A bedtime story written entirely for your child, and no one else.

Built on genuine clinical hypnotherapy methodology, from their favourite things, the world they imagine, and the one thing you'd most like to gently help with right now. A story that fits them and only them.

$29 AUD inc. GST. One-time purchase. We begin once your form arrives. Most stories are ready in 24 to 48 hours. We will email and SMS your secure link.

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This isn't a bedtime story. It's their bedtime story.

Most bedtime stories are written for every child at once. A narrator. A tale. A child listening along with every other child who has ever held that same book. Once Upon Them is something else entirely. Your child's story is woven from what you share, brought to life as audio your child can listen to again and again. Their hero is the kind they love most. Their companion animal is the one they would choose. Their real interests, their favourite things, and the quality you most want them to carry into sleep, all threaded through every word, from the very first line to the last. And beneath the adventure, something quieter is happening. Every story is written using the hero's journey, the oldest and most powerful story structure in human history, and the same framework used in clinical therapeutic storytelling. The hero faces a challenge that mirrors something real in your child's world. And in overcoming it, they discover something they already had inside them all along. Your child doesn't experience therapy. They experience their story. And the story does the rest.

It knows your child

Their hero, their companion animal, their favourite things, woven through every word. Not a template with a few blanks filled in. A story conceived, from the very first line, around who your child truly is.

It does more than entertain

You tell us the one thing you'd most like this story to gently support: managing worries, feeling brave, making friends, navigating change, settling to sleep, or something else. The hero meets that challenge and discovers they have what it takes. Your child enjoys the adventure. The story supports the learning.

It sounds like it was made for them, because it was

Every story arrives as audio in Paul's or Rebecca's own voice, paired with read-along, highlight-as-you-go text, so your child can listen and follow the words at the same time. Night after night, the same familiar story, warm, trusted and completely theirs.

It fits your routine

Short, bedtime-friendly chapters you can play on any device. Stream from your secure link or download to your phone. One new chapter each week, yours to keep and replay. No app. No subscription.

$29 AUD. One-time purchase. We begin once your form arrives. Most stories are ready in 24 to 48 hours. We will email and SMS your secure link.

For little dreamers, big dreamers, and the one child whose story has never been told - until now.

Four steps to the story they'll ask for every night

  1. 1

    Choose their adventure

    Start with a single complete audio story. You can add the full four-part Story Journey after checkout. Then complete our online form so we can make it truly theirs. Your answers guide every part of the story. If you choose the Journey, you'll receive one new chapter each week, and everything is yours to keep.

  2. 2

    Tell us about your child

    The little things that make them who they are. Their hero title, favourite animal, what they are proud of, and the one thing you'd most like the story to gently support: bravery, calm, friendship, confidence, sleep, or something else. Share as much or as little as you like. The more you share, the richer the story.

  3. 3

    We create it, just for them

    Your child's story is created from what you share, using the clinical storytelling methodology of Paul and Rebecca Smith, and reviewed by a clinical hypnotherapist before it's delivered. Their real world becomes the setting. Their strengths become the hero's gift. The challenge becomes the big moment, and the ending is shaped to feel safe and settled for bedtime.

  4. 4

    Receive and press play

    We begin once your form arrives. When the story is ready, we email and SMS a secure link to your child's audio story. You can also set up a child-friendly link so your child can open the read-along story without an account. Play on any device. No app. Yours to keep.

$29 AUD. One-time purchase. We begin once your form arrives. Most stories are ready in 24 to 48 hours. We will email and SMS your secure link.

The four-part Story Journey

Four connected audio stories. One hero, growing each week.

While a single bespoke story ($29) brings beautiful peace for tonight, familiarity is what makes a story theirs. It's why children ask for the same one night after night. That's why we designed the four-part Story Journey.

Instead of one story, your child receives a four-part audio story arc, one connected hero's journey across four weeks.

Week by week, the hero faces challenges that echo your child's world, discovers strengths that were there all along, and comes home changed, across four nights of listening your child will ask for again and again.

Want the full arc? Start by creating your child's first story today for $29. At checkout, you can add the remaining three parts for $67: four complete personalised stories for $96 in total, less than $24 each.

Part 1: The Call

Your child's hero is introduced to their world - familiar, warm, and built from the details only your child would recognise. Then something stirs. Something is needed. The adventure begins.

Part 2: The Trials

The hero ventures further. The world grows bigger. New companions arrive. New strengths are discovered - strengths that were always there, waiting to be found.

Part 3: The Ordeal

The greatest challenge yet. The moment that feels impossible. And the most powerful story of the four, the one where something real shifts for the hero.

Part 4: The Return

The hero comes home - changed, whole, and carrying something they will keep forever. The resolution your child has been building toward, across four nights of listening.

  • Four complete personalised stories - 10 to 15 minutes each
  • A single connected hero's journey arc across all four parts
  • Written from one form submission - no repetition required
  • The same hero grows and changes across every chapter
  • Each part ends leaving your child wanting to know what comes next
  • Choose to receive all four at once, or one per week over four weeks
  • Every part in Paul's or Rebecca's own voice
  • Read-along highlighted text for every part
  • Delivered to your inbox
  • Yours to keep and replay as many times as they like

Start with a $29 audio story. At checkout, you'll have the option to add the remaining three parts of the Story Journey for $67, $96 in total for all four.

