Designing your home and therapy have a lot in common.
As a therapist-turned-designer who wrote a book and hosts a podcast on the subject, Yokota would know.
Yokota absorbed all of it.
Credit:Anita Yokota
And so I was really interested in psychology in college and in graduate school.
As a self-proclaimed helper, she wanted to give others what counseling had given her.
She became a therapist, and that was her path for 20 years.
Credit:Anita Yokota
But starting from her time as an intern, it was the home visits that stuck with her.
Things are pretty charged, things are unorganized and chaotic.
And that’s two sides of the same coin.
Credit:Sara Ligorria-Tramp
After having her third child, Yokota got a creative itch that being a therapist wasnt scratching.
Anita Yokota
Q: How would you describe home therapy?
Home therapy is really an art and science to feel calmer, happier, and more confident at home.
Credit:Anita Yokota
But its also for the people that you live with.
So for me, home therapy is extremely relational.
Q: I love that wallpaper behind you.
I wanted it to be something thats useful and that excites my brain when I walk into the house.
I can go, Okay, I’m back home, and it kind of resets me.
So its really being intentional of and supporting your lifestyle at home.
Even if it’s just DIYing a nightstand, and youre painting it a different color.
Instead of getting caught up in: What color blue should I do?
or What color should this nightstand be?
Its more, How do I want this nightstand to support my sleep?
or do I want this nightstand to support my journaling?
Ultimately, its setting some kind of intention or goal for yourself.
Because I struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder,lighting is so important.
Getting that serotonin and dopamine level up, because naturally my brain is lacking in serotonin.
A house rule we have is three layers of lighting: We have to have our recessed lighting.
Sara Ligorria-Tramp
Now that summer is coming, its really about picking the right bedding for good sleep.
Im a hot sleeper, and linen sheets, breathable sheets, are so important.
For anxious people, I swear it really, really helps with your sleeping.
It just makes you feel secure.
This is mental health related for sure: We have a lot of allergies in our home.
It does feel a little bare.
Im gonna not lie.
But our house rule is you have to design your home for your family lifestyle.
Finally by the seventh year I was like, Forget it!
And it was so liberating; it was so creatively rejuvenating because likewho cares!
No ones gonna come and judge me.
So that was a huge aha moment for me.
So for this wall [referencing behind her], I decided to do this bamboo wallpaper.
Lo and behold I found something that spoke to me, and it was the bamboo.
And then saversthey just hold onto everything.
When I was helping clients, the commonality for that analysis paralysis was ambivalence.
Ambivalence is just mixed emotions: I dont know what to do with it.
I feel good and bad about it.
Its a lot easier to feel super bad about something, because then its gone.
And then if you feel super good about it, then thats easy, youre keeping it.
Its the in-between stuff…
It becomes mental clutter.
For me, I like to give myself time.
The purpose of the holding box for the ambivalent items is letting those feelings coexist.
Because when youre purgingyoure not letting those good feelings exist.
Youre just like, This is bad, and Ive gotta get rid of it.
And then the saversyoure not allowing yourself to feel the bad.
Instead of trying to fix it, Im gonna let it be.
And while Im letting it be, Im gonna start thinking about how it serves me.
The pros and conswhich way is it leaning?
Our human brainswe just want to fix things.
So its either all good or all bad.
Thats not really true.
Were just all or nothing thinking, which goes back to therapy.
Q: Youre a mom of threehow has your approach to design changed with having kids?
I mean, literally every baby thing was in our tiny family room.
I was more accepting of some aesthetics that I couldnt change, like the primary colors on their toys.
Then as they growwe had to redo my middle daughters room and just honor her style versus mine.
There were a lot of conversations around how they want to own their space.
Im not even kidding.
Now, 30 were hand-me-downs, but she is a hoarder.
And I sleep with it now.
But its really learning how to work together and coexist in a space.
Its really being mindful of what kind of habits theyre developing.
But just kind of having that goal and intention in mind so at least every day youre trying.
Q: How do you like to unwind at the end of the day in your home?
It doesnt even have to be the end of the day.
If its like 10 in the morning and Im feeling stressed, I take a bath.
I am your probably biggest bathtub girl ever.
Well, that drop increases your adrenaline and that obviously helps with your blood circulation.
But I love that adrenaline rush that I get because it wakes me up, it gives me energy.
And I use that as a way to go, OK, Im resetting myself.
Q: What is your household mantra?
Something in therapy that Ive always told my clients, especially my teenagers, is Important things first.
Its getting the hardest things done first.
