Therapeutic Applications using Miniatures and Dollhouses

Integrate creative, symbolic, and experiential approaches into clinical work.

About this Event

Welcome To The Dollhouse: Therapeutic Applications using Miniatures and Dollhouses

3 contact hours are available to NYS LCATs, LMHCs, LMSWs/LCSWs, LMFT

This hands-on professional development experience explores the powerful clinical use of dollhouses, miniatures, and symbolic space in therapy. Designed for art therapists and mental health professionals, this training blends theory with creative intervention—offering participants a unique opportunity to deepen their work with clients through small-scale environments and imaginative play.

Whether you’re working in private practice, schools, community mental health, or inpatient settings, this workshop will provide you with practical tools and clinical insight to support emotional expression, trauma processing, and personal storytelling.

Together, we’ll explore how miniatures can be used to symbolically express internal states, build safe containers for vulnerable parts, and help clients externalize and explore complex narratives. Drawing from modalities like play therapy, object relations theory, Jungian sandplay, narrative therapy, and Internal Family Systems (IFS), we’ll discuss how to integrate this work with a trauma-informed lens across ages and populations.

You’ll Learn How To:

• Explain the clinical rationale for using dollhouses and miniatures in art and narrative therapy
• Identify developmental, trauma-related, and symbolic themes that commonly emerge in miniature-based work
• Understand how concepts like containment, projection, and parts work show up in small-scale environments
• Implement creative interventions using dollhouses and miniatures to support identity exploration, grief work, and emotional regulation

This Workshop Is Designed For:

• Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCATs)
• Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs)
• Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs)
• Social Workers (LMSWs, LCSWs)
• Graduate students or interns in mental health or creative arts therapy

Ideal for Clinicians Working With:

• Children, adolescents, and families
• Survivors of trauma or domestic violence
• Clients navigating grief, identity, or dissociation
• Neurodivergent individuals
• Anyone who benefits from non-verbal, symbolic, or experiential work

Facilitator Bio – Shannon Halligan, LCATShannon Halligan is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and the founder of Halligan Creative Arts Therapy. She’s passionate about helping people connect with their inner world through creativity and self-expression.

She earned her Master’s in Art Therapy from Nazareth College and has worked with individuals across the lifespan, especially those navigating trauma, grief, and deep emotional work.

Shannon blends expressive arts therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and trauma-informed care into her clinical approach. Her use of dollhouses and miniatures started as a way to help clients build symbolic safe spaces and quickly grew into a powerful method for exploring parts work, processing trauma, and telling meaningful personal stories.

In this workshop, Shannon brings her belief in the healing power of creative containment, symbolic play, and visual storytelling. She’s excited to share tools and techniques that help clients explore their inner worlds—one tiny room at a time.

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