Psychotherapy in a virtual world has its advantages – particularly if the real world is what you can't cope with
BY MY fourth interview, I'd developed a checklist to use before each meeting. For starters, I would make sure I had grown some hair. I'd also check that I was fully clothed - I had learned the hard way about that one. Only then would I teleport to the interview, hoping that this time my avatar wouldn't materialise in anyone's lap.
Welcome to Second Life, a virtual world with almost 20 million players globally, where the avatars - digital stand-ins for the players - create everything around them. Every cobbled street, every tree swaying in the wind, even the wind itself, is the product of someone's imagination.
For some users, though, this isn't merely a game. It is precisely this ability to construct and control a virtual environment that is creating a new branch of psychotherapy - avatar therapy - in which therapists interact with their clients avatar to avatar.
On the face of it, this might sound like a pale imitation of a real-life therapy session. Yet its proponents say avatar therapy has some unique advantages that take psychotherapy to the next level. In Second Life, therapy sessions are not confined to the therapist's virtual office; they can also involve role-play scenarios to allow the patient to practise their newly learned coping skills in virtual environments tailored to their needs. All the while the therapist gives real-time feedback, like a medically qualified Jiminy Cricket.
Launched in 2003, Second Life was one of the first virtual worlds known as massively multiplayer online games. It was designed not for fighting monsters, but for people to socialise and, increasingly, emulate real life. Musicians have concerts, artists display their work and scientists go to meetings. People work, learn and connect in these virtual worlds. So can they be used for healing too?
As a technophile, I love the idea; as a psychotherapist used to working the old-fashioned way, I had reservations. So I decided to meet some of the advocates of virtual therapy in their own domain, avatar to avatar, to see if they could address my concerns.
One of my first interviews was with Dick Dillon, a real-life psychotherapist with Preferred Family Healthcare, a Missouri-based non-profit organisation that also leads the field of virtual therapy. In Second Life, Dillon's avatar is a bald, square-jawed hunk with a passing resemblance to Bruce Willis. He took me through a typical therapy session.
Talking by voice chat or instant messaging, you and your therapist may decide it is time to revisit the site of a traumatic event - a car crash, say. But in real life it is too far away, or perhaps you don't yet feel happy driving. No problem: your therapist builds, or "rezzes", the scene in a matter of minutes. Soon you are driving on a familiar road, with a steep bend similar to the one that you lost control on in the rain. As you approach the turn, your anxiety increases and your breaths become faster.
The therapist coaches you, reminding you of symptom-management techniques. If it all becomes too much, they zap you instantly back into the office.
According to Dillon, this set-up lets the therapist give real-time feedback while providing an experience that feels genuine, yet takes place in the safe environment of a simulation. The emotions are real. The rewards are real. Only the location is fake.
The emotions are real. The rewards are real. Only the location is fake"When the brain sees a 3D object in real life it converts it to a 2D object in the visual cortex," says Jeremy Bailenson, head of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University in California. Perhaps that's why a virtual scene can still provoke a strong psychological reaction, he says.
Phobia exposure
One of the first applications of avatar therapy was in treating social anxiety disorder, a crippling shyness that can confine people to their homes. James Herbert, head of the anxiety treatment and research programme at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was among the first wave of researchers to investigate avatar therapy. Encouragingly, clients generally rated the treatment highly, though there were exceptions. "Some patients and therapists reported frustration with not being able to see the individual's face," he says, and sometimes technical difficulties interrupted the sessions.
Avatar therapy has also helped people with phobias. In real life, the usual treatment is to gradually expose people to the source of their fear, but this can sometimes be difficult. An avatar therapist can introduce the phobia source while remaining in complete control, scaling the experience up or down according to the client's reaction.
In fact, many of the conditions treated by face-to-face talk therapy can also be treated virtually, including depression and anxiety. Avatar therapy is proving useful for more diverse conditions too, such as traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia and Asperger's syndrome. So far studies have shown similar success rates to traditional therapy for social anxiety (Cyberpsychology & Behavior, vol 8, p 76) and post-traumatic stress disorder (Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, vol 13, p 3). Dillon's team will soon publish a study showing its effectiveness in drug and alcohol addiction.
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Count Me In. . . World.
Sat Sep 25 03:33:52 BST 2010 by Rick Schettino
http://futuretimes.netI really can't wait to see where all this is going. virtual worlds have not caught on as fast as I thought they would, but it's great for this kind of stuff. I'm a life coach and coach for people who want to be self-employed and I can certainly think of creative ways to incorporate SL into a session and I expect to be offering lectures in Second Life some day. Perhaps when I can get it on an iPad with a cam
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Interesting concept, may allow for 'conversations' that would not otherwise take place face to face. Cannot see this working for physical therapy....virtual massage & manipulation..mmm
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