Several weeks ago I was listening to Doctor Radio, a station on Sirius radio broadcasting from NYU’s Lagone Medical Center. I am fascinated by all things medical and neurological and over the years have trained in brain/body-based therapies including EMDR, Brainspotting, and Hypnosis. In fact, my first job out of graduate school in 1976 was at the then Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL., where I worked as a social worker in what was then called the Ecology Unit.

The concept of the Ecology Unit was ahead of its time and could easily have been called the “psychosomatic unit” as all the patients who were hospitalized on that unit had medical issues that could not easily be explained by medicine alone. This is when I began my interest and study of the mind-body connection and the effects of stress, long before it was in vogue.

After my experience in the Ecology Unity, I continued learning about treating issues related to stress, anxiety, and phobias and worked in another medical center, Victory Memorial Hospital, for five more years. There I became interested in the early beginnings of Biofeedback Therapy, which I used with cardiac rehab patients to teach them to learn how to lower their stress levels.

Fast forward to the present where I am now learning and experimenting with a revolutionary therapy called Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy, a type of therapy that uses similar technology to 3D virtual reality games. Although I had known about it for several years, it wasn’t until several weeks ago when I heard a doctor from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center discussing virtual reality therapy in the medical setting, that I enthusiastically started training in this modality.¹

Using this VR technology in my practice will allow clients to much more quickly face their fears and phobias and overcome them. The type of issues that can be resolved have to do with the many kinds of anxiety/phobias common in our culture including fear of heights, flying, insects, dogs, darkness, storms, public speaking, closed spaces, social situations, PTSD, needles, MRIs, dental work, test anxiety, sports, and many more.

VR Technology in Use

To closer examine how this therapy works, let’s use the fear of flying as an example.

A client comes in for therapy hoping to conquer their fear because they want to travel abroad or are dreading an upcoming trip because they have to get on a plane. As a therapist, I know that their fear of flying is not really about the flying but rather about closed spaces, being out of control, germs, or even a combination of those. But to a client, the fear relates exclusively to flying, and they may exhibit symptoms including sweating, elevated heart rate, fear of vomiting, or even a panic attack when confronted with the idea of getting on a plane.

In my experience, the best way to overcome a fear or phobia is to be exposed to it rather than using avoidant strategies, which just reinforce the fear. Unfortunately, that’s not always best; eventually, we have to confront what we’re afraid of.

Benefits of VR Technology

With traditional in-office methods, we can ask a client to visualize a scene in hypnosis or guided image and create a reaction internally and, through that exposure, work with the irrational fight/flight or freeze neurological reactions that signal danger. However, a third of people don’t do well with visualization, and even for those who do, it’s hard to approximate a realistic situation. To conquer that obstacle, the client then has to actually get on a plane and hope they can employ the coping mechanisms and strategies they learned in the office.

It’s not always the most practical solution.

However, in VR therapy, the exposure is right in the office, and the scene is close enough to reality that the client actually “feels” as if they are at the airport, getting on the plane, getting ready to take off, etc. Due to the technology, the exposure can happen safely in the office and therapeutically experienced with the help of the therapist.

This allows the client to become much more confident in dealing not only with the presenting issues but increasing an overall sense of empowerment that they are capable of taking on challenging situations and overcoming them. When we are not in an anxious, panicked, state of mind, we are much better at calmly assessing the situation rather than having a reflexive knee-jerk interpretation of the event. This gives us greater control and range of choices which in turn reduces anxiety and allows for more effective responses.

Another amazing feature of this therapy is that it can be done remotely! Imagine being in your own environment using your cell phone as the screen where the images you wish to conquer are projected, orchestrated by the therapist through the internet.

In conclusion

VR technology can help the brain reconfigure itself and rather than producing anxiety and stress when confronted with fears, it minimizes, alleviates, or even eliminates those fears. It provides a viable alternative to both visualization and having to face a fear live and in-person when circumstances might not allow for it.

While I certainly see the benefits of VR-based therapy, there is still much for me to learn including on whom it should not be used, as well as all the creative ways the technology can be used to help people overcome sometimes life-long issues.

I will be experimenting with my own self-treatment and will describe my experience to you as I face one of my fears directly. And if you have any specific issues, or you know someone who deals with some type of anxiousness or phobia, I would love to hear about it or your thoughts on how VR therapy might be able to help.

¹For those interested in learning more, I recommend a book by Brennan Spiegel MD. VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine