Recovery Pathway

People living with complex PTSD often have symptoms that hinder therapy, like emotional dysregulation, dissociation, or sleep disturbances. One of the worst of these is the loss of a sense of "home," often caused by extreme trauma that happened there, such as domestic violence, familial sexual abuse, or sex trafficking.

Without any place they feel safe, people feel lost and exposed. Out of control and belonging nowhere. Worthless. Helpless. Hopeless. Worse still, they exist in a constant state fight-or-flight, a stress response which causes serious harm to both mental and physical health and makes it next to impossible to genuinely participate in therapy, let alone make any meaningful progress.

In the most ambitious experiment in this project, we have set out to tackle one of the most stubbornly therapy-resistant obstacles to healing for survivors of extreme trauma, and moreover to do so using environmental design. We posit that some of these survivors can have their sense of home and security restored by doing nothing more than walking home regularly along the path that leads to Cloud Nine Studios.

The Steps to Recovery

While on this path, residents are in a liminal space. During the time it takes to traverse it, we have the opportunity to change the way they feel about the experience of making this transition between the outside world and their residence.

To that end, this path and the entire entry process have been carefully constructed to cause a sequence of psychological effects, each of which are mostly mild and insignificant on their own, but when combined and repeated over time, can create a significant therapeutic effect.

Furthermore, each step of the path is designed to create experiences that are unique throughout each residents' day, if not their entire lives, as this serves to aid memory formation and isolate the experiences, preventing them from being grouped with or compared to previous experiences, which could have negative feelings associated with them.

Step 1: Gated Airlock

An airlock is a chamber with multiple doors designed to control the transfer of air or other substances between areas of differing pressure or cleanliness. It acts as a buffer zone, preventing contamination from disrupting the environment on either side of the airlock. Similarly, a security airlock is a chamber designed to control the movement of people between areas, and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive areas through multiple checkpoints. Here, an airlock is created between two security gates.

Key Moment: Approaching the First Gate

From the very beginning, the experience of coming home to Cloud Nine is notably different. These security gates are the opposite of ostentatious; rather they are designed to be hidden in plain sight by being camouflaged as a normal section of a fence.

Residents looking at the gate will immediately recognize it as familiar waypoint that marks the entry to the path home, which will calm the amygdala and lower cortisol levels. However, they will also recognize it as a secret they are in on, which produces a mild sense of self-satisfaction and belonging, which in turn, boosts self-esteem, making them feel more worthy and valuable.

Key Moment: Operating the First Gate

These gates not only look different, but operating them also feels different from almost any other door.

Residents unlock them by holding a proximity key in the proper location, after which the 5-foot-wide steel door opens automatically, swiftly and silently.

Residents will receive a small dose of dopamine when the gate opens as expected. Furthermore, those with generalized anxiety disorder will feel relief as their worry that their key will not work proves to be unfounded in this moment (as well as at the next gate and the front door).

After the gate closes automatically behind them, residents' amygdala activity and cortisol levels should drop significantly, as a powerful barrier now exists between them and the outside world.

Key Moment: Walking Through the Airlock

An empty space between two secure gates, this is an overtly liminal space within an already liminal path. Short walk with an objective close at hand Shower moment, dopamine release, giving brain a moment to relax and wander activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which counteracts the effects of the sympathetic nervous system, which governs the "fight or flight" response, returning the body to a state of calm and promoting relaxation and healing

Key Moment: Opening the Second Gate Viewing the tableau from a private place of safety -- exposure to nature can decrease amygdala activity

Key Moment: Closing the Second Gate

Even larger cortisol drop. Because this level of security is overkill, a highly secure door from an already secure area, even those with high anxiety should feel safe, or at least probably more secure than anywhere else in the outside world.

Step 2: Winding Path

Key Moment: Building up to center

Key Moment: Multiple elements align The largest work, the Lunar Beacon, is designed to impact the viewer in a variety of ways. First, it is an integral part of the step that generates a dose of dopamine to trigger a mental reset while coming home.

Key Moment: Raising the head Its scale and elevated position all but force passersby to raise their heads, which raises mood, self-esteem, and confidence while reducing fear, anxiety, and stress.

simply raising one's head and adopting an upright posture can have a surprisingly powerful impact on one's psychological well-being

It has a positive impact on the vagus nerve and the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, both of which play a role in regulating mood and stress response,

increased oxygen flow to the brain, which can improve focus, alertness, concentration, and persistence in problem-solving, which may be due to a more alert state of mind

Key Moment: Viewing the Lunar Beacon

Imageability -- "the quality of a built environment that allows it to be easily perceived, recognized, and recalled as a distinct mental image"

"Episodic memory involves the ability to learn, store, and retrieve information about unique personal experiences that occur in daily life." -- Dickerson B.C., Eichenbaum H. The Episodic Memory System: Neurocircuitry and Disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2009;35:86–104. doi: 10.1038/npp.2009.126.

Step 4: Sculpture

As opposed to the Lunar Beacon, whose deeper meanings rely on understanding its purpose beyond its inherent appearance,

"Reflection" Bronze-coated foam with patina Steven McGovney (2023) requires no such explanation, as its form is intuitively understood.

Step 6: Front Door

Lion knockers

Haven House

At Haven House, this starts with ascending an extra-wide, textured staircase Oversized elements (staircase, front door) and front door, castle elements (block walls, lion knocker) make it feel like a fortress automatic deadbolt, which helps those with anxiety know that the door is always locked as soon as it's closed.

At Haven House, since all the practical considerations have been well taken care of, the focus moved to harmony

Great care has been put into the entry experience.

At the very top of all priorities was safety: both actual safety and the perception of safety. (A close second was promoting sleep quality.) Each of these priorities are executed wildly differently at each facility. For example, a big challenge at Cloud Nine was to design a process by which women who are recovering from serious trauma can come home alone and feel safe, even at night. At Haven House, much of the travel is done in groups, a staff member is always here, if not a full house of people—the experience is very different. Since all the practical safety concerns are well taken care of, in a group living situation like this, how the women feel about their housemates is going to be the top variable affecting their sense of safety at home.

Coming home to a house full of people you get along with is an incredibly therapeutic experience in and of itself; however, living in an environment with people with whom you have constant conflict triggers the stress response, consuming precious mental energy and interfering with sleep, potentially exhausting a patient before they even arrive at Monima for therapy. For this reason, I concluded that the largest variable source of positive or negative effects of living at Haven House is the other residents, and the most effective measure to improve the perceived safety of the home would be to improve the interpersonal relationships of the residents, so I made dozens of design changes specifically to promote harmony.