$29 AUD. One-time purchase. We begin once your form arrives. Most stories are ready in 24 to 48 hours. We will email and SMS your secure link.

Built on clinical methodology. Reviewed by a clinician. Every single story.

Headshot of Paul Smith

Paul Smith

Dip.Clin.Hyp. Dip.Psych.Th.

Specialises in:

AnxietyFears and phobiasEmotional regulationOCDConfidenceSleep-related concerns
Paul has spent over six years in clinical practice helping children and adults work through anxiety, fear, sleep difficulties, OCD, and the kind of emotional turbulence that is hard to put into words. He understands what children carry quietly into sleep, the worries that seem small in daylight and grow in the dark, and he has spent his career developing the language to meet them there. Every story draws on the same clinical methodology Paul uses with clients: the hero's journey mapped to the child's real experience, the resolution calibrated to what they most need to feel as they drift off. These stories are designed not just to entertain, but to help. Here, the two are the same thing.

Play sample: Paul's voice

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Headshot of Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith

Dip.Clin.Hyp. Couns.

Specialises in:

Children's emotional wellbeingConfidenceSelf-esteemSleepResilienceIdentity
Rebecca's practice is built around children's emotional wellbeing, confidence, self-esteem, resilience, sleep, and the quieter struggles that don't always have easy words. She has a particular gift for meeting children exactly where they are, without rushing them to a place they're not yet ready to go. The stories built on her methodology carry that same patience. She knows that a child who feels truly seen, whose hero and world appear in the story as unmistakably theirs, listens differently. And a child who feels truly seen listens differently.

Play sample: Rebecca's voice

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Built on clinical methodology. Reviewed by a clinician. Every single story.

Every Once Upon Them story is created using a story system that Paul and Rebecca Smith, clinical hypnotherapists at Norwest Wellbeing, built on their own clinical methodology. The hero's journey structure, the therapeutic techniques, and the age calibration all come directly from their clinical practice. And every story is personally reviewed by Paul or Rebecca before it reaches your child. Every story is built on the hero's journey framework, the same narrative structure that has been used in therapeutic storytelling for decades, with techniques including metaphor, embedded suggestion, future pacing, and resourcing woven invisibly into the adventure. The hero's challenge mirrors what your child is quietly facing. The hero's gift is what your child already has. And the resolution is crafted to leave your child in a calm, safe, and positive state as sleep arrives. Your child doesn't experience therapy. They experience their story. And the story does the rest.

“The hero's challenge mirrors what your child is facing. The hero's gift is what your child already has. The resolution is what you want them to carry into sleep.”

Paul Smith, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Norwest Wellbeing

Why parents trust Norwest Wellbeing with their child's story

Clinical methodology. Every single time.

These stories are not entertainment with a therapeutic label. They are created using genuine clinical hypnotherapy methodology, with the hero's journey mapped to your child's challenge and language calibrated to their age. Every story is reviewed by a clinical hypnotherapist before delivery, and every ending is shaped to leave your child in a calm, positive state as sleep arrives.

Private, and created for your child only.

What you share is used only to create your child's story and is handled in accordance with our privacy policy. The story itself is created for your child and no one else: never reused for another family, never added to a shared catalogue, never heard by another child. Once it's written, it belongs entirely to them.

Designed for children aged 4 to 11.

Language, story length, pacing, and complexity are all calibrated to your child's age and reading engagement level. A story written for a five-year-old sounds and reads completely differently to one written for an eleven-year-old - and both are exactly right for the child they were written for.

No subscription. No library. No generic anything.

Once Upon Them is a commissioned piece of personalised therapeutic storytelling. You are not signing up for an app. You are not browsing a catalogue. You are asking for one story - or four - to be written from scratch, for one child, who deserves to hear a story that knows who they are.

$29 AUD. One-time purchase. We begin once your form arrives. Most stories are ready in 24 to 48 hours. We will email and SMS your secure link.

What parents are saying

“My son went completely silent when he heard his own name in the story, then looked at me with the biggest smile. We've listened to his personalised adventure every single night for three weeks now, and it's become the highlight of our bedtime routine. I honestly can't believe how much calmer he's become at bedtime since we started.”

Mother of Oliver, age 6 - Once Upon Them

Your questions, answered

Their story is waiting. It has not been written yet.

Every hero's journey begins with a single step. Start with a complete, standalone audio story personalised to your child. After checkout, you will see an option to add the four part Story Journey if you would like a weekly arc. Either way, what we write belongs to your child alone. No other family will ever hear it.

  • One complete personalised audio story, 10 to 15 minutes
  • Built on clinical hypnotherapy methodology from Paul and Rebecca Smith, using your form, and reviewed by a clinician before delivery
  • Your child's hero title, companion animal and favourite things woven throughout
  • Gently supports the one focus you choose, such as bravery, calm, friendship, confidence or sleep
  • Audio in your chosen practitioner's own voice
  • Read‑along highlighted text accessed from your secure link
  • Secure link sent by email and SMS, most stories are ready in 24 to 48 hours
  • Yours to keep and replay as many times as they like

One form. One child. A story no one else will ever hear.

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