Communal Healing Frameworks for Wounded Warriors and their Families: Mind, Body, Soul, and Architecture

Recipient of the 2010 AIA President’s Citation Award

This symposium centered on communal healing environments to help treat those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. Geared primarily for hospital administrators, architects, members of the military, veterans, and caregivers; the event brought a variety of perspectives to a discussion about how best to design communal healing spaces and programming, with an emphasis on architecture as a tool for healing.
Panel 1: Communal Healing Programs
Captain Frederick Foote, M.D. (Ret., USNMC)
The Epidaurus Project: Holistic Care and Design in the Military Health System
Watch:  IOM Reports and Recommendations
Holism vs Reductionism
The Epidaurus Team

Daniel Cohen, Ph.D. (University of Missouri-Columbia)
Religion, Spirituality, and Health Outcomes: How Spiritual Interventions Can Improve Health
Watch: Why Study Religion and Health?
“Effects of Religion and Spirituality on Health”

Barbara Moquin, Ph.D. (National Institutes of Health)
Mind Body Skills Training for Spouses of Wounded Families
(Video Unavailable)

Stephen Porges, Ph.D. (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Designing Healing Spaces: Insights from Neuroscience
(Video Unavailable)

Panel 2: Communal Healing Environments
Singing Man (Ceremonial Man for the Southern Arapaho Tribe)
Watch: “The Story of Singing Man”

Esther Sternberg, M.D. (National Institutes of Health)
Healing Spaces: The Science of Well-Being
Watch: “Measuring Responses in Spaces”

Jerry Kykisz (National Veterans Art Museum, Chicago)
Trauma and Metamorphosis
Watch: “Ron’s Art”

Paul Alt, AIA (Alt Architecture + Research Associates)
The Communal Healing Sanctuary: A Fusion of Healing Programming and Environment
Watch: “Healing Warriors”
“DuSable PTSD Study”
“Walter Reed Military Medical Center”
“Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial Building”