Acrophobia treatment with virtual reality assisted acceptance and commitment therapy: case reports
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Kare Publishing in Dusunen Adam the Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences
- Vol. 33 (3), 317-324
- https://doi.org/10.14744/dajpns.2020.00097
Abstract
Exposure has an essential place in the treatment of acrophobia and technology may increase the success of exposure therapies in many ways. We predicted that the integration of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Virtual Reality (VR) technology would be beneficial in the treatment of acrophobia and would improve clients' compliance with therapy. This report presents two examples of VR assisted ACT treatment for acrophobia. The process consists of six sessions (one initial interview and five sessions of interventions) for individual therapy. In the first two sessions, functional behavioral analysis and case formulation performed with clients and skills taught to use during exposure sessions. From the second session, VR assisted exposure interventions began to apply with ACT principles. Results showed an expressive improvement for both of the clients. Both clients could complete the virtual behavioral approach task at the end of the treatment, present decreased avoidance strategies and increased value-based behaviors. VR assisted ACT is promising, especially to facilitate exposure treatments. Maruz bırakma, akrofobinin (yükseklik fobisi) tedavisinde önemli bir yere sahip olmakla birlikte gelişen teknolojinin kullanımı maruz bırakma terapilerinin başarısını birçok şekilde etkileyebilir. Kabul ve Kararlılık Terapisinin (KKT) Sanal Gerçeklik (SG) teknolojisi ile entegrasyonunun faydalı olacağını ve danışanların terapi uyumunu artıracağını öngördüğümüz bu çalışma; akrofobide SG destekli KKT tedavisinin iki örneğini içermektedir. Terapi, altı bireysel terapi seansından (birisi tanışma, diğer beşi müdahale olmak üzere) oluşmaktadır. İlk iki seansta danışanın işlevsel davranış analizi ve vaka formulasyonu yapılmış ve maruz bırakma süresince kullanacağı beceriler öğretilmiştir. İkinci seanstan itibaren, SG destekli maruz bırakma prosedürü, KKT prensiplerine bağlı olarak uygulanmıştır. Sonuçta her iki danışanda da kaçınmanın azaldığı ve değerler doğrultusunda gönüllü davranışların arttığını gösteren anlamlı gelişme kaydedilmiş ve her iki danışan da terapi sonunda Sanal Gözlükle Davranışsal Yaklaşım Testini (SG-DYA) tamamlamıştır. SG destekli KKT, özellikle maruz bırakma terapilerinin yürütülmesini kolaylaştırmak için umut vadetmektedir.Keywords
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