Supervisor:
Jonathan Romm
Ted Matthews
Addressing young adults’ need for alleviating mental distress and regulating mental resilience in the face of life events, Sacred Woods is a psychologically oriented product service that provides meaningful experiences of planting trees and facilitates meaningful discussions for personal growth. When experiencing low mental health, our service provides a tree-planting experience to promote social support and discussion of coping strategies by facilitating meaningful connections between significant others. When in a high mental health state, a board game named The Forest of Life is offered to build psychological resilience by facilitating meaningful discussions on common life events.
The Forest of Life is designed to provide young adults with a fun experience that encourages them to elaborate on their emotions and thoughts while facing life’s challenges and turning points to build psychological resilience. Using the metaphor of a forest maze, I aim to mirror real-life exploration in this board game that motivates players to navigate twists and turns. By engaging in discussions about the life events described on the cards, players will have the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences and learn from each other. Whether playing with friends or family, our board game will provide a fun exploration for players to think deeply to unpack the complexities of life.
The tree-planting experience was constructed as a rite of passage with nine MSEs. The comforter or/and the distressed encountered Sacred Woods ads when they browsed websites about mental health and related topics with cookies. The distressed disposed of emotional baggage with a Wasted Bag to collect externalisation of negative thoughts during the separation phase. At the same time, they collect externalisation of allies of the life event which the distressed suffered. The transition phase included planting the sapling and seed paper and building the tree persona, a reincorporation followed to connect the tree and the life event.
However, this diploma is not a ready-to-ship service. It is a design concept focusing on the values it could bring to the world. Collaborations with stakeholders, strategic planning, further iterative developments and more user tests shall be carried out to implement this service in a viable, feasible and desirable way. Additionally, this diploma does not act as a replacement for professional mental healthcare.
Contact
Yingjie Wei / roy.yingjie.wei@outlook.com