Applications and Interfaces Used to Augment Therapy Practices Technology has become more prominent in everyday tasks, such as tracking our medications and measuring our food intake. In recent years, psychology has turned to using various technologies to help patients with their treatment, since only so much growth can occur within the time frame of a therapy session. This field is relatively new, and not much research has been done. However, there has been research examining how virtual reality, physiological technology, and smartphone applications could be used in treating various conditions. One study, ter Heijden and Brinkman (2011), examined how using a virtual interface that interpreted speech could help patients with social anxiety. Researchers used a “Virtual Reality exposure therapy (VRET) system” that created a space to help patients enter a social situation (ter Heijden and Brinkman, 2011). “The system was distributed over two computers; one handled the visualization of the virtual world including the avatars and all the audio input by the patient, while a second computer handled the interaction with the therapist and the reasoning logic of the dialogue” (ter Deijden and Brinkman, 2011). The way the system was set up is very similar to how a test team would function to test a prototype technology (McCracken and Wolfe, p. 141, 2004). In ter Deijden and Brinkman (2011), participants discussed one of a couple topics for each of the 4 conditions. These were picked so
Individual therapy carried out over the Internet can include asynchronous methods, such as e-mail, synchronous methods, such as web-based messaging (instant messaging), chat, videoconferencing or voice-over IP (Internet phone). Virtual reality therapy and online video game therapy are two additional emerging online modalities. Online counseling may be provided as the primary treatment modality or as an adjunct to more traditional forms of mental health treatment. There are many advantages of online counseling. First of all, it provides accessibility to individuals who are disabled or housebound. Then, it is also always affordable and convenient. Internet makes mental health information more accessible. Later, people also feel comfortable while talking to friends and family about their health care issues, but may not feel the same discussing mental health
I believe technology is an asset to society; however, overuse of it can be detrimental to our perceptions of reality. Occasionally, people cross the line in the interaction with other’s and compromise their morals and values. Interestingly, learning about how therapist’s face challenges with determining the manner in which they will interact with patients through various forms of technology while ensuring they maintain confidentiality and ethical concerns is an aspect I had not considered. The article presented compelling information on how technology impacts relationships and behaviors which will continue to evolve as advancements
The fear of heights can sometimes leave people frozen in terror. There is large amount of evidence suggesting that virtual reality therapy has successfully helped alleviate conditions similar to PTSD. This is accomplished by slowly increasing the amount of stressors, as to not overload the patient with irrational fear. For example, with fear of heights, researchers can gradually increase the difficulty of the simulation, so that the height of the platform increases after every session. In a similar case study, 49 patients had volunteered to participate in a virtual reality treatment for their fear of flying. Results showed, “By the 6-month follow-up, 90% of treated participants had flown since completing treatment” (Anderson 2001). Effectiveness also hugely depends on plausibility and affordability. We need to consider if this treatment is convenient for
The examples support the idea that VR is effective because it reliably gives the user the illusion of control. The writers responsible for this paper wanted to take that idea and push it to the limit. They believed that true effectiveness of virtual reality depended in part on the perception in our minds of what our actions are in direct comparison to how true the actions or movements in the VR scenario. The less cognitive dissonance between the users intended actions and the simulated actions, the more effective the simulation was in accomplishing whatever it was set to do. The researchers wanted to test dissonance in their experiment and see the outcome of how effective the virtual reality was.
By using virtual reality, VA researches can recreate a PTSD suffers traumatic memories and develop treatment based on actual experiences. Chris Crowe, PhD, a researcher and psychologist with the Atlanta VA Medical Center is enthusiastic about the process and states "We believe this has very exciting potential to treat people very quickly and in a way that makes them less vulnerable to relapse,"(VA outlines PTSD research, 2010) These types of research studies are providing veterans with a better quality of life and allotting the time researchers need for long term
Goss S., & Anthony, K. (2009). Developments in the use of technology in counselling and psychother
With the world moving as fast a bullet train and instant gratification is in demand, the world of therapy is rapidly changing. Technology is a nuisance to older generations but to today’s generation it is the only way to function. The therapy world’s focus has always been about achieving the greatest amount of functioning, but how does that relate to providing treatment across all ages? The answer comes in many forms in relation to how to better service clients through the use of technology directly and indirectly.
