Not Another Meetup: How We Created Design Therapy Night

Lately, a lot of designers I talk to — and if I’m honest, myself included — have been feeling disconnected. Not just from the work, but from each other. The pandemic thinned out our communities. The industry has become louder, faster, more anxious. And somewhere in that rush, we lost the informal spaces where we could simply show up, be honest, and feel understood.

One afternoon over lunch, Tarek Fahmy and I started wondering:
What if we created something just for that?
No keynotes, no portfolios, no pressure to perform — just a safe room for designers to vent, reflect, and connect.

That was the seed of Design Therapy Night.

We brought in Angelos Arnis to help shape the format and host the first event. Within a week of posting about it, we were full. The night itself was powerful — real conversations, small moments of laughter, a few raw admissions, and most importantly, a sense of shared humanity. It reminded us how much we miss spaces like this, and how much they matter.

Instead of centering ourselves as speakers or experts, we focused on creating the conditions:

• a welcoming room

• a few prompts

• some ground rules

• and space to talk.

Once the room opened, people carried it forward on their own. That, to me, is facilitation at its best.

We realized we didn’t just want to run this once.
We wanted to help others do it too — in their cities, companies, or online circles.

So we put together a free facilitator handbook. It’s a practical guide with all the ingredients you need to host your own Design Therapy Night, whether you’re planning a casual session with friends or a bigger community event. It covers both in-person and virtual formats, with tips, assets, and advice drawn from real-world experience.

🎁 Download the handbook here (or copy in Figma Community)
It’s Creative Commons licensed, remixable, and entirely free to use or adapt.

If you’re a designer — or work with them — I hope this resonates.
It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. And you’re not the only one.
We made this to help create more spaces where we can all just be human again.