Driving, flying or taking the subway can generate severe anxiety that disrupts the patient's personal and professional daily life. Virtual reality exposure allows you to gradually confront these feared situations to restore confidence.
> “Virtual reality displays 80% effectiveness, with benefits maintained more than a year after treatment. » Eric Malbos, psychiatrist
Driving, flying or taking the subway are difficult situations to recreate in consultation. Reproducing these transport contexts is not always simple for the practitioner.
Certain situations depend on external conditions (weather, crowds, schedules) or involve third parties, such as in a plane or a crowded metro train. Their progression is also difficult to control: we cannot program a breakdown or turbulence into reality.
Virtual reality makes it possible to recreate these transport environments directly in the office, in a controlled and reproducible setting, without depending on the vagaries of reality.
The C2Care environments make it possible to recreate the situations feared by the patient, whether driving, flying or traveling on public transport.
The patient can take control of a vehicle on the road, in the city or on the highway, under different weather conditions. He can also experience the phases of a flight, boarding, take-off, turbulence, or take the metro in a more or less busy train, until a breakdown occurs.
The practitioner adjusts the intensity and progression of each scene in order to work with the patient on anticipatory anxiety, catastrophic thoughts and avoidance automatisms linked to transport.
VRET
The practitioner seats the patient on a swivel chair and fits them with the virtual reality headset
Using the control interface, the practitioner selects the environment suited to the session's goals and starts the exposure.
During immersion, the practitioner supports the patient using a visual feed and can adjust the exposure scene in real time
Environments
Each environment reproduces an anxiety-provoking situation linked to transport, customizable according to the patient's needs.
Highway and city trips allow you to work on road situations.
The route covers the airport, boarding, flight and landing.
The attendance and context of the metro journey are adjustable.
The breakdown makes it possible to work on waiting and immobilization on public transport.
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Solène Montègue
Neuropsychiatrist
The developments C2Care is currently integrating into the interface are very promising and meet the established therapeutic objectives [...]: offering tailored exercises that can be adapted to levels of dependency, cognitive disorders, and patients' real-time responses.
Samia Lahya
Psychiatrist
With the acquisition of new equipment [...] and updates to the C2Care programs, its use has expanded even further: OCD, phobias, addictions, anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD. Ten years later, it is no longer merely a curiosity, but a genuine therapeutic tool that is stimulating, innovative, and effective.
Sabrina Gineau
Psychologist
I incorporate this technology into brief therapies lasting two to four months, with one session per week. I begin with relaxation techniques and, when patients are ready, we proceed. It makes it much easier to expose people to these situations.
Noël Schepers
Psychologist
Virtual reality can enrich and personalize treatment, facilitate patient-therapist collaboration in developing the treatment plan, and add a playful dimension. The possibilities for development and application are immense and extend to every area of psychology and psychotherapy.
MĂ©lanie Boucherot
Psychologist
The value of this technology [C2Care] lies in offering new possibilities for therapeutic support and expanding the range of tools available to healthcare professionals.
François Maltese
Psychologist
For several months, we have been using virtual reality in habituation therapies. Before the procedure, patients are progressively and immersively exposed to their future medical environment and psychologically prepared to accept it.
Dre Marie-Claude Roberge
Doctor of Psychology
Since 2022, we have been using virtual reality therapy with the C2Care platform to simulate exposure to aversive stimuli and triggers that cause anxiety. Exposure therapy is used to treat specific phobias, including fear of heights, enclosed spaces, flying, dogs, emetophobia, and many others.
Dr Laure Du Pouget
Urologist
Using a virtual reality headset for self-hypnosis during prostate biopsies creates a calm atmosphere for a procedure that can sometimes be uncomfortable, even with effective local anesthesia...
Delphine Py
Psychologist
Thank you to C2Care for providing innovative virtual reality solutions to support CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)! A major step forward in making exposure exercises easier and helping our patients overcome their phobias.
Mesquita C et al. — Virtual reality versus 2D videos for fear of flying: randomized controlled trial with long-term follow-up
Is virtual reality always better than 2D videos? A head-to-head randomized controlled trial for fear of flying with long-term follow-up
Rothbaum BO et al. — Virtual reality exposure and in vivo exposure in the treatment of fear of flying
Virtual reality exposure therapy and standard (in vivo) exposure therapy in the treatment of fear of flying
Tortella-Feliu M et al. — Virtual reality versus computer-assisted exposure for fear of flying
Virtual reality versus computer-aided exposure treatments for fear of flying
Rus-Calafell M et al. — Virtual reality exposure and imaginary exposure in the treatment of fear of flying: pilot study
Virtual reality exposure and imaginal exposure in the treatment of fear of flying: a pilot study
Price M et al. — The role of presence in virtual reality exposure therapy
The role of presence in virtual reality exposure therapy
Discover more
Depending on your patients' needs, other areas may also be relevant to explore. Discover the different environments available in C2Care.
Create a free account to discover all exposure situations and subscribe directly online
FAQ
Find the answers to the questions most asked by practitioners on the use of virtual reality for transport phobia.
Virtual reality allows graduated and controlled exposure to anxiety-provoking situations, in a realistic and reproducible environment. It promotes patient engagement and allows personalized care, adapted to various disorders: phobias, post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorders, addictions.
C2Care has been testing its virtual reality exposure therapy software in hospitals since 2016. This field experience has made it possible to refine the virtual environments offered to practitioners and patients.
Virtual reality poses few health risks. Some people may experience cybersickness, a discomfort similar to motion sickness, which affects around 10% of users. The practitioner adapts the session to limit this sensation.
Virtual reality can treat transportation-related anxiety disorders: amaxophobia (fear of driving), aviophobia (fear of flying), as well as fear of the subway, claustrophobia and agoraphobia. Each environment is customizable according to the situation feared by the patient.
Some users may experience a discomfort called cybersickness, similar to motion sickness. It concerns around 10% of people using a virtual reality headset. The practitioner can adjust the intensity of exposure to limit this sensation.
Practitioners such as psychologists, psychiatrists and occupational therapists can use virtual reality in their care. It is deployed within CHU, hospitals, clinics and by liberal professionals, to support patients suffering from anxiety disorders.
Yes, all C2Care environments are grouped into a single application. This gives you access to all available scenes, including those related to transport (car, plane, metro), without changing software.
The C2Care technical service can be reached via live chat from your control platform. In the event of a hardware problem, a diagnosis is carried out with you and the defective equipment is replaced within 48 hours if necessary.
The practitioner precisely controls the virtual environment and adjusts the stimuli according to the patient's needs. The safe environment promotes therapeutic engagement and helps the patient to go through the stages of exposure.
Patients suffering from anxiety disorders or transportation-related phobias (amaxophobia, aviophobia, fear of the subway), as well as associated claustrophobia or agoraphobia, may benefit from virtual reality exposure therapy.
