Tucson tech company creates virtual reality game to improve mental health

HorizonMind, a Tucson tech company and member of Local First Arizona, has created a virtual reality application for mental health called The Gift VR.

“Our mission is to eliminate all the barriers between people and accessing the mental health resources they need,” said co-founder Daniel Lee. “The goal of The Gift is to take evidence-based methodologies that you would do with a therapist and put it in a self-guided format in virtual reality so people can do the same sort of emotional regulation exercises they do with a therapist on their own.”

Patients who use the 20-minute virtual experience are asked to identify a thought pattern causing them difficulty. Then they describe where they feel it in their body and use the game controllers to vizualize pulling the difficult thoughts out of their body and casting them away.

Finally, the patient is invited to choose and visualize a gift to give to themselves and use selective attention to form positive behaviors.

The app, which is based on evidence-based therapy methods and neuroscience discoveries, can help patients accelerate their mental-health progress or partake in treatment that they would otherwise avoid with an in-person therapist, the company says.

“The only way to truly have peace is through mental and emotional health,” said Jorge Ruiz, a Tucson grief recovery specialist working with Horizon Mind.

Clinical questionnaires have shown that the Gift VR increases coping skills by 36% and reduces negative affects by 30%, the company says.

HorizonMind has partnered with Cottonwood Tucson, Legacy Recovery Center, Anywhere Clinic and others.