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Introducing the AANE Makers Series Group: Design for Anxiety and Perfectionism

Anxiety is often a major challenge for adults on the spectrum, and the desire to always be perfect can lead to difficulty achieving goals and finishing projects. This Winter/Spring 2020 AANE and Powderhouse Studios have teamed up to offer a special type of AANE interest series, maker series titled Design for Anxiety and Perfectionism.

In this 14 week workshop small groups of 4 participants will meet weekly for 3 hours each week to come up with an idea, define your own standards for success, and complete a project that will impact your relationship with anxiety and perfectionism in a positive way.

You can apply here by January 7, 2020

Why?

In this program participants will make projects as a way to help manage anxiety and resist perfectionism. Making things allows us to resist the effects of anxiety in a few ways:

  1. We can make things which help us manage anxiety (like a sensory item or mood tracking tool)
  2. We can make projects that express and explore our anxiety stories (like a comic or blog)
  3. When we make anything we encounter anxiety and perfectionism in the process, and can use the experience to practice new ways of relating to them and new skills and strategies for resisting their effects.

What?

Participants will work with the facilitator to explore your anxiety, how it functions in your life, and how you'd prefer it to function instead. You'll have support to come up with an idea, and set your own goals for what you want to accomplish within the 14-week program.

Participants will meet weekly to build and test prototypes, give and receive feedback and support, and eventually document and share our projects. We'll meet in a workshop with tools and computers, and you'll get a materials budget for your projects.

That project can take any form (examples include technology, card games, clothing, comics and jewelry), and participants will have support and guidance in picking projects to work on and defining standards of success that will allow them to finish the project in 14 weeks. This program is a great opportunity for adults who enjoy technology, design and/or craft and want to build their problem solving and anxiety management skills.

About the facilitator

Miriam Zisook is a social worker and designer on the team at Powderhouse Studios. Miriam has worked as a designer on assistive technology and wearable technologies, and worked to support and increase the power and participation of disabled people in technology fields. Miriam's work at Powderhouse is focused on how learning to make things and learning to solve problems like a designer can help people become more confident, competent, and empowered.

Who is it for?

Miriam is hosting this program for anyone who:

  1. is a post high-school adult