From home practice to virtual reality: The subjective experience of mindfulness-based therapy of people with concomitant social anxiety and psychotic disorder

Abstract

Aims

This paper aims at exploring the subjective experience, particularly in terms of acceptability and feasibility, of a mindfulness-based intervention for people with a psychotic disorder and social anxiety. Mindfulness interventions benefit from empirical support for decreasing anxiety in people with psychotic disorders, yet the effects on specific anxiety disorders, namely social anxiety, have scarcely been studied.

Methods

Three different studies were conducted in order to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the mindfulness intervention and of the use of homework and VR exposure for people with psychotic disorder and social anxiety: two single case studies (one with virtual reality) and a pilot study (n = 6).

Results

The intervention proposed was generally well-accepted and appreciated by the participants, but the meditation homework stood out as rather difficult for some participants. The virtual reality addition appeared to have a positive impact on the therapy, being also well-accepted and appreciated by the participant, but also considered stressfull.

Conclusions

This paper shows that the mindfulness-based intervention presented is feasible, appreciated by the participants and has potential to be useful and therapeutic in the context of social anxiety in people with a psychotic disorder, even though efficacy cannot be established in these exploratory studies. The added value of encouraging at-home practice and of using VR exposure to the treatment merits further investigation. Future studies are needed to determine the efficacy of the treatment, especially with the virtual reality exposure and homework encouragements.