Meet Sally! She is a girl who loves space and planets. Sally wants to go on a spaceship to see Saturn herself! But Sally is shy and very afraid of talking to other kids, so she doesn’t want to go to group trainings with everyone else. Sally is also very afraid of germs, and she worries about getting sick all the time. So she washes her hands over and over with a lot of soap. After she washes her hands, Sally always has to ask her parents if her hands are clean. She thinks she needs to say “My hands are clean!” aloud three times in order to feel like her hands are truly clean. Sally is also terrified of going to public bathrooms. She doesn’t like the idea of germs and lots of people in bathrooms, and she doesn’t like the loud noises there, so she will refuse to go when she is away from home. Sally wishes she could overcome her fears to go to space and see Saturn herself.
Now, meet Neil! Neil is a boy who loves space, too. He is very excited that there could be other creatures living on another planet, like Mars! How cool would it be to have alien friends there? But like Sally, Neil also has some challenges in his journey to become an astronaut. He is very afraid of being away from his mom, and he always wants to stay close to her. Neil is also very afraid of the dark, so it is really hard for him to do any space training in the dark. At night, it’s hard for him to turn off the lights when it’s time to go to bed. Also, vegetables would be a big part of his diet on spaceships, but Neil is afraid of them right now. And lastly, Neil is afraid of changes or surprises. He is scared when his schedule changes and he suddenly needs to do something he is unprepared for. Since space will be full of surprises, Neil worries about it all the time. Sally and Neil want to learn how to manage their fears in order to go to space. They would love to join your journey to help you overcome your anxiety and become brave astronauts together!
A quick disclaimer for parents: If your child is a teen or pre-adolescent (11-years-old or older), they will watch videos where Sally and Neil look a little older. In the teen videos, Neil has anxieties that are slightly different from the ones described in the videos you see. In the videos you see, the examples of Sally might be more relevant for older kids and early teenagers, while the examples shown in the Neil videos might apply more for younger kids. We do this for you so you can observe a wider range of fears kids of all ages might have, and so if you have an older child or teen, they can relate more to the examples shown in the videos. We hope this will make sure both you and your child get the most out of this experience!
