Milo Made It to a Clinical Classroom. And What Happened Next Surprised Me.
- Big Human Jenna
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Last year, I had an eye-opening, gut-wrenching convo with an entrepreneurial coach who is known for his bluntness. After a few days of recovery (yes, it was that brutal), I realized something had to change. I couldn’t keep offering this work only in person. I needed to create something people could access on their own..And voila! The Big Feelings Toolkit was born.
When I created the toolkit, I wanted more than anything for it to be a conversation starter with little humans. I imagined it being sorta like a menu, a flexible set of tools where therapists, educators, and parents could pick the items that felt most useful for the kids they support.
So when my friend Kristina Curott, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, brought the toolkit into her clinical training course and used it in a role-play session, it felt like the toolkit was finding its way to the people it was made for.
And what she shared with me after the role-play was something I wasn’t fully expecting. Her professor was impressed! Not just by the creativity of the tools, but by their clinical integrity. The Big Feelings Toolkit was hitting evidence-based checkboxes that Kristina’s professor recognized from her years of clinical training and research.
But before we dive into the role-play, meet Kristina!
MEET KRISTINA
I suppose I’m in that category of “non-traditional” students I remember being curious about during my undergrad experience 20 years ago. After completing a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Development and Family Studies, I spent 15 years more like a wandering “free spirit” (as people close to me liked to call me). I kept my interest in human psychology and well-being, traveling the world, exploring meditation and mindfulness, becoming a massage therapist and yoga instructor. I recognized, through my own experiences and those of my clients, how important the body is to healing. It is my intention to help integrate this within the clinical field of psychology. So… now I’m back in school, with a backpack and everything!
I serendipitously met Jenna on a vacation in a beautiful mountain town. She shared with me Milo and his adventure, and I was instantly impressed and interested in the creativity (!!) and clinically relevant methods of the Milo Way.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT CLASSROOM
As a doctorate candidate in clinical psychology, I could tell that the resources available with the Milo way followed clinically relevant practice. I asked Jenna if I could introduce the Big Feelings Toolkit for an assignment in my Evidence-based Psychotherapy for Children/Adolescents. I was tasked to role play a therapist working with a child who had experienced trauma. My partner (“A”) played an 8-year old boy who had recently experienced trauma. We were working through our second session and demonstrated four of the activities within the toolkit. We were in our second session together.
The session begins as though our child patient had read through the Milo story and is thus familiar with the character. He was offered a starfish “Milo” stuffy to hold for soothing, which he opted to do. Working through the Toolkit, our patient was able to identify emotions, practice coping skills, create a list of options for coping when strong feelings arise, and learn about who is a safe adult he could trust and turn to when needed.
The role play was viewed in class by both students and the professor. The professor stopped the video during the points of intervention that were demonstrating an evidence-based practice to highlight it for the class. This happened on each of the worksheets used from the toolkit. I explain more in the following section. The Finger Breathing exercise, the Emotions Deck, the My Choices When Feelings are Big, and the Safe Adult worksheet were stopping points that demonstrated Relaxation and Affective Modulation techniques (discussed further below). The toolkit was well received and relevant during a role play in a clinical psychology child psychotherapy class at a university.
WHY IT WORKS: THE EVIDENCE-BASED CHECKBOXES
Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-yellow-and-black-plastic-toy-car-on-a-map-8083821/
When kids go through something hard, it doesn’t just affect how they feel. It can affect how they think, how their body responds, and how they behave.
One of the most well-researched approaches for helping kids work through that kind of stress is called Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or TF-CBT. It’s an evidence-based framework that clinicians use to help kids process difficult experiences and build emotional skills. Two of its core components, Relaxation and Affective Modulation (a clinical term for learning to manage your emotions), are the building blocks of healthy emotional regulation for any child, not just kids who’ve experienced trauma.
The Milo Big Feelings Toolkit really checks these evidence-based checkboxes because even though it wasn’t designed as a clinical tool, it naturally addresses both of those components. The Finger Breathing exercise teaches kids a simple, body-based way to calm down, which is exactly what relaxation techniques in TF-CBT are designed to do. The Emotions Deck, the My Choices When Feelings Are Big worksheet, and Milo’s Comfort Kit Checklist all help kids name what they’re feeling and figure out what to do with it, which is the heart of affective modulation.
It’s delivered in a way that’s genuinely accessible for parents, for kids, and yes, for clinicians too. All children benefit from learning these skills, and this is a fun, research-backed way to build them.
LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION
Now that you’ve heard the backstory, press play below to listen to Kristina and me talk through what happened in that classroom, why the tools work, and what it means to build something truly kid-centered. And, if this resonated with you, the Big Feelings Toolkit is available now for purchase.
NEW RESOURCE ALERT!
💪The Power Cards Deck for kids is now available! It’s a 32-card deck designed specifically for children who’ve experienced bullying, grounded in the same trauma-informed, evidence-based principles behind the Big Feelings Toolkit. It helps kids rebuild confidence, find their voice, and feel safe again. Perfect for parents, educators, and counselors alike.
💥Check out the new card deck! And don't forget to follow us!
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