiety and worry-based thinking
• Emotional regulation difficulties
• School refusal and school-based stressors
• Friendship and social challenges
• Self-esteem and confidence building
• Emotional literacy and self-awareness

Bonus Animated Read-Aloud Included

With your purchase, you will also receive a FREE animated read-aloud version of There’s a Monster on My Shoulder, narrated by author Erin Bernardi.

Created specifically to support engagement and emotional connection, this enhanced video experience combines narration, movement, animation, and visual storytelling to help children connect more deeply with the concepts explored throughout the program.

Perfect for:

• individual therapy sessions
• wellbeing groups
• waiting rooms
• emotional regulation sessions
• introducing concepts in an engaging, low-pressure way

The animated read-aloud will be sent following purchase.

The guide complements the wider Beyond the Monster program and can be used alongside the book, educational resources, student activity books, and animated read-aloud experience.

Program Anchor Statement

“I am me — calm, aware, and I choose.”

📄 Licence Information

This resource is licensed for single purchaser use only.
Sharing, forwarding, or uploading this file to other platforms is not permitted.

If others would benefit from this resource, please direct them to purchase their own copy at erinjoybernardi.com.

Thank you for supporting an independent Australian creator ❤️