The 6 advantages of Virtual Reality therapy

These are the benefits and advantages associated with the use of Virtual Reality in psychotherapy.

The techniques and strategies used in psychotherapy to help patients have evolved over the decades. over the decades.

Part of this phenomenon is due to the scientific research carried out during this time, which has been shedding light on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of different ways of treating patients; but it is also simply due to the fact that the development of new technologies has made it possible to create therapeutic resources that were inconceivable until not so long ago.

The case of Virtual Reality used in psychotherapy is a case in point.Today, it is possible to take advantage of information technology to generate therapeutic "training environments" that do not exist in the real world, but only in the digital world. Here we will see what are the main advantages of this form of psychological intervention.

What is Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality is a technological resource developed to generate digital environments with real appearance.and can be used for a Wide range of purposes. For example, it is used in leisure products such as video games, as well as in training programs, or in the case that concerns us here, psychological therapy, among other modes of use.

Thus, Virtual Reality makes it possible to Virtual Reality makes it possible to take advantage of the potential of the new technologies to design fictitious but very realistic placesThe new technologies can be used to design fictitious but very realistic places, without the restrictions imposed by the economy (i.e., without the need to build these environments with physical material) and by the laws of nature. This means that Virtual Reality makes it possible to generate events, objects and beings that cannot occur in the real world; however, in many cases the aim is precisely the opposite, to develop situations that are very similar to what could happen to us on the actual Planet Earth.

On the other hand, Virtual Reality is usually associated with complementary materials that facilitate immersion in these fictitious worlds, the most popular being Virtual Reality glasses. These are used so that the entire field of vision of the person using this technology is occupied by what happens in this artificially designed scenario, so that the stimuli belonging to the real world are forgotten.

What are the advantages of Virtual Reality applied to psychotherapy?

As we have seen, Virtual Reality is not a technology created per se to help problems with psychological problems; however, precisely because it is very adaptable and is not limited to a single type of objective, it is the basis from which resources are developed that are designed for psychotherapy.

That is why Virtual Reality is being used to develop tools designed to treat patients tools designed to treat patients, especially in relation to the management of emotions and the treatment of anxiety problems.. In such cases, three-dimensional and very realistic virtual environments are designed through which the user can move and interact with the elements, whether they are stimuli that trigger phobic reactions, work-related situations that produce stress, places that induce a state of relaxation, etc.

Below you can see a summary of the main advantages it offers in the field of psychotherapy.

It adapts to various types of psychological problems.

As Virtual Reality is a very adaptable digital environment in terms of what it allows to recreate and program, its use does not have to be limited to the treatment of very specific psychopathologies. With relatively little effort it is possible to create resources for a wide variety of problems.and even recycle some of the material for many types of patients.

2. Allows you to create not only environments, but also complete situations.

Virtual Reality is not limited to generating environments understood as static places that exist within a software: it also includes events, sequences of actions, and so on. performed by the artificial entities in those locations (e.g., the flight crew of an airplane) or that are triggered when the user performs certain actions.

3. Offers more privacy than live exposure

Since Virtual Reality can be used without leaving a room, it offers more privacy than other modalities, it offers more privacy than other intervention modalities in which it is necessary to go to places where the real stimulus is present, to which the patient must learn to respond. before which the patient must learn to manage his or her emotions, and which in many cases usually consist of public spaces in view of other people.

4. Gives much greater control over the variables

In procedures based on exposure to real environments, it is impossible to control everything.. However, in Virtual Reality it is very easy to control relevant variables such as climate, luminosity, noise, size of the stimulus to be exposed to, etc.

5. Allows the creation of a difficulty scale

This is one of the advantages of Virtual Reality-based therapy that are associated with the previous point, i.e., the control of variables. Thanks to the fact that everything in this environment can be adjusted to a given purpose, it is very easy to generate situations adapted to the degree of progress of the userThe user can be given the opportunity to face challenging activities that do not exceed his capabilities or lead him to get discouraged and throw in the towel.

6. It is associated with a lower cost

Compared to the use of elements of real-world environments, Virtual Reality involves lower costs: no need to travel, no need to have co-therapists to help, no need to buy or rent specific physical elements for this intervention, etc. specific physical elements for this intervention, etc.

Bibliographical references:

• Maples-Keller, J.L.; Bunnell, B.E.; Kim, S.J.; Rothbaum, B.O. (2018). The use of virtual reality technology in the treatment of anxiety and other psychiatric disorders. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 25(3): 103 - 113.
• North. M.M.; North, S.M.; Coble, J.R. (1997). Virtual reality therapy: an effective treatment for psychological disorders. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 44: pp. 59 - 70.
• Park, M.J.; Kim, D.J.; Lee, U. Na, E.J.; Jeon, H.J. (2019). A Literature Overview of Virtual Reality (VR) in Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: Recent Advances and Limitations, Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10: 505.