Context

One in three women in the world have experienced sexual violence in their lives. 94% of sexual assault survivors display symptoms of PTSD such as flashbacks, dissociation and panic attacks, which often make intimate relationships difficult. The healing process can be long and complicated. Partners of survivors are also affected by the trauma, and their needs are often overlooked.

Concept

Epione is a trauma-informed toolkit that supports couples who have experienced sexual assault by redefining intimacy and creating space to connect in their shared healing journey. The interactive meditative device normalises the effects of trauma by guiding couples through synchronised breathing exercises when experiencing PTSD symptoms. The card game creates a safe space to build emotional intimacy through prompts on communicating boundaries and desires.

Process

Over 20 hours of in-depth interviews and co-creation sessions were held with survivors, partners of survivors, and subject matter experts. Testing was done through rapid prototyping from digital conceptual prototypes to physical haptic prototypes.

Impact

Epione reduces the stigma around sexual assault by normalising the effects of trauma and addresses different needs during the healing journey. It helps people who have experienced trauma to experience intimacy in different ways. Read about how participating in this project helped a partner of a survivor process his own trauma here.

Project Background

This thesis project was done over eight weeks in Costa Rica in early 2021. The project was completed under a number of constraints with COVID19 social distancing measures and language barrier.

#MeToo

Imagine sharing a quiet moment with your partner, s/he leans in for a hug and your heart immediately goes racing, that's when you find out you are having a panic attack. That is the experience for many survivors, including myself. While there have been more conversations about sexual assault in recent years, discussions about the topic often ignore the long-lasting effects of trauma and how it affects intimate relationships. My own experience and struggles inspired me to explore this subject for my thesis project as part of my healing process. Healing is anything but a linear process; what happens after therapy in sexual assault survivors' healing journey?

Design Opportunity

One in three women in the world have experienced sexual violence in their lives. 94% of sexual assault survivors display symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder such as flashbacks and dissociation. Experiencing trauma can make it difficult to connect or feel safe with your body, making intimacy an anxiety-inducing or triggering experience. The knowledge of their loved ones' assault can make partners of survivors feel helpless and isolated, yet this aspect is often overlooked in the healing journey. How might we help couples who have experienced sexual assault better cope with intimacy issues?

Concept

Epione is a trauma-informed toolkit that supports couples who have experienced sexual assault by redefining intimacy and creating space to connect in their shared healing journey. The interactive meditative device normalises the effects of trauma by guiding couples through synchronised breathing exercises when experiencing PTSD symptoms. The card game creates a safe space to build emotional intimacy through prompts on communicating boundaries and desires.

The ring-shaped interactive meditative device helps couples refocus on the present moment and engage with their senses when confronted with overwhelming thoughts and feelings. It encourages couples to connect with each other through synchronising their heart rates by breathing in unison guided by glowing lights. When the pulse sensors detect both heart rates are in sync, the glowing lights change into a different colour, creating a shared moment of intimacy. The form of the ring-shaped grounding device signifies connection and the memory foam material gives the device a soft organic feel that makes it easier to allow for an intimate moment between couples.

Communicating boundaries and desires can be difficult for survivors. The card game creates a safe space for couples to engage with each other. The question cards cover topics around personal lives, relationships, and intimacy, encouraging couples to share and listen to each other. The activity cards suggest different activities for couples to build intimacy, prompting couples to share their boundaries and desires. Couples can reveal how they feel about the suggestions by voting with different coloured tokens and see how in sync they are at the end of the game. Cards come in different levels of intimacy so that couples could choose which deck to use based on where they are in their healing journey. Game pieces form a totem which serves as a reminder for couples to acknowledge their boundaries and desires. Prompts and questions were designed in a way that was trauma-informed with gender neutral language. Colours were selected carefully to avoid any connotation around heteronormativity.

Process

To prepare for this project, I enrolled in trauma-informed and academic theory training prior to participant engagement. Interview protocols and research guides were sent to people who are experienced in trauma-informed research for their review. Measures were put in place to ensure:

Safety - In addition to the usual informed consent protocol for data collection, extra care was taken to ensure no personal identifying information was stored.

Agency - Interview guides were shared with participants before each session so that they could review the questions. Sessions were structured in a way where participants had full control.

Trust and transparency - All materials involving the research process were shared with participants to review to ensure they were comfortable with how the information they provided were represented.

After some initial social listening, a project site was set up for people to learn more or sign up to take part in the project. I then contacted some support groups and leveraged on their networks to share information about the project together with the sign up site.

Over twelve hours of in-depth interviews were conducted with sexual assault survivors, partners of survivors, and subject matter experts such as psychotherapists, trauma experts, and research scientists. Insights include:

- Rhythm and synchrony help people connect

- People look for ways to redefine intimacy

- Performing a ritual gives people a sense of control

- Normalisation helps build incremental steps

- Play creates a relaxed setting for exploration

While every healing journey is unique, research with participants showed that having a safe and relaxing space that allows for exploration is vital for healing. Many survivors and partners expressed that they would like multiple pieces to address different needs during their healing journey during research and this inspired a concept that addresses different needs by creating space to redefine intimacy and build connections.

The meditative device was inspired by how rhythm and synchrony help people connect. A research participant who struggles with asexuality shared that she feels the most intimate with her partner when she could hear their heartbeat. Followed by a research session with two neuroscientists from Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, it was found that heart rates can be controlled through synchronised breathing, which could help enable neural synchrony between couples. This led to the development of using pulse sensors and light to encourage couples to synchronise their heart rates through breathing exercises.

The card game creates a space for exploration and connection, enabling couples to discuss difficult topics such as boundaries and desires, building emotional intimacy in the process. When tested with a couple who were experiencing intimacy issues, the game prompted them to discover each other's preferences for physical intimacy despite having been together for seven years. This reinforced that discussions around intimacy are still very much stigmatised.

More than eight hours of co-creation sessions were held with survivors and couples who experienced intimacy issues. Conceptual prototypes, functional prototypes, and physical prototypes were iterated with different forms and materials based on feedback received from co-creation sessions.

Impact

Epione reduces the stigma around sexual assault by normalising the effects of trauma and addresses different needs during the healing journey. Focusing on redefining intimacy, it creates space for couples to explore different ways to connect with each other. While Epione was originally designed for sexual assault survivors, the concept is also applicable to couples who experience anxiety or relationship issues.

During the half day exhibition where Epione was shown to the public in Costa Rica, at least three people came forward to identify themselves as survivors and shared that they were appreciative of the project for addressing the long-lasting impact of sexual assault. Read about how participating in this project helped a partner of a survivor process his own trauma here.

A localised version of the card game was produced for Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (ACSAW) in Hong Kong to explore what consent and boundaries mean for different people at a sex education fair.

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This project is dedicated to anyone who has been affected by sexual assault. Special thanks to ACSAW, Kinsey Institute, Authentic Tantra , Bickle Psychotherapy, RAINN, Our Wave, r/secondarysurvivor, LiberArte, and all the survivors and secondary survivors who supported this project.