Avatar-based Counselling with ProReal in Secondary Schools

A consortium of partners (Metanoia Institute, University of Roehampton and ProReal Ltd)

‘Avatar-based counselling for young people’ is a Phase 2 project that aims to evaluate a computer-supported therapeutic programme with hard to reach groups. The Phase one of this research was conducted with prisoners and completed in 2014. Phase one of the project was led by the Metanoia Institute in collaboration with Roehampton University. The current research focuses on evaluation of this research in the context of school-based counselling. Avatar-based counselling refers to the whole therapeutic intervention while ‘ProReal’ is the software being used as part of this intervention. ProReal is a 3-dimensional, virtual-world landscape in which avatars and props can be added to help people create scenes and representations of real-world situations. It allows users to create an avatar and place it in various scenes within a virtual world in order to express their thoughts and feelings, interact with a visual representation of their situation, and explore psychological processes.

The research is currently conducting quantitative and qualitative studies in 5 London schools, investigating whether using a virtual world software during counselling is helpful for young people, aged 12-18, who experience psychological difficulties.

 

Funded by: Phase 2 NHS England’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare
Total Budget:  £970,000
January 2015-April 2016
Principal and Co-Investigators: Professor Mick Cooper, Dr Biljana van Rijn, Evi Chryssafidou

Contact: Dr Biljana van Rijn; Evi Chryssafidou 

Click here for more information on this project