It began with children.
Long before there was a company, there were stories—stories written for my daughter, my students, and the many children I was fortunate to know and teach. I never imagined those stories would one day become Wee Meditate. I simply wanted children to have a place they could return to when life felt scary, uncertain, or overwhelming.
It grew over many years through my work as a special education teacher, children’s storyteller, and meditation and yoga teacher. But more than anything, it grew by listening to children.
Every story began with a child.
Sometimes a child who couldn’t sleep.
Sometimes a child who was worried or overwhelmed.
Sometimes a child facing illness, fear, or a difficult day.
I simply wrote the story that child needed.
At the time, I had no idea those stories were becoming the foundation of
Wee Meditate.
My Daughter Taught Me About Comfort
When my daughter spent time in the hospital, I found myself returning to those same stories.
She received wonderful medical care, but I remember wishing there were more ways to comfort children emotionally.
There was a television.
She had her Nintendo DS.
But stories did something different.
Stories created a familiar place.
A quiet place.
A place she could carry with her, even inside a hospital room.
That experience never left me.
Then I Met Max
Not long afterward, while completing my Master’s degree in Special Education, I met Max.
Max was eight years old, legally blind, and living with a progressive neurological disorder.
I was told he was resistant, unreachable, and unlikely to learn.
I saw something different.
I saw a little boy whose fear looked like anger.
I knew I couldn’t teach Max until he felt safe enough to learn.
So I did what had always come naturally.
This time, though, I intentionally wove calming breaths, gentle relaxation, guided imagery, sensory grounding, and mindfulness into the story itself.
It didn’t look like meditation the way most people imagine it.
It simply felt like comfort.
As the story unfolded, the tension in Max’s hands slowly eased.
When we finished, he looked at me quietly and asked,
“Can we do it again?”
From that day forward, every lesson began with a story.
Over time, his teachers, therapists, and parents noticed changes.
Max became calmer.
More engaged.
His parents later told me he even used the stories during hospital visits when he felt afraid.
That was the moment everything came together.
The stories.
The teaching.
The meditation.
They had never really been separate.
Why I Created Wee Meditate
Over the years, I realized something important.
Not every parent, grandparent, teacher, therapist, nurse, Child Life Specialist, or caregiver has the time—or the emotional energy—to create comforting stories in life’s hardest moments.
When a child is frightened before a medical procedure…
Lying awake in a hospital bed…
Traveling for specialized medical care…
Adjusting to life in a shelter…
Or simply struggling with anxiety after a difficult day…
…the adults who love them are often carrying tremendous stress, too.
I wanted comforting stories to already be there.
Today, Wee Meditate is a library of more than 100 hours of original story-based audio created to comfort children during illness, medical procedures, anxiety, trauma, grief, and other difficult experiences.
Every story is thoughtfully written to meet children where they are, honoring different abilities, experiences, and ways of finding calm.
Today, those same stories continue to comfort children through
families, educators, therapists, pediatric
organizations, and Ireland’s national children’s ambulance service, BUMBLEance, reaching children wherever their journeys take them.
After spending my career listening to children, I’ve learned one simple truth.
Comfort comes first.
When children feel safe, they are better able to rest, cope, heal, learn, and simply be children.
Every child deserves that.
Every child deserves comfort in their own way.
