Virtual Reality Therapy in the Metaverse
A Clinician's Guide to Getting Started with Virtual Reality-Based Psychotherapy
Therapy, staged in worlds you can build.
Virtual reality lets a clinician recreate the exact situations a patient fears or avoids — safely, gradually, and fully under the therapist’s guidance. This guide turns a fast-growing body of research into a practical playbook for immersive, evidence-based care.
From informed consent to a fully realized metaverse.
Virtual Reality Therapy in the Metaverse gives mental health practitioners a comprehensive, evidence-based guide to integrating virtual reality into psychotherapeutic practice. From preparing patients and obtaining informed consent to selecting hardware and designing virtual exposure environments, it translates a growing body of research into practical clinical guidance.
It walks through every stage of VR integration — the therapeutic alliance, consent, and patient selection, then the ethical, logistical, and technological considerations of delivering VR-based interventions. Detailed chapters apply VR to the three pillars of cognitive behavioral therapy: exposure-based desensitization, cognitive restructuring, and skills training, with case examples ranging from contamination OCD to treatment-resistant auditory hallucinations.
The final section looks ahead — reviewing hardware and software advances and presenting a four-phase roadmap from augmented reality to psychotherapy in a fully realized metaverse. It's written for practicing psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and trainees, as well as researchers and technology developers at the intersection of mental health and immersive technology.
Inside the book
Part 1 — Principles of the Metaverse Applied to Psychotherapy
- 1Preparation
- 2Service Delivery
- 3Ethical Considerations
- 4Metaverse Elements
- 5Physical Components
- 6Virtual Environments
Part 2 — Applied Models for VR Psychotherapy
- 7Cue / Sensory Desensitization
- 8Cognitive Training
- 9Skills Training
Part 3 — Future Directions of Psychotherapy in the Metaverse
- 10Hardware Improvements
- 11Software Improvements
- 12Roadmap for Clinical Practice
Bruce Bassi, MD, MS
Board-certified in psychiatry and addiction psychiatry, Dr. Bassi earned his M.S. in biomedical engineering from Columbia University and his M.D. from the University of Michigan. He is the founder of TelepsychHealth, a multi-state telehealth psychiatry practice, and founder and CEO of My Medical Records Inc., a healthcare AI company built for patients, providers, and organizations.
Get the book — or bring the talk to your team.
Pre-order the clinician's guide, or invite Dr. Bassi to speak on virtual reality, the metaverse, and the future of psychotherapy at your conference, grand rounds, or training program.