The Art of Healing: Anosha Zanjani’s Design Revolution

As the Principal Behavioral Health Consultant at Mindful Insights Consulting, Anosha Zanjani is on a mission to revolutionize mental healthcare through the built environment.

An accomplished artist with expertise in architecture, environmental psychology, mental health, and neuroscience, Zanjani integrates these disciplines to create a holistic vision for the future of mental health spaces.

Zanjani’s vision transcends conventional building design; it’s about crafting environments that actively contribute to healing and recovery. By leveraging her multidisciplinary background, she aims to transform mental health facilities from institutional spaces into nurturing spaces that provide comprehensive support for both patients and caregivers.

Her vision for the future of mental health facility design is both ambitious and all-inclusive, aiming to transform the entire approach to how these spaces are conceived, regulated, and created. Zanjani’s vision extends beyond individual projects, addressing systemic issues and pushing the field towards more sustainable, equitable, responsive, and effective solutions.

“I truly believe that thoughtfully designing environments can make a substantial difference in the lives of those facing mental health challenges, whether it be schools, mental health facilities, or housing,” Zanjani asserts. Her innovative approach demonstrates how the built environment, infused with creativity and informed by science, can be a powerful tool in addressing the complex challenges of mental health treatment and recovery.

The Making of a Dream Career

Zanjani’s journey to becoming a leader in behavioral health architectural design is rooted in a childhood steeped in creativity and design. Growing up with architect parents who were also traditional painters, she was immersed in the world of art and architecture from an early age. Some of her fondest memories include accompanying her father to construction sites, witnessing firsthand how architectural designs materialized into physical spaces.

However, a tragic event during her teenage years dramatically shifted her life’s trajectory. At 16, Zanjani lost her close friend to suicide. This profound loss left her grappling with grief and confusion, but it also ignited a powerful motivation to help others facing similar struggles. Driven by this personal experience, Zanjani initially pursued a career in clinical psychology, earning a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Mental Health and Neuroscience from the University of Toronto.

For many years, Zanjani worked in psychiatric facilities, private practices, and academic institutions, conducting clinical research and working directly with patients suffering from mental health disorders. Yet, throughout this time, her passion for art, design and architecture persisted. She found herself increasingly drawn to environmental psychology and the impact of physical spaces on mental well-being.

The turning point came when Zanjani realized that many of the psychiatric facilities where she worked were poorly designed, often hindering rather than supporting patient recovery. This observation, coupled with her unique background, led her to a pivotal decision: to transition from clinical psychology to architecture, with a specific focus on mental health facilities. She went on to earn a Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University, going on to work with reputable healthcare design firms such as HDR. This shift allowed Zanjani to merge her clinical expertise, artistic sensibility, and architectural knowledge, positioning her uniquely to address the critical intersection of mental health and built environments.

Current Role and Mission

Today, as the Principal Behavioral Health Consultant at Mindful Insights Consulting, Zanjani stands at the forefront of a movement to transform mental healthcare through innovative design. Her consulting practice is dedicated to reshaping the landscape of behavioral health facilities, leveraging the built environment as a powerful tool for healing and recovery.

Zanjani’s approach is deeply rooted in her multifaceted expertise. She integrates her knowledge of architecture, mental health, environmental psychology, and neuroscience to create spaces that are not just functional but are truly therapeutic. Her designs go beyond meeting basic safety requirements; they aim to actively support treatment modalities, enhance patient experiences, and improve staff well-being.

In her role, Zanjani collaborates with a diverse array of stakeholders, from healthcare systems and architecture firms to regulatory bodies and furniture manufacturers. She contributes to projects across the continuum of care, including inpatient and outpatient facilities, crisis centers, substance abuse treatment centers, and transitional housing. Her work extends beyond individual projects; Zanjani is also heavily involved in research, publications, and advocacy efforts aimed at advancing the field of behavioral health design.

At the core of Zanjani’s mission is the belief that thoughtfully designed environments can make a substantial difference in the lives of those facing mental health challenges. She champions the use of trauma-informed and neuroarchitecture design and principles, emphasizing safety, transparency, stress reduction, belonging and patient empowerment through careful spatial planning and design. By combining evidence-based design practices with creative problem-solving, Zanjani strives to create mental health facilities that not only meet functional needs but actively contribute to the healing process.

Design Philosophy

Zanjani’s design philosophy for mental health facilities is rooted in a deep understanding of the intricate relationship between physical spaces and psychological well-being. At the heart of her approach is an unwavering commitment to trauma-informed design and neuroarchitecture principles.

