Therapy begins in a room. The client enters, takes in the space: light, colors, objects, and their arrangement. And for a new client, the first question: “How will I feel being here?” A therapist’s office sets a tone. How do therapists create clear, comfortable spaces that help build trust over time with a variety of clients?
Meet April McDowell, a Marriage and Family Therapist who created Fresh Practice, a blog revealing the offices of therapists, one space at a time.
Dr. McDowell, based in Virginia, curates images of the offices and interviews the therapists about their design choices. Think Apartment Therapy — except these are image-rich tours of actual sites where therapeutic work between humans happens.
“Intimacy needs the heart of nest,” wrote Gaston Bachelard. Bachelard was writing about our homes, but the idea applies in a different, perhaps more urgent way to the therapy office. How do therapists create offices that can be experienced as nests, places where difficult things can be approached, contained, released? “I want my client to feel as if therapy is a luxury, not a dreaded thing to have to attend,” writes Melissa DaSilva, LICSW, in her Fresh Practice feature. (A view of DaSilva’s office is above.)
Fresh Practice reflects a keen curiosity about how therapists from different parts of the country construct private practice spaces where comfort, safety, risk and the distinctive taste of the therapist all come into play. Also, it’s fascinating to gain a glimpse into the real rooms where this work — in all its forms and modalities — occurs.
—
Visit Fresh Practice.
Are you a therapist? By joining Being Seen, you’ll be able to view April McDowell’s video, “Office Design Tips,” along with our full suite of videos on how to effectively market your private practice. Join here.