Therapist Facilitator Guide

PawSteps is an interactive, paw-themed workbook that walks a young person through the arc of therapeutic work: understanding the process, building coping tools, working safely with difficult memories, and reclaiming the life they want.

It is designed to be completed collaboratively — in session, as guided homework, or with a trusted adult at home — and everything the young person writes saves privately on their own device.

This guide helps you weave the workbook into practice: where each section fits, how to keep the work safe, how to measure change, and how to adapt it.

• Therapists and counsellors — a structured spine for CBT, trauma-focused CBT and EMDR-informed work, or flexible between-session material.
• Trained support staff (ELSA, keyworkers, pastoral leads) — for the stabilisation and coping sections (grounding, first aid box, toolkits, safety plan). The trauma-processing section is reserved for qualified practitioners.
• Parents and carers — supported by the separate Parent Companion.

Guiding principle: build safety and stabilisation before any trauma processing. The workbook is ordered to make that natural, but you set the pace.

PawSteps draws on established models, and is deliberately light-touch and non-prescriptive.

• CBT — thought–feeling–body–behaviour links, and the "hot cross bun" formulation page.
• Trauma-Focused CBT / cognitive therapy for PTSD — three-stage reliving, hot-spot updating (cold and live), and reclaiming-life work; reflects the Ehlers and Clark cognitive model, consistent with NICE guidance on PTSD.
• EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing model — introduced at an explanatory level (Shapiro), with the REM-sleep rationale for bilateral stimulation.
• Psychological First Aid and stabilisation — the sensory "first aid box", grounding, and safety planning to support affect regulation before deeper work.

• Reliving and hot-spot work is done with the clinician, never alone. The workbook states this prominently; reinforce it. Written spaces are for preparation and consolidation, not solo exposure.
• Screen for readiness before trauma processing: a stable-enough environment, adequate affect-regulation skills, no unmanaged risk, and the young person's informed agreement.
• Keep grounding and the first aid box accessible during processing. The in-workbook "I need a moment" button surfaces soothing items and box breathing on any device.
• Have a risk and safeguarding plan. If disclosures or risk emerge, follow your service's safeguarding procedures and the young person's safety plan.
• Be alert to dissociation during reliving. Slow down, ground, and orient to the present ("it is over now, you are here").

This is an illustrative ~12-session arc. Compress, extend or reorder it to fit your formulation — stabilisation length in particular varies.

• Daily check-in — a quick 0–10 mood log with a trend graph. Open sessions with it and make change visible.
• Goals — co-produce small, specific goals; revisit and tick. Pairs with Goal-Based Outcomes.
• Hot cross bun — build a shared formulation from a recent example, and return to it.
• Grounding & first aid box — rehearse in session so they're automatic before processing; the first aid box feeds the in-app coping button.
• Working through trauma — clinician-led. Use written spaces to plan reliving, capture cold updates (then vs now), and rehearse live-update lines in the present tense.
• Activity ladder — a graded hierarchy for behavioural activation/exposure and reclaiming avoided activities.
• Safety plan — complete collaboratively; consistent with a Stanley-Brown style safety plan.

Routine outcome measurement strengthens the work and evidences impact. The workbook's check-in and goals give session-by-session signal; pair with a validated measure at baseline, mid-point and end.

These are commonly free for UK clinical/educational use but each has conditions — always confirm current terms and register where required.

• Assign a specific page rather than "carry on with the book" (e.g. "add three things to your first aid box" or "one daily check-in").
• Ask them to use Save file to keep their own copy, or bring their device to sessions; the workbook also prints to PDF for your records with their consent.
• Open the next session by reviewing what they added — it reinforces effort and keeps momentum.

• "Words that suit me" — Younger / Teen / Grown-up wording modes; set with the young person.
• Accessibility — read-aloud, larger text, easy-read font, and a low-stimulation "calm" mode are built in; use alongside symbols or a communication aid.
• SEND — shorten sessions, use more concrete examples, and lean on the sensory first aid box, which suits many autistic and sensory-seeking young people.
• EAL — read-aloud helps; consider completing key pages with an interpreter or bilingual support.

• Data is stored locally in the young person's browser and in any file they export; it is not sent anywhere by the workbook — explain this so they understand where their words live.
• The optional PIN is a light privacy screen, not encryption; advise keeping exported files safe.
• Agree at the outset what will be shared, with whom, and how it is stored in your clinical record; obtain consent appropriate to age and competence.