ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how to incorporate virtual reality (VR) in the treatment of driving phobia, a common fear that severely restricts people’s lives. The chapter begins by exploring how driving phobia can be understood and addressed using a comprehensive model of anxiety (presented in Chapter 2). By identifying the client’s anxiety triggers, anxiety sensations, phobic fears, and resultant actions and mapping these onto the pathological cycle of anxiety, the therapist is able to normalize, validate, and explain the client’s experience. Learning about the anxiety cycle helps clients understand the rationale behind treatment interventions, including virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), and strengthens client hope and motivation. The chapter goes on to present a variety of ways, apart from exposure, that VR can contribute to successful treatment. Readers receive guidance on how to prepare clients for successful VRET. Three case examples explore in depth the applications of VR, highlight VR’s power as a therapeutic tool, and address the many factors that influence treatment response. The chapter ends with a review of the relevant research literature.
