Many of her patients had stopped moving for fear of making things worse: fear-avoidant behaviour, driven by fears both rational and irrational. She asked them what they wanted their life to look like, then listened to their story without correcting it. Once people heard their own story out loud, they could face those fears and choose the next step. With support, they took it, and kept going through the setbacks, towards the outcome they had described.

Later, she and her son Gabriel had one hour a week on a FaceTime call. They chose to spend it building a world called Coral Cove. Kate asked one question, wrote down everything he said and corrected nothing. That world became The Adventures of Gabriel, now three books, and a method since used with 465 children in nine UK primary schools.

In October 2024 Kate spoke about the book at a networking event. Afterwards, mums, dads, grandparents, teachers and a retired social worker all asked her the same thing: how did you do it? So she took the method into a classroom in Bradford. One child tells the story and another writes it down, so each does one thing at a time. By the afternoon the children were asking for more paper.