We have one mission at Elev8: to harness the good use in technology to empower people to reach their greatest potential. This calls for our first innovative project at Elev8, which is the development of BraveMinds.

BraveMinds is at the intersection between modern technology and mental health therapy. It is an award-winning VR experience designed to enhance traditional psychotherapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), by implementing customized tools in an interactive virtual simulation that helps users better manage anxieties. Currently, BraveMinds uses exposure therapy to help people in overcoming social anxiety disorder by creating a virtual environment that allows them to face their personal challenges in a controlled space. They created a safe space that allows participants to practice under a taxing environment by conversing with an AI human-like figure without the fear of failure or judgment.

Why should we develop BraveMinds? Every day, technology takes a new step in advancement; BraveMinds is a new, bold step that touches on mental health and self-development. BraveMinds provides an experience that helps people instill confidence when it comes to public speaking, pitching projects, presentation skills, job interviews, managing PTSD symptoms, and many more. Developing this experience is a new step in revolutionizing the mental health industry. It is time to converge technology and therapy treatment to help those in need and open up new opportunities that will allow us to take a step further in implementing technology with health care.

Exposure therapy: With many consumer VRET applications being introduced recently, several questions remain unanswered. Will people actually respond to virtual humans in a virtual environment (VE) the same way as they would to real humans? Do people actually experience anxiety when speaking to a virtual audience? More importantly, can virtual reality exposure therapy be used to overcome speech anxiety? If so, how long would the effect last?

To answer these questions, we looked at several research papers to determine the effectiveness of virtual reality on overcoming social phobia, such as public speaking anxiety. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact us and we will connect you with one of our doctors on the team to answer your questions.