We all have natural reactions to color. A clear blue sky can lift our spirits. A bouquet of sunflowers can make us feel optimistic. The green grass of a meadow can make us feel relaxed and rejuvenated. A bright red car can make us feel adventurous, while a white room can leave us feeling unsettled. Our culturally learned associations and our individualized physiological and psychological makeup produce our emotional responses to color (Healthcare Design, 2011).
Color has a long history in the healing arts. Because color has been linked to psychological, physiological, and social reactions in all of us, health practitioners throughout the ages have attempted to create healing environments. These do not exist automatically, but they can be created in any setting. Creating a healing environment requires attention to specific design elements, including color and lighting. When choosing a color palette, for example, designers consider the characteristics of its potential users (such as their age, culture, gender, socioeconomic background, etc.), the type of activity that may be performed in the environment, the nature and character of light sources, the geographic location and climate of the space where color is used, and the size and shape of the space in which the color is used (Bosch et al., 2013; Coalition for Health Environments Research [CHER], 2004; Healthcare Design, 2011; Tofle, Schwarz, Yoon, & Max-Royale, 2004).
Although perceptual impressions of color have been demonstrated to affect an individual’s experiences and performance in certain environments, an extensive review of numerous research studies by the Coalition for Health Environments Research (CHER, 2004) found no direct one-to-one links between particular colors and health outcomes of people.
Despite the lack of reproducible direct links between color and health benefits, many individuals support the use of color therapy to treat a variety of health conditions, and the use of color in healing environments remains a powerful and valuable component of design. While many healthcare providers, designers, and practitioners question the connections between color and behavior, they suspect that color can be used as a psychotherapeutic aid and they continue to search for empirical research to support the use of various color guidelines in health care.
This course explores the use of color in healing and its future as an emerging therapy.