CME Webinar with Continuing Education Credits

In this CME-certified webinar, we will focus on Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The emphasis will be on the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of VRET, the patient-centered design of virtual exposure situations, and their practical implementation in everyday therapy.

Using concrete case studies and reports from therapeutic practice, we demonstrate how VRET can be individually tailored and how inhibitory learning can be specifically promoted. In doing so, we illuminate both technical and therapeutic aspects of supporting patients in virtual exposures.

The webinar is aimed at licensed therapists who wish to integrate VRET into their treatment concepts or deepen their existing knowledge. The goal is to further develop the therapeutic use of VR in a well-founded, practical, and effective manner – for a modern, evidence-based approach to the treatment of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Current literature recommendation for further study:

Craske, M. G., Treanor, M., Conway, C. C., Zbozinek, T., & Vervliet, B. (2014). Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 58, 10–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2014.04.006

This overview article presents the model of inhibitory learning as a theoretical foundation for the further development of exposure therapy. Instead of merely aiming for habituation, the approach emphasizes the strengthening of new, non-anxiety-laden associations. The authors provide practical insights for designing exposure exercises that promote uncertainty, facilitate expectation violations, and ease the transfer to everyday life – central aspects that can also be specifically implemented in VR-supported exposure.