A day of exploring the inner and outer relationships of self. As you build your own doll you tap into the love, healing and creativity of who you are, who you want to be, and what inner qualities you hold dear.

You arrive with nothing in particular in mind and leave carrying an object about a foot tall that is unmistakably yours. People put it on a shelf where they can see it. That is the whole of it, and it is harder to explain than it is to do.

Two spirit dolls made in the workshop, mid-leap, one in sunflower cloth and one in green tie-dye, both with feathered headdresses and painted faces — Two dolls made in a previous workshop.

What a spirit doll is

Not a toy and not a craft project. A spirit doll is a figure you make to stand for something — a part of yourself you are trying to reach, a quality you want more of, a person you have lost, a version of you that got you through something and never got thanked for it. People have made figures for exactly this reason for a very long time, in almost every culture there has been.

What makes it work is ordinary and slightly strange: once the thing is out of you and standing on the table, you can look at it. You can walk round it. You can decide it needs a sword, or a crown, or softer cloth. That is a different kind of thinking from talking about the same subject, and it reaches people who have run out of words for it.

What the day is made of

No two of these come out alike, so the day is less a set of instructions than four decisions, each one bigger than it looks.

A face

Pressed and painted — copper, blue, gold, bare clay. Most people spend longer on the expression than they expect to, and most people recognise it when it arrives.

A body

Sticks, driftwood, a length of branch, a bottle for a base. Whether she stands straight, leans, or throws both arms out is the first thing anyone reads about her.

Cloth and cargo

Fabric, feathers, beads, moss, buttons, charms, a bottle cap, a badge. This is where the doll stops being general and starts being about one particular life.

Her card

Nearly every doll ends up with a tag its maker wrote — a name, a list of qualities, what she is for. Often the last step, and often the one people say did the most.

Made in this room

These were made by people who came to previous workshops. The range is the point: a doll of moss and copper, an owl in harlequin cloth, a figure of bare driftwood with its arms up. Nobody here was told what to make.

A tray of small clay faces pressed from a mould, painted in coppers, pinks, blues and golds, laid out to dry

A doll in a green botanical gown with a fur stole, a beaded staff, and mirrored balls and wire spraying out behind her head

A stuffed owl doll in yellow and brown harlequin cloth, wearing a small pink crown, with a bottle cap for one eye and a handwritten tag of words hanging from its wing

A doll with a copper face and a long braid, in cream canvas, hung with beads, charms and two badges

A doll with a copper face and a collar of green moss, wrapped in red cloth patterned with elephants

A doll in white felt with long grey hair and beaded arms, a gold and green painted face, arms held out wide

A doll in a black robe with spiral embroidery and a blue silk sash, balanced on a block of pale wood

A doll built from driftwood, its branching arms raised, wearing a wrap of blue denim

You do not need to be able to make things

This is the question people ask first, and the answer is genuinely no. There is no drawing, no sewing pattern and no skill being assessed. The photographs above include first attempts by people who had not made anything since school, and you cannot reliably tell which ones those are.

It is a full day in a room with other people doing the same thing, which is its own reason to come. You are welcome to talk the whole time or to say almost nothing.

Who it tends to suit

People carrying a grief that talking about has started to feel worn out.
People living with a chronic illness, who often have a complicated relationship with a body they did not choose. There is more on that on the chronic illness page.
People in the middle of a change of identity — a divorce, a diagnosis, children leaving, retirement, leaving a faith or a job that defined them.
People who are simply curious, and want a day that is not about being useful.

What this is, and what it is not

It is a workshop, not a therapy session. There is no treatment plan, nothing is billed to insurance, and nobody will ask you to explain your doll to the room.

It does sit inside a therapy practice, and that is deliberate. Days like this can open things up, and it matters that the people running it know what to do when they do. If something surfaces that you want to keep working on, the practice is right here and a 15 minute consultation is free.

The practical part

The workshopFull day

$150

It runs at the practice, 144 East 1200 South, Orem. Dates are set a few at a time — if none is listed on the groups and events page, call us on (385) 220-4751 and we will tell you when the next one is, or put you on the list for it.

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New patients welcome. Most major insurance accepted.

Book Call (385) 220-4751