arms and legs and back with something akin to: you really care about that person you’re doing the treatment for. You can’t do a treatment and not like them. If there’s no rapport between the person giving the treatment and who is receiving they tend not to come back for the treatment. They would just get a feeling and not want to come back. You wouldn’t go back if you didn’t have a connection with someone. You can’t touch someone like that and not have trust. There’s quite a high level of trust that goes in there which is why in training there’s a big emphasis on not doing anything inappropriate. It makes sense to work with acupuncture because it directly affects the nervous system. The way it works is to activate pressure points at different depths depending on the body’s density. This project will not use needles because it is more concerned with highlighting the points to raise the awareness of the body sensation. According to health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, human connection aids stress resilience because seeking and giving support increase the release of oxytocin – which is why although acupressure can be self-applied, it is more effective to involve another person.
sur vey Including a survey was also important to validate the direction of design but also to ground the research to date. 78 people answered 8 questions regarding their experience of factors challenging their wellbeing and how they manage such symptoms. The results concluded that 23% experience anxiety and 16% experience depression. Asking participants to map where they experience discomfort in their body helped reaffirm the design focus. Cosmic Armour’s focus on acupuncture relates to the prediction that it is not so widely used by its demographic – backed up in addition by Curle. The survey clarified this to be true in question 4 with only 6% declaring they have used acupuncture therapy. With regard to this, question 5 exposes the restrictions people might face in accessing such therapies. The highest scor-
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