A new era begins in psychotherapy. For the first time in Turkey, the thought structures that lead to anxiety disorders and phobias are corrected with the help of biofeedback and virtual reality. With virtual reality, stimuli that cause anxiety in the outside world are brought into the therapy room. Changes in the person's brain, respiration, body temperature and muscle movements are monitored moment by moment, enabling the person to cope with their fears, anxieties and obsessions.
We work on desensitization in imagination
Stating that successful results were obtained with the virtual reality method, Expert Clinical Psychologist Çiğdem Demirsoy from NPISTANBUL Hospital stated that in order to effectively treat anxiety and fear, only talking or desensitization studies in imagination are not enough and gave the following information about virtual reality:
"Cognitive behavioral therapies are effective in the treatment of anxiety, fear and especially phobias. With psychotherapy, we not only treat the person by talking to them, but we also benefit from the possibilities provided by technology. In the therapy of anxiety disorders and phobias; the thoughts and images that cause this in the person are revealed and gradual desensitization studies are carried out on them. In order for the anxiety and fear to disappear completely, the person must encounter the situation that causes anxiety and fear. Until now, we have been doing desensitization work on these in the imagination, but in fact, for the fear and anxiety to completely disappear, the person needs to be exposed to that stimulus or that situation, that is, when the person experiences that situation in real life, they learn how to deal with it. For example, there are many different methods and techniques on how to recognize one's erroneous thoughts about the fear of dogs, how to recognize the emotions that accompany it and how to change them. You do this in the session room, but in real life they cannot experience the comfort they experience in the session room. Virtual reality allows the person to experience that reality. The person experiences this reality in three dimensions."
Learning how to cope in real life
This method provides a situation that we can control because the person manages to control their anxiety in the presence of the therapist, but in real life, they do not know what they will experience when they encounter real stimuli, so their avoidance-avoidance behaviors continue. Because it is human nature to run away from situations that make them uncomfortable, it is a natural human reaction. The person can only move forward when they feel safe. Thanks to this method, we enable the person to approach the frightening situation in a safer way under the guidance of the therapist.
Anxiety-inducing stimuli are moved to the therapy room
The virtual reality method provides ease of application. In the conditions of a city like Istanbul, it is not possible to ride the subway, take the elevator, board an airplane or be with our client all the time. Therefore, with the virtual reality application, we carry the stimuli that cause anxiety in the outside world to the therapy room and ensure the most appropriate exposure to the original.
Therefore, virtual reality application is a method that supports psychotherapy and makes the person more ready for the last point before recovery. Because when the person is able to experience the situation that gives them anxiety and fear in a virtual reality environment, they take another step forward. When a person is in a state of anxiety, when he/she is exposed to a situation that causes anxiety, anxiety increases in the person and he/she avoids situations that cause anxiety, and as he/she avoids, he/she ensures that the anxiety continues. In order for this situation to disappear, the person needs to stay there for a while. This is what virtual reality provides.
It is applied together with biofeedback
Virtual reality application is applied together with biofeedback. Sometimes people say they are scared, but their anxiety level is not very high, but it feels very high to the person. Or vice versa, they say they are not afraid, but in fact their anxiety level is elevated and they are in physiological arousal. Biofeedback also shows us concrete scales of this. Thus, while the person is experiencing some virtual reality with virtual reality goggles, we watch what he sees on the screen and how he reacts physiologically to what he sees. Thus, we ensure that he/she is exposed by giving directions in such a way that he/she remains in maximum anxiety. As the person is exposed, after a while, the event we call extinction occurs and the emotion begins to decrease.
The biofeedback method was already in use before the virtual reality application. With biofeedback, we were teaching the person to recognize and manage their own internal processes. While doing this, we were making the person experience the disturbing situation in the image. We were doing desensitization studies in fear, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, but since we could not get into the person's thoughts, there could be escapes in thoughts. Just like escaping from taking the subway or an airplane, there are also escapes in thinking. We cannot control the escapes in thinking. Thanks to the virtual reality application, we enable the person to fully visualize."
We monitor changes in the person's physiology
Stating that they are the team that brought and used the biofeedback application to our country many years ago, Specialist Clinical Psychologist Çiğdem Demirsoy explained this application as follows:
"We connect some sensors to the person. The computer embodies the changes in the person's physiology and brings them to the computer screen as visual and auditory signals. We can work on two types of systems: Autonomic nervous system and central nervous system. When we say the central nervous system, we attach some electrodes to the person's head and direct the activity of brain waves, EEG signals and visual and auditory signals to the computer. We can also monitor changes in the autonomic nervous system such as respiration, skin resistance, skin temperature and heart rhythm through a number of sensors on the screen. When we show the changes in the biological functioning of the person back to the person as feedback, the system uses it in its own regulation. Under the guidance of the therapist, people learn to recognize and control the connection between mind and body in a short time."
How is virtual reality applied?
Specialist Clinical Psychologist Çiğdem Demirsoy said the following about the application of the virtual reality method: "The person wears a pair of glasses. The person can experience himself/herself in a three-dimensional environment. The therapist observes what the person sees at that moment on the computer screen in two dimensions. By monitoring the signals from the biofeedback, we can track the increases and decreases in anxiety and guide the patient accordingly."