Freudian Slipcovers: December 2011

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Joy

Freudian Slipcovers, supportive design, creating your sanctuary... what do those words really mean?
In everyday life, it is what HOME feels like and how it happens.

This holiday season, with my family surrounding me, my house felt like a HOME and was my personal sanctuary contributing to my personal health and well-being.
This year in particular, my family's gift giving revolved around a "home" theme. A Paella pan for home entertaining was a personal favorite gift. Why? Because, it looks amazing, but also because I am entertaining more at home to save money of course, and because the home is personal, comfortable and inviting for family and friends.

Equally as fantastic was a reindeer that was handcrafted by my daughter Kiki and will sit out year round to remind me of her even though she now lives hours away.With color and texture and creativity it is both sophisticated and whimsical and I LOVE IT!

Mollie, my youngest daughter, found an amazing piece of art that really is PERFECT for Lynes-Land (what we affectionately call my home). It is happy, colorful, and of course had critters in it! It is personal, so appreciated and really "feels" like it belongs. Always remember Good art does NOT match your sofa!!!!

Last but not least, Brandon, my audio-visual techie, gifted an Apple TV. I can't wait to figure out how it works. For a guy who grew up a bit of a gift giving scrooge, he has embraced his family, and his home in Florida is warm and loving.

My point to this posting is direct. Supportive and facilitative design can be very personal and exist on any scale from a personal home or a hospital complex to an entire community!

My Journey

I began my journey as a teacher of children with special needs. Through serendipity, my physician Dad offer me an opportunity to "institutionalize" the cardiac rehab unit of the hospital. As an amateur dabbler in design, I took classes in design and began moonlighting with a friend creating kids rooms.

Business was rewarding and in ways I felt but could not articulate. For example, one 5-year-old boy was afraid of fire and would not sleep in his room because of his fear. My partner and I decided to recreated his bedroom into a pretty funky firehouse complete with a firetruck on the wall, shelves as a running board and a water hose. Because this was "real" for him, we conducted fire drills with him and his family, installed cool rope ladders and taught everyone how to react in case of smoke and fire. An amazing transformation happened. No longer was the little boy afraid of sleeping alone. In fact, his room became his sanctuary and a place where he felt safe, secure, and empowered.

This became the unspoken goal of each design opportunity. The cardiac unit was meant to feel fun and secure while promoting health and wellness and a touch if whimsy, all within a hospital environment. Success!!!! Soon we were working on the pediatric ambulatory care center, the OB unit and the nursery to name a few.

As life will have it, when you least expect it, expect it. That has been the mantra I have lived by. I taught culinary classes to friends (of course I am a garnishing wizard) when I moved to the south and catered when I was poor. I pimped out my kids in movies and modeling (mainly for fun) but ALWAYS was in school for something wanting to further my education.

I settled in the early 80's with my amazing 2 kids, and reinvented myself again. This time as a local magazine editor. What a great way to earn money and continue to do design work. We focused on lifestyles and surprise...homes.

The saga continues with a fun and cutting edge local TV program Lynes on Design (oops, there was no HGTV at the time), which is still in production today. Being a TV host is an avocation and brings me bliss. This show was followed by a program called Healthy Living. With this show, I get to talk to doctors, see procedures, and of course look at the environments where healing occurs.

Along the way (at 50), I went back to school full time, received my masters in health and human services and this year, FINALLY, completed my PHD in counseling services. It was during the dissertation phase of this process that I began to put together the ingredients of my life and saw that something magical was percolating.

Freudian Slipcovers was born.

Your home is your sanctuary. My goal as a counselor and as an interior designer is simple: to help people on a personal journey that facilitates awareness, knowledge, and personal meaning to their home, office and work space, through evidence-based facilitative and supportive design.

What is Facilitative Design?

Facilitative design is the mindful and purposeful incorporation of design elements in the physical environment to enhance psychological outcomes such as increasing client self-disclosure in counseling, minimizing burnout, increasing efficacy, productivity, and healing, and stress reduction to name a few. Studies are showing that incorporating elements such as certain colors, textures, furniture styles and arrangement, art, accessories, smells, lighting, plants and nature have a significant impact on health and wellness.