How can parents, educators, and professionals support children in navigating their complex internal worlds and developing true emotional literacy? Far too often, emotional literacy gets confused with emotional control—praising children simply for being calm rather than teaching them how to safely feel, process, and express their big emotions.

In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, we sit down with author, illustrator, and children's services veteran Sharon Paterson. Drawing from her 15 years of experience working across secure welfare units, residential homes, and area referral offices, Sharon shares how noticing patterns of unaddressed trauma, neurodiversity, and grief led her to write gentle, non-clinical resources to help children feel safe, held, and validated.

Together, we explore:

• The Somatic Connection: Helping children look beyond just naming emotions to understand the physical and somatic cues—like a tight tummy or a pounding heart—that their bodies are giving them.
• High-Status Modeling: Why it is a strength, not a weakness, for adults to model vulnerability, own their mistakes, and offer authentic apologies to children.
• The Digital Disconnection: How today’s selectively curated and constantly connected social media landscape amplifies youth anxiety, distorts reality, and deepens feelings of isolation.
• The Power of Bibliotherapy: Using her Bunny and B book series—including Astrin (for bereavement), Tufty (for bullying), and Pitt (for ADHD)—as beautiful co-regulation tools that validate a child's uniqueness.

By shifting our lens from judging a child's behavior to being curious about their experiences, we can offer the holistic approach they truly need. Tune in to discover practical insights on building strong emotional foundations and reminding the children in your life that they are always enough.

About the Guest:

Sharon Paterson is an author, illustrator, and dedicated advocate for children's emotional wellbeing. Sharon brings an exceptional depth of knowledge to our conversation, backed by nearly 15 years of hands-on experience working within Children’s Services. Her career has spanned critical sectors of youth care, including working in secure welfare units, residential children’s homes, and managing referrals for secure placements.

Throughout her career, Sharon noticed a stark, repeating pattern: a devastatingly high number of young people entering secure care had suffered the unaddressed loss of a primary caregiver or sibling. Driven by these professional insights, her own lived experience as a neurodiverse individual, and her journey supporting her neurodiverse grandson through emotional meltdowns, she realized that children's feelings simply weren't being validated enough. This sparked the creation of Bunny and B - a gorgeous catalog of non-clinical bibliotherapy books designed to give children the vocabulary to understand and own their feelings.

Links & Resources

Pip and her Heart Pebble

Asterin and the Memory Stone

Tufty gets her Guardian Wings

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