On virtual reality: A thematic analysis from a dance movement therapy perspective
Maria Morales, Rosa María Rodríguez Jiménez · The Arts in Psychotherapy · 2025
Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology composed of several integrated elements that allow simulation and interaction in an immersive environment. Various sensory and cognitive stimuli must be experienced through the human body to accomplish this phenomenon. For this reason, VR is studied and used more frequently in different therapeutic and socio-educational environments. Given its embodied, intersubjective, enactive, and emotive qualities, adjectives also used to describe dance movement therapy (DMT), it is necessary to develop a conceptual and theoretical approach from an embodied perspective. From a reflective standpoint, this article analyzes some important possibilities and precautions to evaluate the possible integration of VR in DMT and vice versa. The study of VR not only concerns DMTs but also different therapists and professionals interested in this type of technology. While DMT continues to expand its fields of action and methods, more research is still required on VR-assisted interventions. A wider exploration and training in the field are necessary to provide ethical and updated care according to the needs and problems of today’s contemporary world. • Virtual technologies have an impact on people’s physical and emotional well-being. • VR promotes the exploration of new dynamics in interpersonal relationships. • VR, as both a medium and a phenomenon, is relevant to Dance Movement Therapy. • Intercorporeality, key in DMT, cannot be fully replaced by virtual reality. • DMT professionals need to be aware of the implications of VR in clinical practice.