The road to wellness can be a winding one. I should know. Five years ago I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Faced with a good prognosis, I began my treatment journey. En route, I discovered a whole new path to using Design Psychology as part of the therapeutic process.
It all began when I embarked on the re-design of my bedroom as a means of envisioning a healthy and satisfying future. Warned that radiation treatment often produced fatigue and radiation burn, I purchased "cucumber cool" cotton sheets and luxury bedding that not only would be cozy and make me feel cared for, but help me mentally imagine being cooled down. Each time I arrived back home after treatment, a shimmering bed throw and wall colors in ocean blue and light green aided my "cool" visualization.(1)
Overall, however, such design elements were part of a larger process by which I surrounded myself with colors, fabrics, furniture, window treatments, floor coverings and special objects—all of which connected to my long time desire to learn to sail.
My new curtains, for example, were hung from subtle porthole-like openings. Three carefully chosen artworks of water scenes were strategically hung on my wall. Beige Berber carpet provided an imagined sandy beach underfoot.
My bedroom project, finished on my last day of treatment, was beautiful and meaningful for me. A week later—given the all clear and an extremely low chance of recurrence—I was off to Florida learning to sail. (2)
The Robe to Wellness
My bedroom "extreme makeover" proved great for me, but what about such healing design for others? Luckily, patient-centered hospitals also are re-envisioning their spaces as part of a new trend sweeping the country. For example, Capital Health Medical Center's new Hopewell, N.J. facility includes not only an actual "Oasis Spa" for patients and visitors but exudes a spa-like feeling throughout. A waterfall entrance wall, space dividers made of glass-enclosed leaves, soothing colors and user-friendly patient room furniture designed by architect Michael Graves make for an improvement over CH's older facility where I was treated. Since evidence-based research suggests that views of nature aid in healing (3), rooms at that facility and the nearby, soon-to-open University Medical Center of Princeton both will have single patient rooms with views of nature as well as healing gardens accessible to all.
Still, the use of Design Psychology can go a step further to make such patient-centered healthcare settings not only beautiful but personally meaningful. For example, I wore a golden, embroidered Chinese robe to each of my radiation treatments rather than the usual 'blah' gown. Drawing upon the design power of this dramatic garb I'd grabbed from my closet, I imagined myself an empress staring down cancer. The result? Much to my doctor's surprise, I got no radiation burn. I've now developed a designer robe for women undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer called the Robe to Wellness, an alternative to the traditional, anonymous hospital robe.
I selected the robe's kimono style, luxurious colors and soft fabric to help women feel feminine, personally empowered and renewed. The robe's leaf print wraps women in gentle botanical imagery, allowing them to envision the healing power of nature.
Uniquely, online and in-person social networking also is crucial to the making of the robe. To provide for women's psychological as well as physical well-being, 'well wishes' messages of support posted by people around the world on www.robetowellness.com have been transferred on to labels. Survivors at the YWCA Princeton Breast Cancer Resource Center in Princeton, N.J. will sew such personal greetings into the robe collars. Both this weekly "Robe to Wellness Sewing Circle" and the robes, themselves, are intended to offer personal, 'woman to woman,' emotional support. Capital Health and the University Medical Center at Princeton have purchased the gowns for women undergoing radiation at their new facilities.
The Human Drama
Why is such personalization important when it comes to healthcare environments? Inevitably hospitals (and patients' homes) are the stage settings against which human dramas are played out. No matter how beautiful the set, each patient/protagonist asks questions (often silently) from the same script, "Will I get better?", "How will my condition affect my life?" and/or even "Has my life been worthwhile?" As the patient's psychological drama unfolds, the healthcare backdrop, the patient's "costume," and other supportive props and players can all help patients imagine themselves as heroes on a journey (4) rather than as helpless victims.
The Healing 'Set' - Designers who encourage hospitals to provide patients with views of nature, for instance, often explain a la "biophilia," that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. (5) Understood in the context of the unfolding patient drama, access to natural scenes may be helping patients view their lives from a wider perspective. They (unconsciously) may conclude, "my illness is an inherent part of the universe story. My 'hero's struggle' mirrors the process of renewal, equilibrium and harmony inherent in organic systems (6), as with nature that I see out of my window."
The Healing 'Costume' - As healthcare settings transform into natural, nurturing oases, patients may feel increasingly vulnerable dressed in a contrastingly flimsy hospital gown. Clare Cooper Marcus, author of Iona Dreaming: The Healing Power of Place A Memoir, points out that both home and clothing may represent "a basic protector of self. (7) Especially when trying to make sense of 'self' it may be useful for people to "grasp at physical forms or symbols which are close to or meaningful to them." (8) This may be especially true when patients are struggling to maintain individuality in an institutional setting. Clothing can act as a catalyst that helps patients visualize their metamorphosis from sickness to health, as I did when I imagined myself a queen staring down cancer in the robe I wore to my treatments.
The Healing 'Plot'- In his book, Metaphoria: Metaphor and Guided Metaphor for Psychotherapy and Healing, Rubin Battino, M.S., lauds the benefits of a "guided metaphor" approach that "specifically utilizes the client's story of her life as well as her personalized healing metaphor." (9) He points out:
Everybody grows up with healing and curing stories that they have learned and incorporated from family and friends. Some of these stories are legends within the family or the neighborhood. . . These stories control the way that a person goes about helping herself . . . If your family story is that all Smith men die young of a heart attack, or die "with their boots on," or never show pain, or are survivors, or are fighters, or are weaklings when ill, or . . . , guess how they will approach the diagnosis of a life-challenging disease. (10)
Alternatively, Battino suggests helping patients look towards the future by asking such questions as:
How would you change your evolving life's story? What would be different so that you become who you want to be? What will be the form of these changes? What particular healing images do you sense would work for you? What is your new story? (11)
Even if the patient's prognosis is poor, "Nothing prepares us so completely for death as entering those aspects of our lives that remain unlived . . . (12) Patients can write such unfinished scripts by harnessing the power of Design Psychology.
Healing 'Props' - By redesigning my bedroom using design elements that triggered my desire to sail, for example, I was both envisioning a positive future and using visual metaphors—curtains resembling sails, carpeting like sand, bed throws like glistening water to all aided the visualization of my positive future life story.
