Local nonprofit uses dollhouses to help children deal with trauma

Posted

Dollhouses have been a staple of child’s play for centuries, but they can also be used by children as an escape from a bad situation, a place to reimagine a normal, happy life or a safe way to share a heartbreaking story. 

Ponte Vedra Beach native Alison Findlay created a nonprofit based on the concept. Her charity organization, Building Faith Play Therapy Toys, creates individualized, custom-built dollhouses to help children address and deal with childhood trauma.  

Findlay started the nonprofit eight years ago while living in Atlanta and worked with organizations there to provide therapy dollhouses to children. She returned to the Ponte Vedra Beach area last year to help look after her parents, and after dealing with the loss of her mother in September, Findlay was ready to refocus on her passion for helping kids heal through the power of play, now focusing on the First Coast. 

“Kids are so damaged that they don’t even talk to the therapist,” Findlay said. “Either they are too young, or they don’t have the vocabulary words to describe it, or they have been threatened and they’re terrified. But if you put a dollhouse in front of them with the right characters, they will eventually start to act it out. And the therapist has something tangible to work with.”

Findlay’s fascination with dollhouses began when she visited the Smithsonian Institution as a child and saw the Faith Bradford Dollhouse. After returning from the trip, she built her first dollhouse, which she still has today and which provided the inspiration for Building Faith Play Therapy Toys.

“Halfway through your life, you should start looking for the things you were born to do,” Findlay said. “I knew there was something I was born to do, and I was trying to figure it out. One day I walked past my old dollhouse in Atlanta, and it was like it just jumped out at me.”

Findlay decided to put her dollhouse-making skills to use for a good cause. She spoke with therapists and other organizations and became aware of play therapy as a tool for helping children deal with their trauma. Findlay said getting children to address the trauma while they’re still young helps them to recover faster and to understand normal family dynamics.

“Once they get their story out and once they get their anger out, they keep the dollhouse — it’s theirs forever — and they’ll then start using the family and play the way happy families are supposed to live,” she said. “This breaks the cycle because they start to reinforce on their own, through play, the way they want to be, the way happy families are supposed to be.”

The nonprofit isn’t just for children dealing with trauma, but for those looking for ways to help, and something creative to do. Building Faith Play Therapy Toys uses volunteers to build the houses and create items that go into them. The dollhouses are custom-built and specialized for the child it goes to. All houses contain a living room, kitchen, a bathroom and at least two bedrooms, so the child’s doll can always have a “safe space.” Then, there’s the furniture, dishes, curtains, hand-needlepoint rugs and anything else a home would need. 

Findlay said anyone can volunteer to help with the houses, including social groups, school groups, business groups, senior groups and families, who can bond over the shared activity. 

“So many people out there are looking for ways to teach their children about helping others, and teaching empathy,” Findlay said. “They (volunteers) also like the fact that we are using our hands to build something and it’s not just punching keys on a telephone.”

Findlay said her ultimate goal is to have a community center with multiple production lines to build the dollhouses, where people can just come in when they have time and lend a hand, put their building skills to use or just start a new hobby. 

But most importantly, she said, they will help a child overcome abuse and create a better future for their own children. 

“Children are born totally innocent and they deserve to be able to keep that,” Findlay said. “If you do this, you break the cycle and not create another generation of abused kids.” 

For more information on Building Faith Play Therapy Toys, visit www.bfptt.org, email info@bfptt.org or call (904) 527-8158.