Curious article about the development of a "virtual trauma therapist" [url]BBC News - Almost human: Lab treats trauma with virtual therapy[/url]
Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for depression and anxiety have been around for a while, and do seem to show reasonable success rates for people with mild to moderate level of emotional/mental distress..
But what do you think of replacing a live therapist with a (very nice looking and sounding) virtual therapist for something as potentially complex as Post Traumatic Stress? Would be interested to know HPers' opinions.
Masha
Some people with PTSD may feel happier' talking' to a computer than to a human being. But as to how effective it would be a lot would depend on the programming.
[url]SimSensei & MultiSense: Virtual Human and Multimodal Perception for Healthcare Support - YouTube[/url]
Check out the above link.:)
No threat of counter transference here. Quite interesting to watch.
Yet there is something to be said for the human healing between the client and therapist. In my view irreplaceable.
Curious article about the development of a "virtual trauma therapist" [url]BBC News - Almost human: Lab treats trauma with virtual therapy[/url]
Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for depression and anxiety have been around for a while, and do seem to show reasonable success rates for people with mild to moderate level of emotional/mental distress..
But what do you think of replacing a live therapist with a (very nice looking and sounding) virtual therapist for something as potentially complex as Post Traumatic Stress? Would be interested to know HPers' opinions.
What do you make of this, Masha? I'm curious about your opinion...
🙂
This will fit in well with a medical healing model where consciousness is not taken into the equation, but without consciousness a machine will not be able to perceive that which is not being expressed through someones physicality. 🙂
[url]SimSensei & MultiSense: Virtual Human and Multimodal Perception for Healthcare Support - YouTube[/url]
Check out the above link.:)
No threat of counter transference here. Quite interesting to watch.
Yet there is something to be said for the human healing between the client and therapist. In my view irreplaceable.
I should explain I too think it is invaluable - and my instinct is that it is better than any computer could be. When I made the commentaboutf a PTSD client not feeling able to talk to a real person, what I had in mind was that a MONITORED computer programme might get them to a psotion where human intervention could be made, Not everyone is the touchy feely type who needs human contact tho
My guess would be that for the so-called "simple" one-off traumatic event, without complications of multiple events, relationship issues, substance abuse etc, a virtual therapist could potentially be useful, perhaps in a similar way to self-help books and other self-help programmes..
But would agree with others that the connection between two human beings, whatever you call it, is what does the real healing. Also, many seemingly "uncomplicated" one-off traumas in adults, often turn out to be tightly linked to childhood stuff (e.g. beliefs such as "I am responsible", "I am not good enough", "I am defective", "I am unlovable" etc) even if it not obvioius to start with - and the emotions seemingly associated with the current trauma often hail back to a long, long time ago when we felt helpless, unsupported, guilty, ashamed, abandoned etc.
Masha