An investigation into the feasibility of using virtual environments as an induction method in SHIP® therapy

Abstract

Virtual reality contributes to the successful treatment of patients by assisting those who have difficulty with the process of imagining the required visual images needed during psychotherapy. SHIP® is a form of psychotherapy that suggests that spontaneous healing is a natural tendency that emerges from within a person. It identifies certain activator images as essential pathways for accessing unconscious trauma material that needs healing. The purpose of this study is to examine whether virtual reality can be used as a medium to induce memories through the utilisation of neutral images based on the SHIP® Frame. Two groups of participants were gathered: one group underwent a traditional SHIP® session while the other group underwent the virtual induction with the aid of a head mounted display. A random clinical trial was used to determine the level of induction and identify the helpful aspects that contributed to the induction. The results indicated that virtual reality was able to assist as a cognitive stimulus as well as a cognitive proxy in the overall process of SHIP®.