TERRA ALTA, WV – Peyton gets so mad that sometimes she throws a fit and gets into trouble with Mom and Dad. And sometimes, she gets too afraid to raise her hand in school. She needs help with feelings. So, she visits a magical castle and teams up with her friend, Freddy Feelings. Together, they explore castle rooms while learning how to keep BIG feelings from causing BIG problems.
It’s Okay to Have Feelings: A Peyton’s Palace Adventure, published by Headline Books–2024 Independent Publisher of the Year, is a mental health therapeutic picture book series, aimed at providing successful emotion regulation tools which build upon one another progressively. While enthralled in a magical castle adventure, Peyton, and her friend, Freddy Feelings, encourage healthier perspectives regarding emotions and teach helpful skills, based upon Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, designed by Marsha Linehan. These tools, once practiced on a regular basis, have been supported by numerous research studies as leading to significant symptom reduction, improvement in cognitive executive functions, and social-emotional wellness.
Too often, children go through life emotionally and socially unprepared to manage stressors and challenges life can bring. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 20% of children have some sort of mental health issue. Many clinicians would argue that percentage to be low, considering the rise in need of mental health services for children and adolescents as well as the increased suicide rates nationwide. Children need our help. So, let’s give them the right tools for healthy social and emotional wellness.
This is Patricia’s first children’s book. She is an award-winning novelist and her awards include a Next Generation Indie Book Award. She was a featured author in the Zoom Into Books booth at The American Library Association (ALA) National Conference in Philadelphia PA in June 2025.
For the past nine years, Patricia Miller has seen firsthand the huge difference the use of Dialectical Behavior Therapy coping skills developed by M
arsha Linehan, has made with patient after patient, who have successfully completed the curriculum in her Intensive Outpatient Program at the Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital in Dover, Ohio. Why don’t we teach these skills to our children? Without doubt, we should be. Miller has created this Mindfulness picture book series to take children on a magical adventure while teaching them important DBT foundational skills simultaneously. Teachers, therapists, and parents alike can utilize this series to help children learn skills that they can successfully use throughout their entire lives. Successful emotional management can bring happiness to us all.
Patricia currently works as an Intensive Outpatient Therapist at the Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital Behavioral Health Center in Dover, Ohio, guiding patients through the curriculum she was instrumental in creating.
Contact: Cathy@HeadlineBooks.com
Available at your local and online bookstore. ISBN 9781958914823, 8.5 x 8.5, HC Retail $19.99