Student Article
Confronting Trauma With Virtual Reality Therapy
Virtual reality (noun): A computer-made world that feels real.
Soldier (noun): A person who fights in a war.
Therapy (noun): Treatment to help someone feel better.
Virtual reality is helping people who have been through scary experiences.
A high-tech tool for the mind
Virtual reality (VR) is a special kind of technology that lets people feel like they are in a different place. This can be very helpful for people who have been through scary experiences, like soldiers who have fought in wars. These soldiers sometimes have something called PTSD, which makes them feel very scared or upset when they remember what happened to them.
Meet Bravemind: VR for healing
A new kind of therapy called Bravemind uses VR to help these soldiers. In Bravemind, soldiers can go into a VR world that looks like the place where their scary experience happened. They can see, hear, and even smell things that remind them of their experience. This helps them talk about what happened and feel less scared over time.
A safe way to face fears
The therapy is done with a doctor who can change each VR world to make it just right for each soldier. This way, the soldiers can face their fears in a safe place and start to feel better.
© Rob Banino / Our Media
Virtual reality (noun): A computer-made world that feels real.
Soldier (noun): A person who fights in a war.
Therapy (noun): Treatment to help someone feel better.