Exploring Inner Child and Meditation with Wrap Dolls in Art Therapy

Art therapy provides a meaningful way to explore your feelings and promote healing. An insightful modality I use in my practice is creating wrap dolls. These delightful, handcrafted creations allow for a meditative process that can help you reconnect with your inner child. In this blog post, we'll explore how wrapping these dolls can lead to significant healing, the symbolic elements you can use, and how this process can truly transform your emotional well-being.

The Meditative Process of Wrapping

Colorful wrap doll showcasing multiple textures and colors.

Creating wrap dolls starts with the simple yet profound action of wrapping. This act can feel deeply meditative. As you engage in wrapping fabric around the doll, you may find the repetitive motion to be calming. It helps quiet your mind and creates space for personal reflection.

The tactile nature of the materials—soft fabrics and colorful threads—draws you into a state of flow, where the noise of everyday life fades away. This calming state not only relaxes your mind but also opens your heart, enabling a deeper connection to your emotions and memories.

Healing Your Inner Child

Art therapy is particularly valuable for nurturing your inner child, the part of you that contains your oldest memories, joys, and hurts. As you wrap your doll, reflect on the messages you want to send to your inner child. Each layer of fabric might represent a memory or feeling, making a tangible bond to your past.

Consider this: if you dedicate a specific color to each emotion—like soft pinks for love or deep blues for sadness—each twist of fabric becomes an expression of healing. By pouring your feelings into every wrap, you nurture this part of yourself and transform past wounds into sources of strength.

Looking at your completed wrap doll, you see more than an art piece; you see a symbol of the compassion and care your inner child truly deserves.

Symbolism in Your Wrap Doll

A wrap doll with a more distinct face

Every wrap doll you design can hold personal symbolism. Think about the colors, textures, and patterns you select. Each element comes to represent different facets of your life or emotions. For example, incorporating calming blues and greens can symbolize peace and healing, while vibrant reds and yellows can express energy and joy.

You can even add small trinkets or charms to your wrap dolls, each carrying special meaning. These symbols act as reminders of qualities you want to cultivate or personal experiences you wish to honor. By creating with intention, you are not merely crafting an art piece; you are expressing your unique story and healing journey.

Imagine how meaningful it can be to include a charm that reminds you of a happy memory. Each detail narrates who you are and where you’ve been. Or you can write your inner child a note and tuck in inside the inner-most layer of your wrapping.

Embrace Your Creativity

A wrap doll with personality through clothes

Creating wrap dolls in art therapy embodies a powerful practice that encourages healing. Through the meditative wrapping process, you can reconnect with your inner self, nurture your emotions, and infuse personal meanings into each doll. The dolls you create are not just artistic expressions; they reflect your personal healing journey, serving as a reminder that recovery is obtainable and that your inner child deserves love and attention.

This project has varied possiblities, with some choosing to clothe and accessorize their dolls to better match their personal style and sense of being. The way a client chooses to express the face is also a symbolic action. Perhaps the doll has no face in order to be indistinct, maybe a basic face with generalized outlines representing a desire to blend in, maybe buttons for eyes representing a desire for anonymity, or fully formed to show a desire to be better known. No matter how the doll is created, the processing of bring it into being is an exceptionally revealing and healing process.

Numerous kinds of wrap dolls made in art therapy