“From a neuroarchitecture perspective, designing for mental health and wellness involves creating environments that support homeostasis, which is a balance of psychological and physiological stability,” Zanjani explains. This holistic view informs every aspect of her designs, from the overall layout to the smallest details.

Creating healing environments is paramount in Zanjani’s work. She emphasizes the importance of considering both physiological and psychological needs: “Our human needs—our needs for comfort, shelter, harmonizing our sensory experience, connecting with nature, and psychologically involves fostering a sense of community, belonging, meaningful social interaction, personal growth, a sense of security.”

Zanjani is acutely aware of the delicate balance required between safety, security and a therapeutic atmosphere in mental health facilities. “Safety and security are crucial, but if these aspects are manifested too rigidly in design, it can create a restrictive and punitive environment instead of a supportive one. It’s essential to strike a balance that ensures safety while maintaining a therapeutic atmosphere,” she explains. This balance extends to relational security, which focuses on the quality of patient-professional relationships and understanding patient history, and procedural security, which involves policies and surveillance. Effective mental health facilities integrate these concepts to provide a positive framework for delivering clinical care and therapy safely.

Zanjani also addresses a critical issue in mental healthcare: the isolation of facilities from their communities, which often perpetuates stigma and a sense of separation. “Mental health facilities often remain isolated from their communities, contributing to stigma and a sense of separation,” she notes. “Inclusive designs that promote community engagement as part of the design process as well as social interaction and a connection to their communities can help normalize mental healthcare and provide community support for patients.”

Her approach extends beyond the immediate environment to consider the broader ecological context. “We are an integral part of our environment, and our health is deeply interconnected with it. Considering how we interact with nature and its elements is crucial,” Zanjani notes. “Air quality, water quality, and overall ecological health are all interconnected with our well-being. This evolutionary connection underscores the importance of sustainable and regenerative design practices.” She highlights her commitment to these practices, emphasizing the need to create environments that not only support individual health but also contribute positively to the ecosystem.

Ultimately, Zanjani’s design philosophy is about creating spaces that actively contribute to the healing process. As she puts it, “I truly believe that thoughtfully designing environments can make a substantial difference in the lives of those facing mental health challenges, whether it be schools, mental health facilities, or housing.” Through her work, Zanjani strives to transform mental health facilities from institutional spaces into nurturing environments that support recovery, empower patients, and enhance the well-being of both patients and staff.

Key Design Elements

In her approach to designing mental health facilities, Zanjani emphasizes several key elements that she believes are crucial for creating truly therapeutic environments.

Incorporating nature and artwork is a cornerstone of Zanjani’s design strategy. “Research has shown that including nature-oriented artwork in facilities can significantly reduce stress and anxiety of patients, thereby reducing anxiety medication and fewer aggressive instances,” she explains. Zanjani sees art not just as decoration, but as a powerful tool for healing and wayfinding. “Art is a universal language that everybody understands. So using it as a wayfinding aid could also be significantly helpful, whether it would be to delineate what is happening in a particular room, but also looking at it as a way to brand a facility in a more healing way.”

Creating sensory-friendly environments is another crucial aspect of Zanjani’s designs. She recognizes that “those experiencing mental health issues are often very sensitive to stimulation.” To address this, Zanjani focuses on “creating sensory friendly environments that minimize distressing stimuli” and “providing patients with choice and control over the environment to moderate their sensory input and social interactions.”

Flexibility and adaptability are key considerations in Zanjani’s designs. “Spaces should be able to adapt to different treatment modalities. This is really important because demands are constantly changing,” she notes. This approach ensures that facilities can evolve with changing treatment practices and patient needs.

Staff well-being is a critical component that Zanjani believes is often overlooked. She advocates for “including areas for rest, collaboration, and effective workflows” for staff, arguing that “a design that supports staff well-being can reduce burnout, enhance job satisfaction, and improve overall quality care.” She emphasizes that this “needs to be paired with policies and workplace culture that promotes the use of these services.”

Throughout her designs, Zanjani strives to create environments that go beyond mere functionality. “Healing in a mental health environment is inherently multifaceted,” she explains. “It involves a delicate interplay between clinical care and the physical surroundings. Policies, regulations, and standards of care provide the framework for effective treatment, while the built environment enhances and supports this care. By moving beyond purely functional and clinical designs, we can create holistic, patient-centered environments that dramatically improve the quality of care and enhance the lives of everyone receiving and providing care in these facilities. This seamless integration of environment and clinical practices is essential for creating a supportive and healing atmosphere crucial for recovery.”

