Worry Doll | Muñeca Quitapenas [How To]

My week started off with some Worry Doll making for one of my groups. I forgot how much fun they can be to make!

Here’s a little bit of a worry doll making how to:

Muñeca Quitapenas = Dolls [that] remove worries

Wooden Clothespins, Yarn or Embroidery Thread, Pipecleaners

Wrap & twist a pipecleaner around the clothespin to create arms. Cut to size for arm length.

Begin wrapping your clothespin with yarn. Wrap over the pipecleaner as well.

When wrapping gets to the waist, you can start wrapping each “leg” individually

Wrapping the other leg!

Use markers, colored pencils, or paint to add a facial expression, hair, skin tone, shoes, etc.

I’ve created worry dolls with many youth throughout the years as not only a fun art experience (as seen in The Kids’ Multicultural Art Book: Art and Craft Experiences from Around the World), but in my work as an art therapist, the process is also a meaningful and creative way to explore themes connected to anxiety and worry. Making worry dolls provides a great opportunity for storytelling, to discuss coping, and the repetitive, patterned nature of wrapping the yarn around the clothespin can be soothing and calming.

Finding a Safe Place: Creating Safety for Domestic Violence Survivors through Art

I am looking forward to offering a new workshop that will be offered at this year’s National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children’s (TLC) Childhood Trauma Practitioners Assembly, Finding a Safe Place: Creating Safety for Domestic Violence Survivors through Art.  This half day afternoon workshop on the Assembly’s first day will present some of my work addressing safety issues through art expression with youth and women survivors of domestic violence.

In my current individual and group work with women, children, and adolescents, creating a sense of safety has a heightened and complex state beyond establishing a strong therapeutic rapport and alliance. Issues and themes related to safety and managing traumatic stress for survivors of domestic violence are increasingly impacted by feelings of intense worry, a constant state of fear, and living in relentless uncertainty. Addressing safety planning, shelter adjustment, confusing and frightening legal issues related to court, custody and visitation arrangements, as well as coping with difficult secondary losses such as leaving one’s home, separation from friends & family, belongings, pets or changing schools are often here and now realities.

My TLC workshop will present the benefits of art expression in trauma intervention to provide a safe and creative space for survivors to re-establish, become comfortable with, and begin to find a sense of refuge in their lives again. Through sensory based art experiences that support & promote emotional expression, strength based adaptive coping, relaxation, and builds on concepts of resiliency, survivors can also begin to be grounded in hope , compassion, and understanding.

This year’s TLC Assembly, The Experience Matters (July 10-13, 2012) includes a variety of all day trauma workshops & topics, certification courses, and crisis training throughout the week that supports viewing and relating to trauma informed care as an experience.

To learn more about this year’s Assembly, check out the full program of offerings here.  Early registration ends soon on June 11.