Dollhouse Kits Use in Guidance Counseling

Ms. Charlotte, both a mother of five-year old Jasmine and a guidance counselor in a girls’ preparatory school, shares how she uses dollhouses for counseling sessions.

I noticed that you have a dollhouse kit inside your office. What do you use that for?

I use it to communicate with the children, especially when we are dealing with a child’s bad or violent behavior. I can’t answer them questions that will scare them, like "are you having problems in your home?"

I used to practice the conventionally method – asking kids to draw "family" on a piece of paper. But I thought I need to create a suitable physical environment, something more interactive, so I thought of the dollhouse kit. It makes them comfortably share their experiences and at the same time build a trust relationship with me.

Did you recently have any major counseling session?

The most recent violent behavior that I dealt with is the case of a four year-old student. She comes from a family of four – her dad is a company manager, her mother stays at home, and a baby brother. She is to the friendliest girl in her class. After a while, she began to show signs of bad behavior like bullying her classmates and stealing her classmates’ stuff. Her teacher called my attention.

How did you deal with the situation?

She played with the dollhouse. She got four figures. One is a doll who represents herself and placed it in one of the bedrooms. The father doll is in the library that she barely touched. The mother and a baby were in another bedroom.

We called her mother. We found out that she doesn’t do a lot of interaction in the house lately. Her father is assigned in one of the satellite offices in Asia for three months, while her mother, for the past week, spent a lot of time taking care of the sick baby. After a while, she started showing signs of normal behavior.

Does your daughter also have a dollhouse?

Yes, we built a dollhouse for my daughter. She was used to living in a house where there’s a yard where she can freely run around and play with our dog and friends. With our career move, she had to live inside a four-walled apartment in a tall building. She made a lot of friends in school, but it’s never the same.

What do you notice?

Inside the dollhouse lives a family of three - a father, a mother and a daughter. She also has a dog doll living in the house. We used to have a Labrador whom she used to spend most of her time with. We know that she really loves, but unfortunately, we can’t bring him with us, so we gave it to my nephew. We know she misses him, even if she won’t tell us. My husband and I talked about the possibility of having a new dog, maybe a Chihuahua.