Design Challenges

Designing mental health facilities comes with a unique set of challenges, which Zanjani navigates with creativity and determination.

One of the most significant hurdles is the prevalent misconception about mental health facilities themselves. Zanjani recounts a telling interaction with a colleague: “I recall a colleague of mine once questioned why I was passionate about mental health design. She remarked on their unattractiveness. She said, ‘You’re an artist. Why are you designing these facilities? Don’t you want to design something more fancy and beautiful?’” This anecdote highlights a common stigma that Zanjani works tirelessly to overcome—the notion that mental health facilities are inherently institutional and unattractive.

That said, budget constraints often pose a significant challenge in realizing innovative designs. Zanjani acknowledges this reality. “When considering where to invest I think you have to invest in safety and security. That’s something that you’re mandated to do.” However, she emphasizes that even with limited resources, impactful changes are possible: “If you don’t have a lot of money, investing in strategic branding of the facility. Use artwork in different ways to create a more healing environment. I think it could make a really big difference for how people experience your facility while creating a sense of place for the community.”

Balancing stringent safety requirements with the need for a healing environment is a complex challenge but Zanjani notes an ongoing evolution in this area. “I think recently, with the wave of interest in mental health and the investment that’s being made in these facilities, more manufacturers are committed to creating better products,” she says. “There has to be this balance that ensures safety while maintaining this therapeutic atmosphere.”

Resistance to change from staff and caregivers can also be a significant obstacle. Zanjani says, “When it comes to big changes in mental health facilities, I’ve often encountered the most resistance when it comes to things that affect the staff’s daily routines and workflows.” To address this, she emphasizes the importance of engagement and education: “It’s really important to come prepared and engaged. You have to come to the table with research, case studies that back up your suggestions to help demonstrate the potential positive impact on patient care workflow.”

Despite these challenges, Zanjani remains committed to her vision of transforming mental health facilities into spaces that truly support healing and recovery. Her approach combines evidence-based design, stakeholder engagement, and creative problem-solving to overcome these obstacles and create environments that challenge the stigma surrounding mental health facilities.

Advocacy Work and Goals

Beyond her design work, Zanjani is deeply committed to advancing the field of behavioral health design through advocacy and industry involvement. Her efforts in this arena are focused on driving systemic change and fostering collaboration across disciplines.

As a co-founder of the Behavioral Health Advocacy Group, Zanjani works to bring diverse voices together in the mental health industry. This initiative reflects her belief that addressing the behavioral health crisis effectively requires breaking down silos and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

One of Zanjani’s key advocacy goals is pushing for federal design standards in mental health facilities. “There’s this lack of specific federal design standards for mental health facilities. That means that many continue to use stigmatized and inadequate designs that interfere with recovery.” Zanjani sees this as a critical area for improvement. “Implementing evidence-based federal design standards and processes for mental health facilities can really ensure consistent quality and safety across that spectrum.”

“I think architects need a voice at the table, because when these policies and regulations are being made, I think a lot of it is happening in silos,” Zanjani notes. She believes that bringing together diverse perspectives—from architects and designers to healthcare providers and policymakers—is crucial for creating more effective and holistic solutions.

Zanjani is also actively involved in shaping industry guidelines. She was involved in the creation of the Advisory Guide for Acute Psychiatric Hospitals for California’s Department of healthcare Access and Information. Additionally, she was a member of the California Department of healthcare Access and Information (formerly OSHPD) Behavioral Health Task Force. “I am actively looking to engage in other opportunities to improve regulation and policy for these environments,” she expresses, underscoring her commitment to ongoing advocacy and improvement in the field.

Through her advocacy work, Zanjani strives to elevate the role of design in mental healthcare and push for policies that support the creation of truly therapeutic environments. Her efforts underscore her belief that improving mental health facilities is not just about individual projects, but about changing the entire approach to how these spaces are conceived, regulated, and created.

Future Vision

Zanjani’s vision for the future of mental health design is both ambitious and holistic, aiming to push the field towards more sustainable/regenerative, equitable, responsive, and effective solutions.

Central to her vision is the integration of sustainability and regenerative design principles. “I would actually use the word regenerative design versus sustainability. It’s about going beyond harm reduction, with the goal of giving more than you take,” she explains. “Regenerative design aims for the recovery of the natural environment and community mental health and wellness. The well-being of our planet and our mental health are deeply interconnected. Environmental changes like natural disasters, air pollution, and climate change can disproportionately affect mental health, especially among marginalized communities.”

