Trauma Informed Design for Behavioral Health- part 1

Guests: Meredith Banasiak / J. Davis Harte

(Music – Open)

Janet: In this series we will be discussing specific examples of design techniques that make a positive difference for people living with certain human conditions.

Carolyn: The more a designer understands the client and or the community the more effective and respectful the design will be.

(music up, then lower)

Janet: Welcome to Inclusive Designers Podcast, I am your host, Janet Roche…

Carolyn: And I am your moderator, Carolyn Robbins.

Janet: We have a really great show for you today, we are taking a look at how to improve the standard of care in behavioral health using a trauma-informed design approach. And for this important discussion, we are talking to the amazing Meredith Banasiak.

Carolyn: Let me tell you a little bit more about Meredith… she is a Fellow with the Centre for Conscious Design; maintains an advisory role with the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. She has published in psychology, medicine, and architectural research journals and books. And now she is here to share her passion for research and evidence-based design with us today.

Janet: And to make it even more special we have asked Davis Harte, or as I refer to her as Dr Harte, to be my co-host. Together we have co-founded the Trauma Informed Design Society and will be adding our insight from that to this discussion.

Meredith has done some incredible work on sensory issues and designing for human health along with Trauma-informed Design, to foster inclusivity and a healthier environment.

Carolyn: There is so much to explore here, that we’ve decided to make this a 3-part series. You can listen straight-through or choose to hear each section separately, let’s call it ala carte.

Janet: In this section, Meredith takes us through her life experiences that led her to the exciting field of Neuroscience and Architecture. We’ll also focus on sensory issues and the concept of a shared experience.

Carolyn: And of course, if you want to know more about any of the places or studies mentioned, we will have a really rich list of resources for you on our website: InclusiveDesigners.com.

Janet: Carolyn, I think we’ve covered all that needs to be said here up front, so I guess we should just start the show now, don’t you?

Carolyn: Agreed. Without further ado, here is our thought-provoking look at combining neuroscience with evidence-based design, with insights from Janet, Meredith Banasiak and Davis Harte …

Interview- Overview

Janet: Hi, and welcome to Inclusive Designers. I am your host, Janet Roche. And today, we’ve got a special guest host. You’ve seen her before on this show, Davis Harte. And today we’re going to be interviewing Meredith Banasiak. Welcome Meredith. Welcome Davis. How’s everybody doing today?

Davis: Great. Thanks Janet. It’s wonderful to be here…

Meredith: yeah, it’s great to be here.

Janet: Thank you for coming.

Interview- Section 1

Janet: So Meredith, let’s start this off a little bit. Let’s talk a little bit about your background and how you got started and, we did a little intro at the beginning, but we’d like to hear a little bit more about you from yourself.

Meredith: Great. Well, thank you so much for having me and thank you for all the work that you are doing on trauma informed design and all the resources that you’re making available.

So, I’m going to kind of go back to, all the way to childhood, because I have always struggled with sensory issues in the environment. And, when environments are overstimulating like in the city or the sort of sensory experience is just sort of really invasive, and intense, the first thing that comes to mind is, is almost like a church situation where, you know, as a little child and you’re in this very dense environment and you don’t have a visual field cause everyone’s taller than you and the smells are very invasive.

Those kinds of sensory experiences, I struggled with. And I felt they almost sort of hijacked my ability to think and my emotional state. And so, I always kind of wanted to understand what was happening in my brain, so I could kind of suppress it and make it stop. And at the same time, I wanted to design environments where I didn’t have to feel this way, or, you know, I didn’