This VR therapist helps people overcome their fear of heights

A fear of heights is one of the most common phobias. One in five people experience a fear of heights at some point in their lives, and for one in 20, this is a clinical phobia.

Dr. Daniel Freeman is a professor of clinical psychology and has been working on the integration of VR for therapeutic purposes since 2001, when he began to research whether VR could be useful in the treatment of paranoia.

Now he has developed a VR exposure therapy program with Oxford VR, a spin-off company from Oxford University. It is primarily funded by OSI, which specializes in scaling up the ideas of the university. Significantly, the program uses a fully automated virtual therapist, named Nic (which means "Now I can") who can guide people through the program and tailor the user's experience accordingly.

The program takes place in a large atrium that looks like a shopping center. Users are invited to perform a series of increasingly difficult tasks to help them deal with their fear by gradually climbing the ten floors of the building. Nic is equipped with voice recognition so that she can ask users if they feel comfortable riding a floor, or if they would like to repeat a task. It can also assess the level of fear of people as they go, asking them on a scale of zero to ten how scared they feel.

The virtual atrium is a distinctly surreal environment; colorful balls float toward the ceiling, and a huge aerial whale hovers in the air. According to Dr. Freeman, these fantastic elements act as "height reminders", making sure to bring the symptoms normally experienced by people with dizziness when they are in a high place. More at the end of treatment, if they wish, users can board the whale.

The tasks themselves are also designed to be bizarre and fun. Users are invited to save a cat from a tree, or play xylophone at the edge of a bridge, or choose virtual apples from a tree.

According to Dr. Freeman, the playfulness of the world of virtual reality contributes to its effectiveness. "You do things you would not do in real life," he told Business Insider. "So when you go to a much more normal experience in real life, you feel better around it."

VR teaches the conscious and unconscious brain

The virtual reality environment reassures people that they're not actually in danger, but that's enough to trigger the symptoms of their phobia.

"One of the beauties of [VR] is this disconnect between your head that says" It's good, there's no height here "and your body tells you that There is one, and this disconnection allows you to do things – allows you to laugh at certain things, "said Dr. Freeman.

Participant Cathy Henderson, 51, was afraid of heights since she was a child. "It was hard to start, thinking" It 's ridiculous "because I know it' s virtual reality and nothing can really happen to me, but that 's not the case. is amazing to see how your emotions take over, "she said.

Dr. Freeman believes that this strange gap between participants who are aware of the simulation and who feel the symptoms as if the environment is real, allows the VR program to reform the behavior of people both conscious and subconscious.

"A lot of the treatment of our brain is unconscious and automatic, especially what you have to do here, it's the amygdala shots, something you can not control. " .

"You have your frontal lobes, your executive control that tells you consciously that there is no danger and that, over time, can calm your amygdala, the center of the body. Anxiety, a lot more subconscious and automatic, and it pulls And what we do, is to recycle your centers of fear to form new memories to counter all the old ones.

He also believes that people are more prone to doing VR therapy, as opposed to a real exposure therapy that involves confronting one's fears in the real world with the presence of a therapist. "The beauty of virtual reality in any this is that people know that this is not real, and therefore they are much more likely to try something, "he said.He believes this translates into a higher initial commitment and less drop out as therapy continues.

Henderson said that & # 3 9, she was happy to try VR therapy because she was unobtrusive, and that the program helped her manage her fear response in real life. "My attitude has changed with the RV and the sessions that they have done, you learn to stay with and pass the emotion, and that 's what I' ve done. I learned. cliff or whatever, the easiest, and if you step back, you will never overcome that fear. "

The first clinical trial for Dr. Freeman's automated VR therapy, published in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday, appears to be optimistic.On average, participants had a clinical phobia of heights for about 30 years, and those who were assigned to VR therapy spent about two hours in the virtual world in five sessions.The participants wore a HTC Vive headset that ran the program.All participants said they felt decreased fear they felt in the heights, the average perceived reduction being 68%.

Jane Tappuni, a 47-year-old consultant with two children, took part in the trial after her children were Have persuaded them to try it.

Unusually for most participants, Tappuni did not develop fear of heights until she was around 40 years old. She found the first session in the RV extremely terrifying, but after only one or two sessions she began to notice that she was feeling better around the heights. "I would not say that I am completely healed, but I'm sort of 75% better than I was," she said.

"I feel completely different in terms of heights, I can go on a balcony, I can go to a shopping center, I can use very long escalators as [London underground station] Holborn where I work, I I was not able to use the escalator, I had to go to another subway stop.

At the end of the treatment, Tappuni was riding the huge floating whale and taking advantage of it, even after leaving to drop the kitten that she was supposed to save five floors.

Oxford VR

Should therapists be concerned that Nic is replacing them?

Dr. Freeman anticipates some resistance to the program. "What people can feel is that we're trying to replace the therapists, which is absolutely not the case, it's not a zero sum game at all, I'm a great advocate of increasing the number of qualified therapists. I think you need qualified therapists for particularly complex problems, especially in times of crisis, "he said.

However, he points out that for the moment the demand exceeds the supply in terms of therapeutic hours, and he therefore hopes that the introduction of VR headset in clinics could make the people much more accessible to psychological treatments.

"Basically, you also have to remember that some people really do not want to see a therapist," he said. "We should not just rely on a therapist model, there are other ways to do it, and you really need a range of options, and this should be part of it." . "

Dr. Freeman stated that he hoped for the future of VR therapy and his automated therapist Nic. "Nic is going to be very, very busy over the next few years, I hope."