Rogers pilots virtual reality for exposure therapy, mindfulness
Step into a world of innovative mental health treatment, where virtual reality brings real results.
Rogers Research Center, located at the main headquarters of Rogers Behavioral Health in Oconomowoc, is piloting virtual reality’s usefulness in helping in two areas: mindfulness and exposure therapy..
“Virtual reality can provide a new dimension of resources for our therapists and clinicians, allowing them to offer more personalized treatment to our patients in an efficient manner,” says Heather Jones, PhD, Chief Clinical Services. “We believe that can contribute to faster sustainable recovery.”
Watch the video above and read on to learn more.
Making mindfulness a reality
An expanding body of research already links mindfulness to positive psychological effects, including improving one’s sense of well-being. Mindfulness, which can be thought of as nonjudgmentally observing one’s experience, is a core component of therapies including Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT. While simple enough to train, mindfulness is often difficult to put into practice.
Virtual reality may help cut down on some of the noise inside busy minds, encouraging practice with minimal distraction.
“For many of our patients, mindfulness is a big part of their recovery and their long-term recovery, but it’s very difficult to teach someone how to engage in mindfulness,” says Kelly Piacsek, PhD, executive vice president of the Rogers Research Center. “Using virtual reality really helps us immerse someone in an environment that is peaceful, where they can focus on very specific things that are moving in that frame of view.”
A new frame of mind can reveal a powerful new perspective. Rogers researchers are exploring how patients at Rogers’ Nashotah Center for DBT engage with Liminal VR™ experiences, designed by neuroscientists and psychologists to promote feelings of calm and well-being, and the potential impact on mindfulness. Dr. Piacsek says she has gotten great feedback on the VR experiences from the teenage girls in the program, who are working to manage their emotions, including one who broke down in tears saying she had never truly experienced mindfulness before.
“I think it was an appreciation for being able to just disconnect from the distractions and things around her and focus on something very specific. and understand that she really could be present in that moment,” Dr. Piacsek says. “That was a pivotal point in her care recovery journey.”
Virtual reality making the impossible possible
Recovery journeys often require overcoming challenges. As a second pilot, Rogers is also examining virtual reality as a tool to promote exposure therapy for patients in treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder and eating disorders, helping them practice navigating emotionally demanding situations.
“Often, the things that patients want or need to be exposed to are things that are outside of the treatment environment and maybe something out in the community, in a store, or at an airport, or things where crowds may be present or where certain circumstances may be triggers for them,” Dr. Piacsek says.
But with virtual reality, the possibilities are virtually endless.
As part of a pilot in Silver Lake within the IOP/PHP Child and Adolescent OCD clinic, Rogers in collaborating with oVRCome, a company providing access to more than 1,000 full 360-degree exposure simulations, from scenarios in grocery stores to airplanes.
“We can really elevate some of these treatment experiences for patients while allowing them to stay in a safe, clinical environment,” Dr. Piacsek says.
Imagining a better future
With intention and care, new technology can take us to new places in mental health treatment, under the headset and beyond.
“Being able to leverage the technology but not compromising the integrity of care is a really important priority for us,” Dr. Piacsek says.
Dr. Piacsek envisions a promising future with generative AI in the virtual reality space, such as the ability to recreate a patient’s house.
“The idea that we can take something from a patient’s personal environment and then create an exposure that’s really tailored to them, that is something that’s personally meaningful, will be a game changer for how we’re able to deliver care,” she says. “We don’t want to create so much synthetic experience or synthetic information, that we lose touch with reality. But we have these tools and this technology in our hands, and we can see that there’s a way to use it for our patient’s benefit and to really enhance the care that we’re delivering.”
It’s imagination turned innovation, driving mental health care forward at Rogers – always available at the intersection of hope and healing.
