Bradley Hospital researchers show virtual reality can reduce therapists’ fears about exposure therapy

East Providence, R.I. – Researchers at Bradley Hospital found that a virtual reality (VR) training program can help therapists feel more confident using exposure therapy and reduce their negative beliefs about it — even more than traditional classroom-style training alone. The study is one of the first to test how the level of immersion in VR affects therapist training, and it uses a clear framework aimed at addressing a major reason exposure therapy is underused.

Exposure therapy is one of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders, but many therapists avoid using it. A big reason is that some providers believe exposure therapy might overwhelm or scare patients. Training methods that help therapists overcome these concerns exist, but they’re often hard to access, inconsistent, or difficult to deliver the same way every time.

“VR gives us a scalable way to offer consistent, hands‑on practice,” said Joshua Kemp, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Pediatric Anxiety Research Center at Bradley Hospital and innovation officer at Brown University Health’s Office of Research Administration. “Using our ‘exposure to exposure’ (E2E) framework, we designed VR training to help therapists face their own worries about exposure therapy.”

The study tested two versions of VR: one using a head‑mounted display (HMD) and one using a regular desktop computer. The results showed no major advantage for the more immersive headset. This suggests that simpler, more accessible VR setups may still provide enough of the “experience” needed to help therapists shift their beliefs.

The researchers say larger and more diverse studies are needed to confirm these results and to understand how VR‑based training might improve real‑world access to effective anxiety treatment.

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About Brown University Health

Brown University Health is a not-for-profit health system based in Providence, R.I. formed in 1994 and is comprised of three teaching hospitals of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University: Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children’s Hospital; The Miriam Hospital; and Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children.  It also includes Newport Hospital, Saint Anne’s Hospital, and Morton Hospital that offering a broad range of health services; Gateway Healthcare, R.I.’s largest provider of community behavioral health care; Brown Health Medical Group, the largest multi-specialty practice in R.I; and Brown Health Medical Group Primary Care, a primary care driven medical practice. Brown University Health teaching hospitals are among the country’s top recipients of research funding from the National Institutes of Health. All Brown University Health-affiliated partners are charitable organizations that depend on support from the community to provide programs and services.