Ages 6-16 · Pacifica, CA city · Book 4, Discernment

Negative Self-Talk — Pacifica, CA

A child cannot argue with a voice they have never noticed is speaking. Pacifica has a population of about 38,606. Noticing is the entire first move, and it is teachable at seven.

The harshest voice most children hear all day is their own, and it is on the input list with everything else.

The book behind it

Ellis Abel and the Two Wolves Within

“Choose what you feed within.”

Notice what shapes your inner world.
Awareness makes choice possible.
Feed the thoughts that strengthen you.

Ellis Abel is a character series. Volume 4 carries the value discernment, and the story does the teaching. There is no doctrine in it and nothing for a family to opt out of, which is why it runs in Pacifica, CA in public schools, libraries, clubs and living rooms without changing a word.

Read about Ellis Abel and the Two Wolves Within · The whole series

Five sessions in Pacifica

Session 1
Read the story and name the two voices in it
Session 2
List what actually went in today — watched, scrolled, heard, said
Session 3
Sort the list: which one did each thing feed
Session 4
Each child changes ONE input before the next session
Session 5
Come back and ask what changed, without judging the answer

What Pacifica, CA leaders ask first

Is negative self-talk in Pacifica, CA a religious program?

No. Ellis Abel is a character series. Each volume carries one named core value — this one is discernment — and the story does the teaching. There is no doctrine in it, nothing to opt out of, and it is used in public schools, libraries and secular programs as readily as anywhere else.

What ages does this work for?

Ages 6-16. The story is read aloud, so a child who cannot read yet is fully in it, and the discussion prompts are written in two bands so one adult can hold a mixed-age room.

Will this work for the children in Pacifica, CA who need it most?

It is built to. Participation is allowed to look different — listening from the edge of the room counts, and so does leaving early. Nothing in the session requires reading, speaking, or sitting still to take part.

Where do we start if we have never run anything like this?

One child and one adult who keeps the pairing. Not a program. Build the good half-hour for that child first, and let the second family hear about it from the first.

How a session actually runs in Pacifica

Step 1
Two voices, named out loud
The story gives a child a way to talk about their own inner argument without having to admit anything embarrassing. Children in Pacifica, CA will describe the harsh voice in detail once it belongs to a story rather than to them.
Step 2
List what actually went in today
Not a lecture about screen time. An honest inventory of one real day — watched, scrolled, played, heard, said, and said to themselves — written down by the child, with the adults doing their own list at the same time.
Step 3
One question, good on any platform
Who made this, and what do they want from me. It works on a video, an ad, a group chat, a game's shop and a chatbot, and it will still work on whatever replaces all of them. That transferability is the point of teaching a question rather than a rule.
Step 4
Change one input, and say which
One thing, chosen by the child, changed before the next session. Not a screen-time limit imposed from above — those are complied with rather than learned. Then come back and ask what changed, without grading the answer.