VR in Your Practice
Settings
Example Settings
- Schools, after-school programs, outpatient clinics, residential programs, juvenile detention, military bases, addiction recovery programs, learning centers, continuing education centers
Individual vs Group Settings
- While InWorld can be used on a one-to-one basis for individual sessions, perhaps its greatest asset is its ability to work with groups of people to facilitate engaging and dynamic levels of interaction. Traditionally, many group sessions have been infeasible due to complexity, geography, and cost. InWorld challenges traditional group work by enabling leaders to manage highly interactive virtual groups of participants from different geographic locations.
- Benefits to conducting groups InWorld include:
– Assembly of diverse groups
– Same virtual space, different physical space
– Sense of Anonymity
– Helps stigmatized populations and encourages participation
– Increased sense of perspective through record and playback feature
– Role Play environment for recreating significant scenarios
– Safe practice ground for new skills
Sample Applications
Social skills (e.g., anger management, conflict resolution)
Refusal skills (e.g., anti-bullying, addictions and recovery, risky situations associated with sexual and substance use behavior)
Life skills (e.g., job interviews, starting and maintain conversations in social/professional settings; diet, nutrition & exercise)
Social reintegration (e.g., long-term hospital patients, wounded warriors home from deployment, reintegration from incarceration)
Diagnoses
InWorld has been used successfully with individuals with the following diagnoses
- Social disorders, ODD, anger mgmt, autism/Aspergers, ADHD, conduct disorder, anti-social disorder, Depression, substance abuse, couples therapy, family therapy
How it works
- Mobilizes the active participation of client – the “back seat effect”
- Avatar-based – client assumes persona to engage in therapy
- Lowers emotional barriers
- Reduces cognitive and emotional load
- Engages more parts of the brain, including the limbic system
Why it works
- Some clients feel more comfortable engaging in an avatar-based environment
- Allows for anonymity, increased focus, and depersonalization
- Reduces Stigma
- Computer based social interaction feels natural to certain individuals
- Provides experience as a means to learn, explore and deepen understanding