Cybertherapy: "Visual Humans, Real Therapy"

Most everyone has seen a recent movie called Avatar, where people go into a world and become funky blue avatars. However, most people did not know that therapists have been using avatars in therapy for the past ten years. The therapists put people in real life situations, using avatars, to help them get over their fears or phobias. The people can inhabit the avatars as themselves. They can talk to people, which are avatars on a screen; or they can talk to one avatar on a computer whom replaces an actual person as a therapist.

When using the avatars the person knows they are not in a real situation. However, being able to practice and experience a real life situation can be very helpful. The person knows that the worst won't happen, their therapist is there incase he or she freaks out, and the situation feels real. People are drawn to whatever their problem is. If someone is an alcoholic, they will be drawn to a visual bar. If a person is socially awkward then a question by a visual person will scare them. The therapists can help their patients work through whatever triggers their problem. The experiences they have in the visual world, and the things they learn there, carry over into their real lives.

The therapists can control the experience and then work on the response.

A type of cybertherapy is when patients talk to a visual therapist about social issues. The person on the screen is clearly not real. However, he or she has all the qualities a good therapist has. The "therapist" will keep eye contact with whomever they are talking to, and are empathetic to each persons social issues. Talking to this virtual human can be very helpful because studies have shown that people with social anxiety open up more with a visual therapist than they did with real life therapists speaking to them through a computer screen.

There are lots of other methods for lots of other problems. Problems such as social anxiety, returning from war, or children with autism. Scientists are looking for ways to fix these problems using cybertherapy. So far the results have been good. I believe this could be a great way to cure the mental mindset of people with the problems written above, and be a cure for people with dangerous mental mindsets. People with anorexia, bulimia, and others could benefit a lot from cybertherapy. I have great faith that cybertherapy will advance as research continues, and that it will be a great success.