When facilitating mental health interventions, therapists typically involve clients in discussion within a room containing seating and a table. We argue that digital technologies can be leveraged to encourage physiological, multisensory experiences for users to work through their challenges. In the context of trauma in mental healthcare, where the body's involvement can play a critical role in the recovery journey, such an approach can offer potential in altering the dynamic of how interventions are delivered and received. This infers a client-led process where environment and features become inclusive to a holistic treatment pathway. We developed an intervention called The Timeline, situated in an immersive interactive virtual environment (IIVE). The iterative process was informed by interviews with 12 "Experts by Profession", as frontline mental health workers with an average engagement of 16 years. We then invited 12 "Experts by Experience", with lived understanding of a range of trauma, to trial and evaluate the system at a UK-based hospital. We report on data from participants across both studies, evidencing how The Timeline, as bespoke content, could lead to participatory choice and personalized control in the context of dig-ital therapy. Finally, we discuss how IIVEs could become a new platform towards a more integrative therapeutic delivery in mental healthcare. CCS CONCEPTS• Applied computing Life and medical sciences; Health care information systems; • Human-centered computing Human computer interaction (HCI); Interaction paradigms; Virtual reality; Human computer interaction (HCI); Empirical studies in HCI.

Recent work demonstrates the potential benefits of narrative techniques for individuals with traumas that underpin many mental health problems. Likewise, research over the last decade highlights possibilities for immersive technologies in providing ways for clinicians and patients to benefit from the delivery of therapeutic interventions. However, while immersive technologies are maturing to the point of being easily configurable in a range of spaces, evidence is lacking on their efficacy and integration into healthcare settings. This research aims to understand how immersive interactive virtual environments (IIVEs), as viewed through an enactivist lens, could provide opportunities for healthcare providers to incorporate narrative techniques into mental health interventions.

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We present a novel, wearable interface as an investigative tool for digital mental healthcare. Immersive environments for therapeutic interventions can potentially involve the whole body of the user in the experience, but often the interaction is through handheld controllers or virtual buttons. Building on suggestions in a previous study from users of an immersive environment for trauma mental healthcare, we developed a new interface, The Intuitive Jacket, to offer control and personalization to the therapeutic process. Our design consists of a physical jacket, allowing users to perform an emotionally powerful interaction: By touching the region of their heart at the end of the session, they "close the door" to the trauma the have been processing. The jacket contains a conductive thread sensor that communicates the garment wearer's gesture to the software via Bluetooth. It was created via a multidisciplinary collaboration between HCI, Fashion Design and Electronics. CCS CONCEPTS• Applied computing → Life and medical sciences; Health care information systems; • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); Interaction paradigms; Virtual reality; Ubiquitous and mobile computing.