Virtual Reality (VR) Therapy at a Glance

At HealthQuest, VR therapy isn’t just a trend, it’s one one our four landmark approaches!

In the last 8 years, I (like a handful of others) have passionately pursed the evidence-based use of Virtual reality (VR) technology to improve the efficacy of psycheducation and therapy, published in academic journals and books like Dr. Jessica Stone’s Play Therapy and Telemental Health (Kelly, 2022). Such therapies have been increasingly utilized in psychological research in recent years. The ability to immerse individuals in realistic simulations of real-world environments and experiences has opened up new opportunities for studying a wide range of psychological phenomena. Although I will be running a series of related blogs on the matter, here are some top five ways that VR is being used in psychological research at a glance:

1. Exposure therapy: VR technology is being used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias. By exposing individuals to virtual simulations of traumatic or feared situations, researchers can help them learn to cope with and overcome their fears.

2. Social psychology: VR technology is being used to study social interactions and behaviors. Researchers can create virtual environments where individuals can interact with virtual avatars, allowing them to study phenomena such as social influence, communication, and aggression in a controlled and realistic setting.

3. Cognitive psychology: VR technology is being used to study cognitive processes such as perception, memory, and decision-making. Researchers can create virtual environments that simulate real-world settings and manipulate various factors to study how they affect cognitive function.

4. Rehabilitation: VR technology is being used to help individuals recover from physical and cognitive injuries. For example, VR can be used to help stroke patients regain motor function, or to help individuals with brain injuries improve their memory and attention.

5. Addiction: VR technology is being used to study the neural mechanisms underlying addiction and to develop new treatments for addiction. Researchers can use VR to simulate drug-related environments, allowing them to study the neural and psychological processes that lead to addiction and to test new interventions to prevent and treat it.

VR therapy is an exciting endeavor. The technology provides a powerful tool for psychological research by allowing researchers and therapists to create realistic simulations of real-world environments and experiences in session or a controlled laboratory setting. As the technology continues to evolve, the potential applications for VR in psychological research will likely grow, helping researchers to better understand and treat a wide range of mental health conditions.

It is worth mentioning that the above uses of VR are in early stages and more research is needed to establish the efficacy and generalizability of the findings to all populations; however, the potential is huge!