LEAP - Virtual Reality x Therapy
Begum Dawlatyan
How might we create a more emersive therapy experience for users to conquer fears in order to have a deeper and more profound healing experience?
The pandemic has brought about a lot of panic and fear into the masses, everything has been turned on its head, challenging us to question the system we have built our lives. One area of this is in the mental and emotional health sector. Designers have been quick to jump to innovate, invent and improve existing products and services. With that, I present to you Leap Futures!
Leap is a game that combines Virtual Reality with Therapy. Since so many things have become DIY and online, why not therapy? No I do not mean therapy online, but a whole new platform where we can experience our own challenges, an experience that wants to know you as much you want to know it. With specialized tests that help to create the most personalized experience possible for your needs and desires. From creating avatars to mixing and matching different settings, characters and scenarios to challenge the user to truely take a leap of faith into the new future and into a healthier and more profound life.
• • •
INSIGHT
The Covid-19 Pandemic has brought to the surface many issues in the our system currently that were standing like a castle built on sand: unstable and unsustainable. One of the first symptoms of this great revelation become very obvious in the riots, fear and mass paranoia. The world is in more need of mental and emotional literacy now and ever in the last few decades.
Being forced into prolonged isolation as well as the uncertainty of catching the deadly virus, people's mental health have recieved quite the challenge. This is especially prevalent in the increasing numbers in reports of domestic violence, suicide hotline calls, marital issues, divorce and overall mistrust in on one another and in the system.
IDEA
Leap Futures is a Virtual Reality Experience that challenges users to face, experience and elevate themselves of their greatest fears.
This Experience combines the techniques of psychology and philosophy as well as spiritual practices to create an emersive experience that brings users to a greater realization of their own personal potentials, and ultimately, in the actualization of such potential.
Users are not only asked to talk through their issues but really immerse themselves in a simulating environment that encourages healing and growth. And unlike the real world, you can try as many times as you want until you are ready.
IMPACT
Everybody learns a little differently, to ask a fish to climb a tree would merely do no justice to the capabilities of the fish. This idea is great to take into account when dealing with the different individuals involved, sometimes therapy is great but even it has its limitations.
Leap Futures combines a multiple array of disciplines, ranging from Science to Spirituality to bring a well incompassed experience.
Design and Art are languages, but so are Science and Spirituality, the best way to solve is not to figure out which one is better than the other but rather to take the best of both and create a more well rounded experience, because if life is multifaceted, why should our appraoch to it be?
Begum Dawlatyan
With a background in various creative pursuits such as Painting, Drawing, Copywriting, digital marketing and E-commerse, I have always had an interest in combining many of my passions into one. Design is my playground where I would like to further my experience by exploring how psychology and spirituality can enhance and inform designers to promote emotional and mental connections in hopes of creating a more spiritually fulfilling experience.