Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety affect one in five adults in the United States. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), non-serious mental illnesses are found in 30.6% of young adults aged 18-25 years old and 25.3% of adults aged 26-49 years old. In 2020, the NSDUH found that only 44.8% of all adults living with non-serious mental illnesses sought treatment [1]. In 2020 and 2021 with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, 41.5% of US adults reported to have been struggling symptoms of an anxiety of depressive disorder [2]. With this added burden, the increase in social isolation during the pandemic, and unknown long term psychological effects of the past year and a half, the need for an effective remote psychotherapy treatment is even more evident. The objective of this research is to address the growing need for a remote psychotherapy solution that is both accessible for isolated patients and effective. One approach to therapeutic healing that is standard in counseling psychology is the use of psychotherapy based on common factors theory. This theory poses that there are several common factors that need to be addressed for healing to occur. This research focuses on two of the common factors that are most difficult to reproduce in remote psychotherapy: the therapeutic alliance and the therapeutic environment [3]- [5]. We hypothesize that the use of a virtual reality (VR) and neurofeedback based psychotherapy system specifically designed based on common factors theory will lead to better performance in the therapeutic alliance between therapists and patients and ultimately, better outcomes for remote psychotherapy patients. The following specific aims address this hypothesis:
Specific Aim 1: Design and Develop a Common Factors Based Virtual Reality Therapy for
Remote Psychotherapy Applications. A full common factors based VR psychotherapy systemI would like to thank the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship for funding me in my graduate career, without which none of this research would be possible. I have had some of my most memorable experiences, meaningful friends, and useful tools for personal growth as a result of this fellowship. Thank you.I would like to thank my wonderful parents, who have loved me unconditionally since I was a baby. I know how much you love me every single day and I'm so grateful that I was able to be raised by you and that you shaped me into the person I've become. I love you both so much. I would like to thank my twin brother Josh, my best friend since birth. We've spent most of our lives together, every good thing and every bad thing, I'm so glad we get to go through life side by side. Even though we don't live together anymore, every time we're back together, it's like nothing ever changed, I'm so grateful for that. I'd like to thank my older brothers, Mike and Nick, for vii being the best role models I could ask for. I always wanted to be just like you both and I'm so grateful that I had you guys to guide me through life. My sister-...