How to Stay Calm During a Bumpy Flight

flight-turbulence-anxiety.html

“Even the most seasoned travelers can get a little anxious when the plane starts shaking…”

Dr. Brenda Wiederhold, a licensed clinical psychologist in San Diego, regularly sees patients who have an intense fear of flying. For more than two decades, she has successfully used both real-life scenarios and virtual reality to help expose patients to various flying scenarios, like airplane turbulence and take-offs.

Licensed in California, Virginia and Belgium, we value the opportunity technology offers to see our patients virtually to help them overcome their fears and phobias.

 

Virtual Reality Therapy as an Adjunct to Pain Management

BECAUSE MANY CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS STILL EXPERIENCE pain on narcotics, it is evident that pharmacologic therapy is only part of the solution to pain management. The continued and growing recognition of psychological and social factors in pain management requires consideration of additional approaches to this complex, multimodal problem. A very effective approach, cognitive behavioral therapy, works to shift negative thoughts on pain to positive and empowering ones. Distraction techniques, such as meditation, hypnosis, and guided imagery, aim to divert attention away from pain altogether. Virtual reality (VR) is an especially effective medium for distraction (1), where the borders of reality can be modified in ways that enhance the therapeutic process. VR systems are also compatible with biosensors and brain imaging devices, making a comprehensive assessment of the global effects of pain and chronic pain syndromes possible. Furthermore, witnessing how their own brains react to pain, medication, and pain-reducing stimuli can help sufferers learn to control how they perceive pain (2).

Volumes 19 and 20 of the Annual Review of CyberTherapy and Telemedicine just published

https://www.arctt.info/home

On behalf of Professor Brenda K Wiederhold and Professor Giuseppe Riva, we are pleased to announce that Volumes 19 and 20 of the Annual Review of CyberTherapy and Telemedicine are now online.

The journal is published annually (once per year) by our non-profit affiliate, the Interactive Media Institute (IMI) – a 501c3 non profit organization – dedicated to bringing together interdisciplinary researchers from around the world to create, test, and develop clinical protocols for the medical and psychological community – in cooperation with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, hosting and maintaining the ARCTT website.

ARCTT is an Open Access journal that does not charge readers or their institutions for access.  Please enjoy reading our catalog of 20 Volumes (2003 to 2022) found on the ARCTT site.

 

How to Cope With Flight Anxiety Post-COVID

https://happiful.com/how-to-cope-with-flight-anxiety-post-covid/

During the pandemic, most travel was restricted. A lot of us were confined to our homes or the occasional local walk and for some this became a comfort zone of sorts….

 

How to Cope With Flight Anxiety Post COVID

Virtual Reality may provide a solution for many.

Used in the U.S., Europe and Asia for over 25 years, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy offers

a bridge between the imaginal world and the real world setting that has been shown to be

a more comfortable and effective starting point for many seeking to overcome their fears and

phobias.  For more information, contact us at frontoffice@vrphobia.com

 

 

Virtual Reality Helps Patients with Flying Phobias

Facing Your Fears Virtually

Virtual Reality Exposure Helps Overcome Fears

 

“Last September, my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and flew from California to Vermont. This was the first time I had flown in years.”

Like many people with aviophobia, Gaustad hadn’t always been afraid of flying. “We actually flew quite a bit. But on a flight to Las Vegas, our plane hit a few air pockets… enough turbulence to throw things around a bit… and although everything turned out okay, I got real real panicky and said, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this again.'” Sure enough, Gaustad and her family traveled by car, bus or train throughout the next decade.

Knowing the anniversary trip was coming up, Gaustad decided to do something about her phobia and learned that virtual reality therapy was available through her company’s employee benefits. “I only met with Brenda seven or eight times before the therapy worked on me,” she recalls. “In fact, before the sessions were completely over, I had already booked our flights to Vermont.”

“Yes I did feel sort of weird when I wasn’t flying, like there was someting wrong with me,” Gaustad admits. “It was important that my husband understood my problem. Be patient and work through this together.”

Contact us at frontoffice@vrphobia.com to learn more.