About
Money and the economy, despite our frequently rational discussions about them, are deeply emotional matters. It is fundamentally connected to survival, belonging and identity. I believe it should be treated as such.
‘Money Trauma’ is a newsletter exploring money culture, economics, financial systems & technology through a trauma-informed perspective. It’s my intention for it to evolve into a designer and activist’s handbook on how to consider human vulnerabilities in the products and services we build for communities we want to help and serve, and better yet - help to transform. It will also be a deep reflection on culture, organizations and systems rooted in our economy, in a way you perhaps haven’t thought about before.
About The Writer
My name is Miho Soon. I’m a product designer, former entrepreneur and researcher from Malaysia. I currently live in Berlin, Germany. I’ve built many successful design interventions in numerous fields including Web3, crisis mitigation and human rights. I have a trauma-informed care and human rights background, and spent many years working directly with migrants and refugees throughout Europe and the Middle East. I take a lot of deep inspiration for our capacity for transformation from the people I’ve worked with and befriended on that journey. Trauma is something also personally close to my heart. I’ll be sharing bits from my personal journey across this newsletter. I am also in the process of launching the Beyond Money Trauma podcast.
I started doing this research from a point of frustration that the financial tech world never considered psychological vulnerabilities when building products, similar to what the documentary The Social Dilemma discusses with how social media is designed against our psychological wellbeing. There is a trend in tech in general, alongside automation, to hand the responsibility of making beneficial decisions to end consumers, often rationalizing it with narratives such as “people should be able to make their own good decisions.” This ends badly for many people, as technology has become ever-so more powerful, and its become a vital part of the way we participate in the world and get our needs fulfilled.
What You’ll Get:
• Subjects like personal finance, financial and technological tools and organisational models explored through a trauma-informed perspective
• Interviews and research insights from trauma-informed practitioners
• Design thinking questions for technologists, businesses, organisations and community builders, anyone whose working and creating processes for people
• Frameworks for building resilience
• I will do my best to publish bi-weekly or monthly :)
First Time Readers:
TBA
My hope is that you'll come with me on this process, and that this platform becomes a participatory launchpad for even more discussions and mutual discoveries. Whether you're here because you feel a resonance with what I’m sharing, because you also think its critical to design trauma-informed interventions, or just to ask more questions - I hope you get something meaningful out of Money Trauma! :)
