Designing a Safe Space for Addiction Recovery

So I come from a little bit of a punk background, if you will. I spent quite a few years after I graduated from college, while I was cultivating my alcoholism, really living in the punk music scene, working in the punk music scene. I did love the value, though, of going against the grain when it was, in fact, skillful. And so I wanted to do that from the very beginning at The Living Room. I wanted to design it in a way that invited people into a sense of safety with or without their mind's agreement. Regardless of what folks are thinking about, the body itself is invited into a state of safety when someone walks into The Living Room. And the way that we did that was by using colors that do that, by using visual stimulants that do that, by having accoutrements and artifacts around that just spark curiosity. Curiosity is an energy that we as human beings have access to at all times, even in a state of real crisis. And so anywhere you go in The Living Room, with or without your permission, your body is invited into a state of safety. Your mind is invited into the experience of curiosity. The only consistent contributor to the therapeutic experience is the physical space. So why not make that physical space a benevolent contributor? Why not have it offer something good? And that's what The Living Room does. It's a space that you want to be in.