Virtual Reality in Psychotherapy: Review

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has recently emerged as a potentially effective way to provide general and specialty health care services, and appears poised to enter mainstream psychotherapy delivery. Because VR could be part of the future of clinical psychology, it is critical to all psychotherapists that it be defined broadly. To ensure appropriate development of VR applications, clinicians must have a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges it will provide in professional practice. This review outlines the current state of clinical research relevant to the development of virtual environments for use in psychotherapy. In particular, the paper focuses its analysis on both actual applications of VR in clinical psychology and how different clinical perspectives can use this approach to improve the process of therapeutic change.

A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Program Utilizing Virtual Reality for the Treatment of Adjustment Disorders: A Case Series

“…Incluso calificaron el tratamiento de menos aversivo después de haberlo recibido y en el seguimiento. Las ventajas de la RV para el tratamiento de los trastornos psicológicos han sido ampliamente subrayadas en otros trabajos (p.ej., Botella, Baños et al, 1998;Botella, Quero et al, 2004;Riva, 2005). En el caso específico de El Mundo de EMMA, la RV puede ayudar a lograr este objetivo mediante el uso de símbolos y cambiando el entorno en tiempo real de acuerdo a las emociones que la persona siente en cada momento.…”

Virtual Reality and Body Dissatisfaction Across the Eating Disorder’s Spectrum

“…It has proved to be an effective tool that allows for exposure, desensitisation as well as cognitive retraining [47,48]. Since it improves BI and body satisfaction when used in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy [30,39], some researchers have argued that VR should not be limited to this therapeutic approach but could also be considered beneficial in other types of psychotherapy, such as the interpersonal therapy or the psychodynamic therapy [33,47,48]. Given that VR is an experiential form of imagery that can induce emotions similar to those present in real life settings [47], it seems especially appropriate to use it in psychodynamic therapy.…”

NeuAR – A Review of the VR/AR Applications in the Neuroscience Domain

“…There is increasing interest in the use of AR/VR technology in motor and cognitive rehabilitation (Riva, 2005). The use of interactive AR/VR environments may also help the transfer of the learned skills during training.…”