Virtual Reality and Psychotherapy: these are its qualities

In recent years we have experienced a great advance in new technologies. This development has seen its influence in all the areas that we know: communication, leisure, marketing, commerce... So, without a doubt, it has implied a modification of all areas of our daily lives, from the way we communicate with the rest of the world, to the way we have fun, work or study.

Thus, it is clear that this type of development could reach other areas, such as medicine or psychology. And so it has been. In this way, technology has been gradually introduced into psychotherapy.

• Related article: "Types of psychological therapies"

Virtual Reality applied to therapy

From the use of new technologies to help the patient carry out tasks (such as sending useful multimedia files) or carrying out their own psychotherapy online.

However, technology can do much more. Current psychotherapy is already using innovative methodologies such as Virtual Reality Therapy. This consists of the use of helmet-shaped glasses with lenses that allow the visualization of images. These glasses incorporate position trackers that make it possible to detect head movements and thus present different images based on them.

All this is complemented with the use of headphones, which allows to create a greater sense of immersion and, therefore, of presence. In this way, the user replaces the present physical reality with a virtual environment.

Thus, thanks to this sense of presence and interaction, this technology is capable of creating a virtual experience (environment created by computer) that induces in people cognitive and emotional responses similar to those that would occur in the real world in the same environment. For this reason, virtual reality is already being used to treat various problems, mainly: phobias, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Eating Disorders, depression and addictions. In addition, it is useful for training some techniques, such as relaxation or meditation.

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Benefits of using Virtual Reality in Psychotherapy

The use of Virtual Reality in psychotherapy can present many advantages that, until now, were difficult to achieve from traditional psychotherapy. Some of them are:

1. Increase accessibility

In some cases, such as phobias, live exposure was hard to come by or not available. Traditional psychotherapy lessened this drawback with the use of imaginative exposure.

However, on some occasions it was really costly for the patient to achieve a high level of imagination of the desired situation. Thanks to the creation of virtual environments, it is possible to immerse oneself in the specific situations that are needed.

2. Possibility of repetition

Thanks to the fact that these environments are generated in a virtual way, it is possible to relive them as many times necessary, as well as introducing different events or variables depending on the moment of the treatment.

3. Facilitates treatment customization

Beyond accessibility, it is important that the exhibition is adapted to each particular problem. Managing 360º videos of a real patient situation can be useful for exposure.

• Related article: "Intervention in phobias: the exposure technique"

4. Allows complete control of each event

That is, the psychologist has the advantage of having controlled each of the possible virtual events that can be introduced during the moment of exposure, unlike exposure in imagination, where it is almost impossible to be in control of every detail imagined.

5. Promotes an active role in the patient regarding their health

This advantage can be favored thanks to the 360º video recording that the user himself can do in his daily environment.

Is about a safe environment where nothing dangerous related to the problem actually occurs (as it could be that the plane collides with a building) and that it maintains confidentiality by not being necessary that no other real person, except the professional, is present at the time of the exhibition or training.

6. Reduces treatment costs

It is just as it happens in the accompaniment of the psychotherapist to the real situation.

7. Improves acceptance of treatment

In some cases, traditional psychotherapy may be rejected by the patient. However, computer-directed treatment facilitates the initiation of treatment as it is in a simulated environment.