When your doctor's office makes you sick
OR: We know this about how design can calm the nervous system...
If you’ve been to the doctor recently, you have probably noticed that they’re doing it all wrong.
I’m talking about the waiting rooms, the receptions, the patient rooms, even the bathrooms. They’re terrible, and they are not helping you get better.
They might, in fact, be making you worse.
I was in nine different healthcare settings this past year — nine places I sought out because I was debilitatingly ill with a vestibular migraine (possibly brought on by COVID, or maybe by an autoimmune condition, we will never know), with symptoms of vertigo, anxiety, eye issues, temperature disregulation, loss of appetite, and more unpleasantness. The vast majority of these places was in need of a complete re-design.
I was at neurology offices that had scrolling screens in the waiting room, primary cares with cold and institutional-feeling receptions, hospitals with carpets styled from “The Shining,” chiropractors that played house music, and a spinal specialist that had an entire human skeleton in a treatment room, “just for fun.”
Is it any surprise that navigating healthcare feels like a battle?
The cool thing about being a walking, talking divining rod for sensory overload is that it puts me in a regular position to call out the ways we are getting healthcare spaces so wrong while recognizing the ones that are serving patients right by meeting them where they are.
For me, that means that when I am at the doctor’s office, any doctor’s office, always spend some time thinking about what changes I would make to patient spaces. It’s not that I think I am the most important patient in the world (though it feels like that some days), but that I feel passionate about how spaces play a part in healing humans.
We know this.
We know more now than ever before that humans heal better within views of nature, that the ambiance of spaces affects how people behave there, and that natural materials and textures make people feel better and more at ease, and that designing spaces as healing environments accelerates recovery.
Each specialist I saw in my health nightmare last summer helped a little bit, but I would say I didn’t make big improvements until I found my way to Northwest Functional Neurology, a clinic in Oregon designed specifically for patients dealing with neurological issues.
Was it the treatment?
Was it the rest my nervous system got while being in a space designed specifically to calm an overloaded nervous system?
I’d say it was both.
Today, I’m sharing with you some of the biggest design takeaways I experienced while recovering at Northwest Functional Neurology (I’m at about 93%!) and the talk I shared with Portland firm Fieldwork’s designer Tonia Hein, who designed the clinic. I hope that we all start expecting more of our healthcare spaces.
But if you’re ever dealing with an upregulated nervous system, I hope you can use some of these ideas to make changes to your home to calm your nervous system and heal.
Decorating tips from neuro rehab
Before Dr. Glenn Zielinski met with Portland design firm Fieldwork to transform a building in Lake Oswego into a neurological oasis, the building he chose had a different kind of vibe entirely.
“It was a Starbucks,” says Fieldwork designer Tonia Hein. “But for the new clinic, he didn’t want the new space to look and feel like anything else in healthcare, and I really liked that.”
In the months after their first meeting, Hein dove into the research around what environmental pressures and design elements cause the human neurological system to upregulate or relax — with the goal of tranforming the clinic into a place that would help heal Dr. Zielinski’s patients.
“For me as a designer, I always love a completely new type of project to work on,” Hein says. “I can dive really deep into the research and take that information and create a three-dimensional environment that reflects that research.”
Here are some of the design ideas Hein incorporated into the space to help calm the nervous system, as well as some ideas for how you can do the same for yourself at home.
Reduce visual stimulation
Hein: “Everyone expects when you come in there’s going to be a big logo behind the reception desk, and a lot of words, but we were really wanting there to be this moment of pause when they come through the door so patients can focus on why they are here and what they’re doing there. So the palette is really minimal and it’s just Oregon white oak, this green, and plants. It’s a really minimal environment, as it is in the exam rooms.”
AT HOME: Take away things that are cluttering to the eye anywhere you can.
Limit noise
Hein: “We used materials that would dampen sound as much as possible in the space — like felt on the walls and wood textures instead of hard surfaces. We also accommodated for the clinic’s closeness to the highway with double paned glass.
AT HOME: If noise is an issue, add noise-blocking shrubbery, carpets to hard floor surfaces, and drapes or curtains to windows that look out on traffic.
Rethink lighting
Hein: “Whatever light source is entering the building, we are diffusing, so you never have to look at a light source directly. So the windows all have a type of frosting on them to diffuse the light and existing light fixtures exist in a recessed cove. Light clouds in the lobby create a diffused atmosphere. By diffusing the light we were able to achieve accoustical treatment in the clinic as well.”
AT HOME: If migraines and eye sensitivity are an issue, add soft lighting, to create calm moments anywhere, diffuse light sources.
Discover the perfect green
Hein: “For some patients, dark green has a really soothing effect for the nuerological patient,” she says. “It has this warm and calming grounding effect, but it works well with natural wood. The green is on the wool panels, the flooring, the paint and the plastic laminate. It’s not a specific green that has the effect, but all dark greens.”
AT HOME: Use dark green as a neutral. On the walls is always a good choise, but consider using it on kitchen cabinets, built-in-bookshelves, or in a front entry way.
Balance wood and texture
Hein: “Everyone is comfortable with and is familiar with wood and wood textures, it’s a natural environment and brings a level of softness. It brings a nautral calm, and so having a tactile moment at the reception desk already sets up for the patient a sense of familiarity and comfort compared to a laminate or quartzite.”
AT HOME: Use warm woods to balance out harder textures and sufraces to add calm.
Explore gentle geometries
Hein: “The idea was to not have 90-degree corners, like at the reception desk and the seating, and that organic planter at the coffee table. Everything feels really gentle and approachable, as opposed to the squared-off reception area.”
AT HOME: Buy sculptural seating, or favor cuved lines in your furniture.
Switch up your seating
Hein: “With that we were wanting to just make it feel holistic and incorporated into the space. It creates a lot of visual distraction when you have a lot of different types of seating, so the choice was to symplify choices rather than make people think about chairs with arms and backs. We incorporated the side table idea.”
AT HOME: Curved sectional seating can be a great addition to a home intended to accommodate a lot of different people with different needs.
Bring in plants
Hein: “Really, the purpose was to create a moment of focus. You’re not able to look outside because of the window treatment, so we really just wanted to have as many plants as possible, to have something organic and living there for you to look at.”
AT HOME: People feel better in places with plants, so explore what houseplants will work in your home environment.
A request: Review Find Yourself At Home
Vulnerability alert! It’s been about nine months since my book came out. If you read my book and loved it, would you please consider taking a moment to review it online? Nothing helps get the word out about a book more than these reviews, and even if it feels uncomfortable for me to ask, I am asking you today. Would you please review the book?
I spent the week in a casino hotel (for work) that was the opposite of what you describe in this piece — a total sensory hell. Couldn’t agree more!
I couldn't help but this about how your words apply to the school environment. As a teacher in a building, I think about this every single day.
"We know more now than ever before that humans heal better within views of nature, that the ambiance of spaces affects how people behave there, and that natural materials and textures make people feel better and more at ease, and that designing spaces as healing environments accelerates recovery."