Language of Color and Hope

Language of Color and Hope:
A Therapeutic Construction Kit
What is it?

It is a toy, a game, a hand crafted art object.
What is it?

It feels friendly, tactile, mysterious, and playful.
What is it?

It has no rules or guidelines.
How Does It Work?

Lets the patient organize language their own way and build concepts without verbalizing
How Does It Work?

Gives the patient power to create visual metaphor using emojis, icons, images.
Why It Works

Prompts exploration and curiosity.
Accepting of patient’s experience.
Allow the analyst to follow the patient’s experience.

“Language of Color and Hope” is a therapeutic construction kit designed to help patients build “psychic scaffolding”, based on the first chapter of the book Language and Connection in Psychotherapy: Words Matter by Mary Davis, M.D.

It consists of a wood box that unfolds into successively colorful, interactive, and layered arrangements. This process relates to the process of building “psychic scaffolding” in a way that can be personalized for the individual user.

The form of the work also reflects the ways in which the therapeutic process moves from surface (manifest content) to deeper layers of meaning (latent content, unconscious underpinnings of the manifest and latent contents).

“Language of Color and Hope” can be used during therapy sessions—whether in-office or at home. Its flexible design, with an array of emotionally significant icons, lights, and “scrabble-like” tiles, allows the patient to revisit their thoughts and feelings at their own pace.

This tool is personalized for individual users, offering familiar, easy-to-use concepts that integrate visual metaphor with language.

NEWS FLASH:

We’re super psyched to be featured in the upcoming “vorspiel” for Berlin Science week this November, with a webinar and QA from the creators!

In conjunction with Berlin Science Week, Mary Davis, M.D and Eric Medine (TenTon Raygun) will be presenting a live demo of “Language of Color and Hope”, a therapeutic construction kit based on the first chapter of the book Language and Connection in Psychotherapy: Words Matter by Mary Davis, M.D.

This webinar is a chance to meet the creators and ask questions!

You can RSVP and get more information here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/language-of-color-and-hope-live-demo-and-qa-tickets-1028996836237

More about “Language of Color and Hope”

The device is designed to stimulate associative activity, helping patients build “psychic scaffolding” in a way that is uniquely personal.

Psychotherapists who themselves are not artists, or who have no facility with art even at an amateur level, are likely to find this tool useful. It is a way of engaging with a patient who struggles to verbalize their internal world, or who prefers to choose among images (emojis, pictures) or play with physical objects.

In therapy, it facilitates communication of affective material in a way that is unfiltered, much like the ideas explored by Donnel Stern (1985).

“Language is, in itself, inadequate in communicating emotions, but it allows us to evoke those emotions in others, thereby conveying them.”
Donnel B. Stern, Ph.D

Heise Media has just done a very nice overview of the project, you can check it out here: https://www.heise.de/news/Mit-Scrabble-Steinen-Gefuehle-ausdruecken-Maker-baut-Therapie-Kasten-10298200.html

Design and Assembly/Build Videos!

This project went through multiple iterations and required a TON of handcrafting and woodworking.

You can see some detailed walkthroughs of the build process, part manufacturing, prototyping, and functionality demos on the YouTube channel or here:
http://lmi.pgq.temporary.site/building-color-and-hope-woodworking-and-marquetry/