Virtual reality as e-mental health to support starting with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is used in mental health therapy but requires effort by the patient. This paper describes a preliminary design exploration of Open-MindEd, a Virtual Reality (VR) application specifically designed to support starting with MBCT. In collaboration with a mental health institute, two prospective users from the target group gave longitudinal input for the design, leading to the formulation of aspects how a VR application could serve as a tool to support people starting with mindfulness. Subsequently, a single-blind experiment (N = 30) was performed to evaluate whether Open-MindEd could stimulate starting with MBCT. No significant positive effects were found. Despite several limitations, this paper shows some potential design considerations of VR as e-mental health to support MBCT.