Zanjani elaborates that regenerative design considers the entire living system, encompassing habitats, people, buildings, infrastructure, and their impacts on each other. “It’s about creating a balanced ecosystem where each element supports and enhances the others,” she says. It involves performance indicators that go beyond traditional design, incorporating ecological and social factors, community health, and more. This approach necessitates a multidisciplinary design team, including economists, health practitioners, and researchers, alongside traditional architects and engineers.

Relatedly, Zanjani emphasizes the importance of involving the community in the design process. “A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Trauma-informed, regenerative, and neuroarchitecture design processes all emphasize the importance of community engagement. This helps tailor spaces to support healing and create environments that feel safe, inclusive, and supportive for everyone involved. Encouraging feedback from all users of the space, including leaders, staff, patients, and families, ensures that facilities reflect the needs of their users and foster community trust and mental health service utilization.”

Reflecting on the intersection of neuroscience and architecture, Zanjani highlights the critical role of neuroarchitecture in future mental health and evidence-based designs. “Neuroarchitecture merges neuroscience with architecture, focusing on how the built environment impacts our nervous system. This can significantly lower stress responses, foster well-being, and improve cognitive functioning. This approach is particularly important in mental health facilities, where patients and staff often experience heightened stress responses. I believe that neuroarchitecture is the future of evidence-based design, and it is something I am extremely passionate about, coming from a neuroscience background.”

Zanjani strongly emphasizes the importance of increased focus on post-occupancy evaluations in future mental health facility designs. “I wish we conducted more of these evaluations. It is crucial to assess how the facility performs in real-world conditions and how well it meets the needs of its users,” she explains. Zanjani believes that understanding the long-term impact of design decisions is essential for continually improving future projects. “Facilities should actively seek feedback and employ evaluation methods to adapt and refine their designs over time. This approach allows for real-time improvements based on the experiences of patients, families, and staff, ensuring that the environment remains effective and responsive.”

She envisions a future where smart buildings equipped with advanced technologies enhance treatment outcomes and streamline post-occupancy evaluations. “These technologies will enable easier, more comprehensive assessments of the built environment’s impact on well-being, fostering a healthier feedback loop for design decisions,” she adds. This iterative process, she believes, is key to creating mental health facilities that truly meet the evolving needs of patients and staff.

Looking ahead, Zanjani foresees mental health facilities that are not only therapeutic but also contribute positively to their broader communities and environments. She sees a future where design plays a pivotal role in addressing mental health challenges, with facilities that are adaptable, sustainable, and deeply responsive to the needs of those they serve.

“By focusing on expanding access and improving the built environment through some of the things I mentioned, I think we can really create supportive accessible stigma-free spaces that promote mental well-being across all life areas, leading to more equitable and effective mental healthcare system,” says Zanjani encapsulating her hopeful and transformative vision for the future of mental health design.

Personal Passion

While Zanjani’s professional life is dedicated to transforming mental health facilities, her personal passion for art remains a vital part of her identity and approach to well-being. This artistic connection not only enriches her personal life but also deeply informs her work in behavioral health design.

Zanjani’s commitment to her art practice is unwavering. “I’ve been doing art since as long as I can remember,” she shares. Despite the demands of her professional career, Zanjani prioritizes her artistic pursuits as an essential component of her self-care routine. “It’s something I have to do. It’s like eating or breathing. It’s something that I’m incredibly passionate about, and will always be. So I dedicate a little bit of time every single day to do art. It’s part of my self-care routine.”

Through her continued artistic practice and its integration into her professional work, Zanjani embodies the holistic approach she advocates for in mental healthcare. Her personal passion for art fuels her innovative designs, reminding us that healing spaces can—and should—be beautiful, creative, and inspiring.

As Zanjani continues to push the boundaries of behavioral health design, her unique blend of artistic vision, scientific knowledge, and compassionate understanding promises to shape the future of mental healthcare environments.

From her childhood immersed in art and architecture to her current role as a leading voice in behavioral health design, Zanjani’s journey reflects a deep commitment to improving lives through thoughtful, innovative spaces. Her holistic approach—integrating environmental psychology, trauma-informed design and neuroarchitecture principles, regenerative design/sustainability, and a keen awareness of both patient and staff needs—sets a new standard for mental health facilities.

As she advocates for better federal design standards and continues to break down silos between stakeholders, Zanjani’s work will undoubtedly continue to make a profound impact. We look forward to seeing how her visionary ideas and tireless efforts will further transform the landscape of mental healthcare, creating environments that truly heal, inspire, and support recovery for years to come.