Virtual Reality in Telehealth Settings
Recently, a client I had in session was discussing to me the challenges with finding services for their child. They live in a rural area, and while they were able to see me remotely, I don't currently do telehealth visits for children due to liability concerns and the challenges of engaging youth clients remotely. This barrier to access is a frustration that frequently interacts with our care.
There are excellent systems that do help with engaging clients in remote spaces. During pandemic-era work I was able to find some simple websites like this Dollhouse by Karen Freid; more recent searches bring up sites like Hopscotch and Therapist Aid which provide virtual spaces to interact with children. There were also organizations like Hero Journey Club, which prior to their closure in January 2026, purported to offer non-clinical game-based learning. However, these all still rely on screen-based interactions, and there are slowly growing to be better options available.
As I am making preparations to study EMDR, part of that search takes me to the discussion of therapeutic equipment. These days a set of electronic "tappers", or a lightbar, cost similarly to a low to mid-end VR console like the Meta Quest.
These devices allow for virtual reality games to exist in front of a user's eyes, and motion controls to let them move, jump, climb, and touch the world. Games like Bonelab take this to another degree by refining the experience to make it feel closer to reality, and games like VRChat allow users to communicate in virtual spaces as if they were physically together. Further, games like Tabletop Simulator include modifications for VR users, so they may play a board game as if they could pick the pieces up themselves. It seems like one of the largest barriers to these systems being used is the inherent (and necessary) restrictions placed on telehealth systems by privacy and confidentiality needs. Virtual platforms like Doxy provide HIPAA-compliant virtual care, and to my knowledge there is yet to be a VR program that can take that step with confidentiality, while engaging in the interactivity often missing from remote settings.
Currently, many VR-based interventions are more limited in scope, focusing on recreating office settings or conducting exposure therapy. Hopefully in the future this can be expanded upon.