Unseen Wounds: How Virtual Reality Therapy is Transforming Mental Health Support for Refugees

Imagine fleeing your home, not knowing if you’ll ever return

Egette Indelele, born in a refugee camp in Tanzania, shared her journey of fleeing to a new country. She described how constant bullying and confusion affected her mental health.

Egette’s mother and grandmother flee from their home country in Rwanda into a refugee camp in Tanzania. She lived there for 7 years until she moved to America with her mother. When asked what was her biggest challenge as a refugee, she shared, “The mental health part. My mental health, my parent’s mental health, and how that influenced the family dynamic.” Many people think the trauma is over when you leave your country. This just isn’t true. “When we moved to the U.S., we brought all our trauma with us and didn’t have the time or resources to handle it.” Not only the trauma experienced during wars, but also the dread of moving to a whole different country with a different culture to where she experienced bullying. School was hard for her due to language barriers, skin color, and race, which became targets of bullying. “People bullied me because I am African and called me terrible names. Because of this, I tried to separate myself from my culture.”

Egette’s story highlights a significant issue faced by many refugees. The United Nations reports over 117 million displaced people globally, with 43.4 million being refugees. These numbers reflect a world crisis and a deeper mental health crisis. Refugees endure emotional pain from violence, poverty, and war long before they move, and their struggles continue even in safer places. They often face issues like accessing healthcare, learning new languages, and experiencing discrimination.

Virtual Reality for Refugees’ Mental Health

Imagine a world where hope feels distant, especially for those facing unimaginable challenges. Yet, there is a beacon of hope: the power of conversation, support, and care. One emerging relief method is virtual reality, allowing refugees to explore familiar yet new places. This immersive experience helps them confront fears in a safe environment, away from their past dangers. Like a gentle confidant amid stormy memories, this therapy has proven effective in helping many manage stress and find healing.

Egette’s story highlights the urgent need to address mental health issues with understanding and new ideas. While refugees often endure immense suffering, the expanding field of mental health care offers hope for healing, even if the journey is long and challenging. Here is where virtual reality can truly make a difference.

Virtual Ukraine

A new project brings hope to Ukrainian refugees in a world where digital and physical worlds have begun to merge. Walking in this virtual city helps them recall old Kyiv, a place many lost. Yet, it brings comfort, making them feel at home once more. A Vice article featured this VR project wherein Ukrainian refugees can now access a new kind of therapy. This metaverse Virtual Ukraine shows a digital version of Kyiv—the capital of Ukraine—a familiar but sufficiently altered version for the refugees to reconnect to their past and process the traumas they have experienced. They have replicated recognisable landmarks and neighbourhoods, thus becoming a standard for those who experienced distance from their once-called home. This is more than just a simulation; it’s a lifeline for those who aim to cope with the unseen wounds.

A team of psychologists around the world developed this in cooperation with the platform 8agora. Here, a team of psychologists from around the world, in cooperation with the platform 8agora, developed a combination of talk therapy and peer support in an incredibly novel way. Everyone involved in this process, including the therapist and participants, appears in customisable avatars. As they enter the virtual space, they are encountering not just the therapist but also someone who guides the conversation and supports them in each session. The main purpose is to hold a safe and supportive environment to help them talk and share as part of the healing process. During one session, when asked about the challenges they faced upon relocation, one participant answered, “I moved to Romania with my daughters, faced with the problem of the language barrier,” and when asked how they spend their free time to regain their strength, one of them answered, “Unfortunately, I don’t have free time and time to recover right now because I spend my free time trying to help Ukrainians in different locations.” They can also talk about how their children are coping, to which one participant answered, “It was difficult in the beginning; she wanted to go home very much.” Being able to attend a support group session and have a talk and converse as a form of relating to people with similar experiences helps them navigate this digital world together with hopes of healing from their unseen wounds.

Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Therapy

While this is a very promising approach to modern therapy, is it really effective? Well, based on this research, their meta-analyses have shown that virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool with long-lasting effects; this was also true, as claimed in an article by Forbes, that according to Lucy Dunning, a licensed professional counselor who employs Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) in her counseling practice, VRET is a relatively new concept and information about its long-term effectiveness is still developing; however, preliminary research shows encouraging outcomes: “people with PTSD, anxiety, and chronic pain have shown particular success with it,” she claimed.

Accessibility Challenges for Refugees

Another question comes to mind: Will this be accessible to the refugees? Because there may be a need for equipment or a stable internet connection to join VR support groups such as Virtual Ukraine—which might not be available to all refugees. However, there are a lot of community-based initiatives that can help provide their needs, like non-government organisations or even the local government unit. Virtual Ukraine, specifically, emphasised that individuals can access their program from any internet-connected device and that no expensive headset is necessary. They reiterated the desire to simplify things as much as possible because of the gaps in accessibility.

Balancing VR Therapy with Real-World Support

Last, would there be a risk of over-relying on VR therapy, potentially overlooking the importance of real-world support systems and face-to-face interactions in the recovery process? While VR therapy has the potential to offer significant help, especially by creating a safe, controlled environment for people to confront their trauma, it’s important to note that psychologists will be involved throughout the entire process, from administering to measuring the results.

After all, the best therapy for a specific person depends upon the psychologist’s advice. It is good to remember that the best results are often achieved in holistic recovery treatment, like combining VR and traditional methods.

Technology is the Future

Innovative solutions must match the problems that we face in our lives—just like virtual reality therapy in psychology, it is a developing solution to mental health problems, such as PTSD that most refugees face. This is a good thing that technology is slowly becoming an emerging solution to solve the complex problems that exist in the world today. However, this extends beyond the field of psychology. Different fields, such as education, can utilise technology. Access to education is known to be a problem faced by refugees and children in rural communities, and we should address these educational problems with a modern and timely solution. At The Patatas, we are committed to using these advances in education. As an education consultancy company, our drive is to empower rural and hard-to-reach communities to gain quality education through our digital school in a box initiative. We believe that with education improved by technology, the children of today will be well-equipped to fight against the challenges of tomorrow.

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