How To VR Therapy

Did we tell you we’re experimenting with this therapy and VR?

It’s still new to us, but we’re happy to share how Rob goes about doing the VR Therapy to help reduce his Neuropathic Pain.

What's your challenge?
Neuropathic Pain

For Rob, it’s neuropathic pain caused by his spinal cord injury. From his chest down he experiences burning neuropathic (fake) pain. Watching a video of the lower body moving and pretending it’s his body, as he tries to cause the movement he’s watching, eases the pain signals his brain generates.

If you have a similar paralysis, or have phantom limb pain, these videos may help you. If you have a different challenge or simply a different body type, and you’d like videos that might help you more, please let us know and we’ll try to help.

Conduct the VR therapy at least 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

Acute or Chronic Pain

Research has shown that immersing yourself in a Virtual Reality by using a headset with VR or 3D content, can distract your mind away from your pain.

If you’re suffering from any type of pain, watching VR content might help provide you some relief.

Using a smart phone in the YouTube App, VR Mode, in a headset, is all that is needed. However, to be truly immersive, we recommend using a specialized VR device, like the Oculus Quest. On our blog we’ve identified content and apps that we find helpful. You can also find a lot of VR content in YouTube, and in your VR device store

How to get started on either a phone or VR device?

If you don’t already have one, a smart phone (the bigger the screen the better) along with a simple headset, will allow you to watch the videos.

Some VR headsets are limited in the size of phone they can hold. Please cross-reference the headset specs with your phone’s dimensions before making a purchase.

Rob uses an iPhone X and while he started with a Google Cardboard Headset, for a few dollars more he likes and recommends something more comfortable and robust, like the SkyMall Virtual Reality 3D Glasses Headset. This unit works with the iPhone 8+ as well.

Each video will dictate the best way to watch or conduct the therapy. While some are best done sitting in bed, the videos taken outside are best watched in your wheelchair or armchair. Visit our video page for the full library of videos.

The Steps

What device will you be using?
Watching VRxTherapy VR Videos on SMART PHONE

  • If you have earbuds or headphones, connect them to your phone now
  • Click or type in this line: www.VRxT.org/videos
  • Hold the phone in the direction that you’re going to be looking when doing the therapy and…
    • Chose your desired video and click the image to start the video in the YouTube App
    • Check to see the quality is the highest possible (three small dots on the top menu of the screen will show you resolution quality)
    • Click on the little VR Goggle icon along the bottom of the video screen, this will put the video into VR mode, dividing the screen into left and right and showing two images of the video (if you don’t see this option, this might help)
    • Insert the phone into the headset and put the headset on
    • Relax, take a few deep breaths to calm yourself
    • Focus on trying to make your body do the movements that you’re seeing in the video
    • If you have time, do another video, or rewind and do the same video more than once
    • Let us know how it went for you and if it helps, or if we can answer any questions to help you (we’ll do what we can)

Watching VR Content to Help Reduce Pain on SMART PHONE

  • We’ve had little success in finding quality, immersive VR apps for our smart phones (iPhone store). To date, the best content we’ve found is through YouTube
    • Download and open the YouTube app on your smart phone
    • In the search box, type VR
    • Select videos with VR in the title or with a VR goggle icon on the thumbnail
    • Start the video and click on the VR goggle icon on the bottom corner, this will show two screens
    • Place phone in headset and watch
  • Searching “VR” in the app store will produce a long list of VR apps that you can experiment with
    • Let us know if you find some quality content and we’ll add it here

Youtube steps for watching
Watching VRxTherapy VR Videos on VR DEVICE

  • Put on your VR device and headphones (if your device doesn’t have speakers)
  • Connect to YouTube VR (this is an app you will have installed on your device)
  • In the search box, type vrxtherapy
    • Click the video you’d like to start
    • Relax, take a few deep breaths to calm yourself
    • Focus on trying to make your body do the movements that you’re seeing in the video
    • If you have time, do another video, or rewind and do the same video more than once
    • Let us know how it went for you and if it helps, or if we can answer any questions to help you (we’ll do what we can)

Watching VR Content to Help Reduce Pain on VR DEVICE

  • Visit our blog to learn more about the Oculus Quest content we’ve been experimenting with, particularly the section “My Quest Experience”
  • Decide on what your goals are (VR Content on Oculus Quest)
    • Distraction from pain while playing a physical game:
      • Pistol Whip (moderate)*
      • Star Wars Vadar (moderate)*
      • Super Hot (moderate)
      • Richie’s Plank Experience (moderate)
      • Death Lap (intense)
      • Beat Saber (moderate)
      • Creed – Rise to Glory (moderate)
      • Poker VR (mild)
    • Distraction through VR experience:
      • Nature Trek*
      • YouTube VR content*
      • Wander
      • Anne Frank House VR
    • Distraction through a movie/story:
      • Netflix
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • YouTube VR
      • Samsung VR
    • Meditative and calming:
      • Ocean Rift (calming)*
      • National Geographic Explore VR (mild)*
      • Altspace VR
  • Put on your VR device (we’re experienced with Oculus Quest)
  • In the app store, purchase or download apps/content (from list above)
* highly recommended

NOTE: For Rob, watching the videos and doing the therapy changes the quality of the energy that his brain experiences, taking the edge off the burning of pain and turning it into more of a fuzziness. If you have any negative feelings while watching the videos in VR mode, don’t feel compelled to continue. This is all experimental and we don’t know how it may affect different people. We hope the videos will help you, like it does for Rob, but we just don’t know. Share with Rob how it went for you.