Design for wellbeing: Investigating the relationship between built environments and art therapy experiences

This study is a personal contribution to the design for wellbeing phenomenon. Using a pragmatic-phenomenological paradigm, the main goal of this research was to conduct a design-based investigation from a human-centered perspective to study the relationship between the built environment and the experiences of art therapists who work in six different art therapy settings in the south Florida region. This relationship was examined through the art therapists' perceptions, needs, wants, recent challenges, and most importantly the adaptation techniques they develop to obtain healthier environment . A dynamic integration was needed due to the complexity of the research problem; therefore, an interdisciplinary conceptual framework was designed to tackle the different contexts of the study. Six art therapy settings were chosen for this study: clinical, educational, home studio, private practice, community treatment center, and mobile art therapy. Qualitative methods were used to collect the data. Personal interviews, participant observation, and visual documentation were the main three methods used throughout the study. An integrative design-based analysis system was created to analyze the data. Using design-based thinking, an analytical framework was developed to define the conceptual coding system of the definitions, categorizations, and associations of found data. As data emerged, the synthesis phase took place. It was a process of system thinking, interdisciplinary integration, and problem solving. Due to the phenomenological nature of the study, it was essential to document findings that have direct and indirect relation to art therapists' experiences in their settings. The findings of the research were organized using the research questions as a guide and organizational technique. Targeting perception, the art therapy settings were individually defined using contextual, experiential, and interactive categories. The rest of the phenomenological data was synthesized using universal design-based categories. A phenomenological reflective conclusion was generated to exhibit the multiple relationships art therapists have with their built environment.