8 Feb. - 14 Jan. 2021

This past week was another large milestone – I was able to narrow my brainstorm ideations down to a final direction. I am so excited to move forward with a methodical movement + dance app in which processing a traumatic event can take place.

The idea behind Dala is as follows:

• The user enters Dala and is presented with an emotions wheel.

• The user picks an emotion that best describes their day and is presented with a list of mantras that correlate with that emotion.

• The user picks a mantra and is then presented with intensity describing the processing questions coming after the movement. These questions are categorized between grounding (vague questions) and intense (full processing activities).

• From here the user is brought to a dance move / walking / balancing routine that corresponds to their mantra and intensity decision.

• The user completes their 2 - 5 minute routine and is brought to an ending processing activity.

• Once complete, the user is able to see archived routines and processing activity answers to reflect if compelled. If not, the user is able to exit the app and return again another day.

This concept comes straight from my primary research of interviewing with users who experienced low childhood memory retention due to traumatic events. For all users, their caregivers were not attentive about their child's emotional states (i.e. “I wasn’t asked how I was feeling”, “having someone recognize what was happening to me”, “cared to ask”). In the end, not talking about what was going on was de-validating their reality and making it harder for them to process their trauma. This is what brought me to the conclusion of adding an emotion wheel; to give them a chance to collect themselves from the day and acknowledge the emotions they truly feel with validation from the app.

Along with the emotion wheel, I also took the idea of methodical movement directly from user interviews. In these interviews, users described doing simple, methodical activities like learning a language online or playing with legos as times where they could process and remember events. When seeing this show up in my research, I knew it was an intriguing idea that had not fully been explored before and made me want to incorporate this into a concept.

"Movement is a great antidote to that freeze state. It gets us unstuck." - Joanna Ciolek

My primary research is backed by extensive secondary research calling methodical, rhythmic movement a type of mediation; allowing the brain to go back and process memories. Many explain how trauma-informed movement is able to complement traditional trauma therapy.

One article, written by Maggie Fazeli Fard, explains, "The goal of trauma-informed movement is not to release trauma or cure it. Instead, a targeted practice is designed to help people rebuild their body awareness, teach them that they have choices for that body, and allow them to make a choice that is right for them."

This “can be extremely important when endeavoring to resolve trauma,” writes body-psychotherapist Rothschild. “It is the information from the senses that the amygdala [which is responsible for emotions, survival, and memory] uses to determine whether an environment is safe or dangerous and how to respond.”

Methodical movement can include things like dancing, balancing, walking, and more. With Dala focusing on these movements, my goal is to provide a space where processing can be a fun, grounding, and learning experience all packed into one.

From here, I will move onto figuring out user journeys and tasks throughout the app. Is it an experience where steps can be quantified and achieved? Can a step be fully completed without needing to be revisited? Will the user benefit from forms of gamification? And so on, more on this next week!