How Body-Based Therapies Alleviate Stress and Anxiety
“Therapies like CBT and traditional psychotherapy are called “top-down” therapies. They focus on thoughts, emotions, and abstract ideas generally associated with language and the brain. However, the body has its own language: you feel different in a hot shower or in a tub of freezing cold water. The body also feels different in an open versus a closed space. The body can feel entirely different when submerged in the memory of pain versus being in the “here and now.” Embodied therapies, also called “bottom-up” therapies, take advantage of changing the body’s relationship with space, and in so doing, changing how we feel. Expansive postures, the direction of gaze, the direction of movement, and respiratory patterns are all part of embodied therapies.
When you are watching a video or immersed in virtual reality, you take in the environment in front of you. In the case of virtual reality, you feel like your entire body is immersed in that scene. Depending on the environment in which your body is immersed, your thinking will change accordingly. Calming immersion in stress-reducing environments such as nature may trigger physiologic changes, such as changes in glucose, cortisol, the immune system, and the gut. Also, the entire body is represented in the brain and connects with it, so changes in the body are intimately connected with changes in the brain. VR offers an immersion experience. In so doing, it offers the experience of changing multiple physiological and organ systems to help alleviate stress and anxiety.
Summary
The specific and special impact of video and virtual reality is that they offer the opportunity for “internalizing” and “whole body” interventions that impact multiple physiological systems, helping us address stress and anxiety in entirely different ways.”
Read the whole article at Psychology Today.
#Therapy #Stress #Anxiety
💬 Have you ever tried VR? How did you find it?
@globalBraid3744
I have tried VR! I can agree that it does help reduce some stress! Especially, when you're very immersed in it with beautiful scenes! My favorite was a space VR experience. Made me feel like I was floating!
Thanks for the post! :)💛💫
@innateJoy9602
This is nice! I also tried space VR - it was the Moon landing. The most beautiful VR experience for me was probably the Northern Lights! It was wonderful.
@globalBraid3744 These therapies are very similar to CBT philosophy. VR is a great way to behaviorally change some overwhelming habits but also portray fears and challenges in order to face them. Seeing the technology's applications on mental health is exciting! Especially when it's effective. Thank you for the interesting post!
@calmDew1576
This is a great point! I have not thought of the similarity between CBT and VR. I would like to see more research in that area so we know who would benefit the most from this therapy.
Thank you for sharing!
@globalBraid3744
I've seen VR therapies in which allowed people to come to terms with the loss of a loved one or safely expose them to certain situations with having a safe outlet of just taking their set off, it's a wonderful tool with potential in therapy!
@sunnyWriting4806
Oh really? Where did you see the VR therapies to deal with the loss of the loved one? I would like to see what a therapy like this looks like. I never thought VR could be useful in this situation.