Peace Pods, Product Research and Development
Peace Pods is a challenge for students to participate as allies through applied design and innovation. The pandemic has only increased anxiety for women already stretched thin by the needs of their children, partners, families, and work. All women who are victims of trauma suffer greatly, but for women without financial resources, the options for seeking help are significantly more limited, resulting in remaining in abusive situations longer and thereby increasing their trauma. This partnership between USC School of Dramatic Arts and Open Paths Counseling Center proposes action taken to explore the potential crossover between psychotherapy and creative design solutions. Through this project, we seek to create a personal reparative space, literally and figuratively, for marginalized women who have experienced trauma such as domestic abuse.
The Challenge
Open Paths has evolved as one of the most diverse counseling centers in Los Angeles. We recognize the importance of diversity as central to our mission of “meeting the evolving mental health needs of the community...” and understand how important providing culturally sensitive, trauma-informed psychotherapy is for our clients. Recognizing that the discipline of psychology has evolved through a patriarchal, Western European lens, Open Paths works to “decolonize” and “feminize” therapy. One way of approaching this is to understand the broad implications of what is therapeutic for the communities being served. Building community, connection and opportunities for self-care are inherent to the work of therapy. One such example of how Open Paths approaches this is through an adult play-therapy group called Expressive Play. This group uses creativity, movement, vocalizing, and play to release and expand. Through these actions, participants can relieve stress, build self-esteem and emotional insight, gain self-awareness and personal growth, and continue to develop their interpersonal relationship skills. The physical environment of health care facilities influences patients, and waiting rooms do not invoke a healing atmosphere, let alone offer private or individualized experiences prior to appointments. How might we consider whole-patient design to create a tool/space that invokes a state of calm for clients coming in and out of therapy through privacy and light?
Our definition
Transitional Spaces are the space within which one can explore changes in one’s life safely.
The goal of these spaces are to create/facilitate a holding environment for those people wanting to initiate change and experiment. Our goal is to create a calming environment for an individual, taking the previous ideas into consideration.
Problems
- There is no way to mentally prepare for or exit out of therapy
- Balancing overstimulation can be an issue
- There is a potential lack of emotional education and the internal recognition
- Spaces are built for the masses and not personalized for individuals going into therapy
- There may be limitations on how people experience the solution (blind, deaf, mute etc).
- Clinicians have 3-10 minutes between sessions to mentally prepare for their next session
Goals
- Private space to center the user
- With the aid of light, reduce stress, reset mindset, rejuvenate the whole self
- A moment to rest and reflect
Key Takeaways
- Vestibular and proprioceptive systems (one’s balance and spatial orientation) are integral variables in the solutions
- Psychoanalytic processes can be a way to help patients work through pre-conscious or internalized experiences (how one’s mental state can be manipulated).
- Circadian rhythm affects the human body and influences sleep, mood, wakefulness, digestion, temperature, among other factors.
- EMDR (eye movement desensitization & reprocessing) loosens up something in the mind/brain that gives people rapid access to loosely associated memories and images from their past.
Creating a space where decompression can occur is beneficial for every party involved in the therapeutic process.
User Experience
When user inside Lightbox
- User is able to shut door fully and be immersed in a breathing light experience for 15 minutes
- User knows time is over when lights inside normalized
- User can customize their light experience based on white spectrum of light based on their needs
- User will be able to leave the lightbox at any time during their experience
When user is outside of Lightbox
- User externally knows when someone is inside when the pod is glowing and lights are on
- A user can open the pod when the door is closed
Final Iteration
Special thanks to Trent Jones and Robert Checchi, Sibyl Wickersheimer, Duncan Mahoney, and Tanya Orellana in partnership with Dr. Zari Hedayat and Sierra Smith from Open Paths Counseling Center and made possible by an Arts in Action grant.