All information within the article is considered appropriate because all information is cited and factual in American Psychological Association format. The overall article is organized in paragraph structure with proper headings and allows for clear and organized reading. The article begins by summarizing what the article hopes to accomplish which is “the purpose of the present article is to define mHealth within clinical psychology, provide a review and discussion of the functionality of mHealth devices, current trends within the field of psychological mHealth, the challenges faced by researchers and clinicians in this field, and examine directions for future research.” The article ends by summarizing the information written in the article by having a conclusion. The structure is clear enough that the reader can understand the meaning of the article which is to highlight how technology, specifically smart phones can affect mental health treatments. The author marks the structure by using headings such as “Advantages of mHealth Technology” and “Mobile Phones for EMA”. This helps organize the article and helps the overall effect of the article on the reader. The authors, Clough and Casey make the structure by using headings for each section, which allows the reader to clearly follow the information in the
Botella et al. (2010) evaluated the efficacy of VR apparatus called Emma’s world. Emma’s world consisted of a large screen projector which included virtual objects, music, sounds, images, colors, videos and texts designed to represent various traumatic events. The control condition included in-vivo and imaginal
Though putting a mentally ill person in a controlled environment, where scientists can observe he or she, while they put the patient through some sort of exercise, Doctors can receive a better understanding on how to treat the patient. Sometime the Virtual Reality experience is the treatment itself. When someone, like a veteran, has PTSD, for example, he or she can be treated with virtual reality experiences of certain memories, helping them emotionally overcome the traumatic experience. Also, V.R. technology can help social disorders by merging them into social settings that are not threatening to the person with the disorder, thus, helping make him or her to become more social. Last, a more sensitive subject, V.R. can help people overcome his or her fears by, again, showing their fears in a different way to make the fear less frightening. For example, if a person has a fear of spiders, he or she could be put into a situation that teaches his or her brain that spiders are not something to be feared, maybe be put into the spider's point of view to get a sense of what it is like to be a spider. However, Marshall talks about how some people say that it could also be used for torture, perhaps, V.R.could be used to expose terrifying scenes (like death or
“Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), specifically exposure therapy, has garnered a great deal of empirical support in the literature for the treatment of anxiety disorders” (Gerardi et al., 2010). Exposure therapy is an established PTSD treatment (Chambless & Ollendick, 2001) and so is a benchmark for comparing other therapies (Taylor et al, 2003). “Exposure therapy typically involves the patient repeatedly confronting the feared stimulus in a graded manner, either in imagination or in vivo. Emotional processing is an essential component of exposure therapy” (Gerardi et al., 2010). “Exposure therapy in the virtual environment allows the participant to experience a sense of presence in an immersive, computer-generated, three-dimensional,
The article on “Comparison on prolonged exposure” fits into the bigger picture of clinical practice in a big way, it seems that now days everything including therapy is moving towards technology whether it be video teleconferencing therapy or app related therapy we as clinicians are moving to another faze in therapy and this article just explored several apps that are related to clinical therapy that can be done alone or in conjunction with face to face
Telepsychology is a relatively new development within the field of mental health service. The American Psychological Association defines it as the “provision of psychological services using telecommunication technologies. . . Telecommunication technologies include but are not limited to telephone, mobile devices, interactive videoconferencing, email, chat, text, and Internet (e.g., self-help websites, blogs, and social media).”(2016). Within the general category of telepsychology, psychological services that are delivered via the internet are referred to as “e-therapy”, “itherapy”, “cybertherapy”, and other similar names. E-therapy is a natural extension of our technological advancement, the growth of psychology as a field, and our ever increasing
Online therapy has emerged as a viable new option in the helping profession. Online therapy or e-therapy occurs when a therapist provides therapy and support over the Internet. E-mail, chat, video, or smart phone are all ways individuals can communicate through online therapy. Online therapy websites are abounding on the Internet, any individual seeking online therapy will surely find what they are looking for. This paper will evaluate and explain the content from
The digital age has brought about many changes in the way we conduct business, education, entertainment and mental health. The trend to incorporate technology into our mental health programs, while in its infancy, continues to grow in popularity and use by both educational and private mental health providers. There has been a great deal of discussion on the methods, ethics, problems and benefits of this new technology, however little research has been done on the effectiveness of this method of counseling on clients.