"Hibuki": The Doll Helping Majdal Shams' Children Cope with the Disaster

 Comfort and Care: The Role of Hibuki in Majdal Shams' Emotional Recovery.

Yediot HaGalil
Yitzhak Solomon
11/08/2024, 13:49

Following the Majdal Shams disaster, in which 12 children were killed by a Hezbollah rocket strike, 44 injured individuals were evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in Safed, including 38 children. The medical center’s staff turned to Dr. Shai Hen Gal, the chief psychologist of the “Amal and Beyond” group, who used a soft toy dog with sad eyes and long arms to help calm the children and their parents.

The 44 wounded individuals from the massacre in Majdal Shams were brought to Ziv Medical Center, where they received emotional support from psychosocial teams from the moment of their arrival. Given the distress the children expressed, the caregivers recognized the need for a wider range of emotional interventions tailored to the children’s needs, including support that could continue even after their discharge from the hospital.

It was suggested to contact Dr. Shai Hen Gal, the chief psychologist of the “Amal and Beyond” group, who leads the Israeli startup “Hibuki Doll” – a therapeutic intervention for children using a soft therapy doll that looks like a dog with a sad face. The intervention facilitates indirect therapeutic dialogue for children who often struggle to express their inner emotional world. As part of the intervention, children are asked, “Why is Hibuki sad?” Research has shown that children find it easier to describe Hibuki’s emotions rather than their own, allowing therapists to understand the child's internal experiences.

On the day after the attack, Sunday, the Friends of Ziv Medical Center, with the support and recommendation of Mr. Tzur Shriki, CEO of the “Dream Doctors” association, reached out to Dr. Shai Hen Gal. In response, Dr. Hen Gal arrived at the hospital and began working with 11 children and their families who were interested in the intervention, alongside social worker Miri Cohen, the emergency coordinator for the hospital’s psychosocial services and a staff member in the pediatric department.

“When I arrived at the department, it was, of course, full of children injured in the attack and their parents. I sat down with the staff to get some background on the event and the children’s conditions. I then approached the families to see who was interested, and I started working with the children first and then with the parents. I also provided training for the therapeutic staff,” said Dr. Hen Gal.

“I can say that this intervention was very significant for the children. Because of the terrible experience they had gone through, it was clear that talking about what had happened was extremely difficult for them. We’re talking about children who were injured in the event—they were in the midst of the horror. From the little they were able to share at this stage, we could hear the horrors they had witnessed, sense their immense fear, and understand the shocking nature of what they had seen.”

As part of the intervention, each child receives their own Hibuki doll and the accompanying Hibuki book. Parents also receive guidance on how to use Hibuki as a therapeutic tool, ensuring that the intervention’s benefits can continue once the children return home and professional support is no longer readily available. Additionally, 15 hospital staff members underwent training with Dr. Hen Gal on how to implement Hibuki therapy and received their own Hibuki kits to create a supportive environment for the children while they were still hospitalized.

Through Hibuki, and with the guidance given to parents and staff, an opportunity for further conversation emerged when the children were asked to describe how Hibuki felt. “Then, the children were able to say that Hibuki was scared, that Hibuki was sad, that Hibuki missed his friends”, Dr. Hen Gal explained. “One child absolutely refused to return home because he was too afraid. After his mother received the training, she said to him, ‘Let’s think about what would help Hibuki feel safe going home?’ The child answered that if Hibuki had friends at home and could stay inside without having to go outside, then he could return. And gradually, they worked together to create the conditions that would make it possible for Hibuki to go home—and in the end, that child agreed to go home too.”

Social worker Miri Cohen emphasized that giving children a non-verbal means of expressing themselves and using the doll as a projective tool opened up a different, complementary therapeutic approach alongside the work of the professional teams supporting the children. The training also introduced the medical teams to an unconventional yet engaging and comforting therapeutic tool.

At the beginning of the intervention, one child refused to touch Hibuki and said he didn’t want to play with dolls. “Hibuki’s sad expression was a bit threatening to him. A sad child being given a sad doll… It probably scared him to confront it. So, he avoided it and wouldn’t even touch the doll.” That evening, the child’s mother called Dr. Hen Gal to report that as the day went on, the child had slowly become attached to Hibuki. By the time of their phone call, he refused to part with it. “She said she felt that Hibuki was calming him and helping him. He even took a nap in the afternoon, something he hadn’t been able to do because of nightmares. She said that with Hibuki, he slept really well,” Dr. Hen Gal recounted after just one day of treatment.

The parents, who had also gone through a traumatic experience, received therapy and training with Dr. Hen Gal and played a critical role in their children’s recovery. “The parents quickly understood the project and the thought behind it, and they were excellent partners in the process. Even when the children didn’t speak the language well, the parents grasped the concept and connected with it. They continued the intervention at home, following how their child interacted with Hibuki,” Dr. Hen Gal explained.

“It always amazes me because these parents come from a different culture, yet we see time and again that Hibuki crosses cultural boundaries. Just like we saw in Japan, Turkey, and other places, Hibuki is universal and helps children everywhere.”

Dr. Hen Gal first adopted the Hibuki intervention during the Second Lebanon War, and since then, it has helped approximately 150,000 children worldwide cope with traumatic events, including children in Japan after the tsunami, children in Ukraine, children in Turkey after the earthquake, and, of course, hundreds of children displaced during Operation Iron Swords.

“What was really fortunate was that we had just finished translating the Hibuki book into Arabic. We hadn’t yet printed it, so the day before I arrived, we rushed to the printing house, and by midnight, we had the first copies of the Arabic edition, which are now in the hands of the children,” Dr. Hen Gal shared.

Monia Marai, a social worker who was part of the treatment team during the event and participated in the training, reflected: “The children and their families faced a complex process of coping, struggling to come to terms with the event and process their emotions. Hibuki served as an effective therapeutic tool that allowed children to share their experiences, and we could clearly see the sense of relief in the parents once their children opened up about their feelings.”

Beyond Immediate Support: HIBUKI Continuing Emotional Care

Beyond the initial treatment provided by Dr. Hen Gal, the children are continuing their Hibuki-based intervention and receiving emotional therapy. Even children who were not physically injured but were present at the scene are receiving psychological care—some with psychologists trained by Dr. Hen Gal, who also incorporate Hibuki in their work.

Following the traumatic event and the understanding that all children in Majdal Shams have been affected, Hibuki and the head of the Majdal Shams municipal council are working to initiate a joint project to ensure that all children in the village can receive Hibuki’s therapeutic intervention. Telem, part of the “Amal and Beyond” group, under which the Hibuki project operates, is working to implement this initiative together with the regional council.

"This is exactly what the Hibuki project was created for. We can come in immediately after an event and provide an intervention that doesn’t rely heavily on talking. These children are not used to discussing their emotional and psychological world, which makes Hibuki a perfect fit. It’s a short intervention that also involves the parents, allowing for a shared conversation about how Hibuki feels—and through that, how the child feels. In many families, emotions are not openly discussed, but when there is a Hibuki at home, it becomes much easier to talk about how Hibuki is feeling and what can be done to help him. When we talk to children this way, indirectly, it makes things much easier and changes the entire family dynamic. It introduces emotional dialogue into the family,” concludes Dr. Hen Gal.

Through a small, sad puppy doll, Dr. Hen Gal and the Hibuki team seek to embrace and support the children of Majdal Shams and their families, reminding them that there is always room for hope and healing through love and a listening ear.