Areas of Specialization in Research
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment
Our mission is to develop, test, validate and deliver posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) hardware, software, and clinical protocols for combat troops throughout the world. For those personnel who require PTSD treatment post-deployment, we use a virtual reality graded exposure therapy protocol that allows the patient to authentically and reliably bring up situationally accessed memories (SAMs) in a way that facilitates new learning. Our PTSD treatment works by allowing the therapist to gradually expose the patient to distressing stimuli in the virtual scenarios while teaching skills to regulate breathing and psychophysiological arousal. After a number of sessions, the patient’s hyperaroused (“fight or flight”) response to distressing stimuli is extinguished.