As part of my work as a chartered clinical psychologist, Virtual Reality (VR) Therapy has become a powerful tool that I frequently use to help clients with some mental health difficulties. Based on over 25 years of scientific study, VR therapy allows mental health professionals to reproduce real-life scenarios to suit client-specific needs and identify/evaluate an individual’s anxieties within the safety of a consultation room.
This process of gradual exposure, during which anxiety levels can be monitored, enables me to give clients a personalized roadmap for regulating the impact anxiety has on their life.
The techniques used in VR therapy are extremely compatible with exposure therapy, which is highly effective in treating anxiety. Given that people with anxiety and other complex mental health issues hold high levels of fear responses in their bodies, VR therapy works to activate and modify these impulses through a mixture of gradual exposure and presenting new affirmative information in order to facilitate emotional processing.
As I have seen personally, VR has a powerful real-life impact. This personalized form of exposure therapy is geared towards working with you at the source of your distress in a safe, monitored environment, providing the ideal conditions for you to increase emotional wellbeing, face your fears, practice difficult conversations, and overcome the challenges you are facing under the guidance of an empathetic professional. I will be with you every step of the way as you work towards reducing your anxiety levels.