Maudsley Talks explores AVATAR – a novel digital therapy to help manage distressing voices | Our blog

The  Maudsley Talks  series  round ed  off its first sixth months  with a fascinating and insightful lecture from Dr  Tom Ward who presented his  T alk,  Taking Back Power: AVATAR Therapy for Distressing Voices in Psychosis .  

Dr Ward discussed the trials of AVATAR so far, the positive impacts the therapy is shown to have, and explored  what’s  next for AVATAR.  

AVATAR therapy is a new intervention which uses digital technology to allow people hearing distressing voices in psychosis to gain power and control over the voices. The therapy  includes the creation of a digital avatar which looks and sounds like the  voice the  person  hear s . The therapist, patient and avatar then talk together with a focus on reducing the anxiety people feel and incre asing their empowerment and self-confidence. Trials of AVATAR have be en  found to deliver less voice-related distress, a r educed frequency  of voices and improvements in wellbeing and recovery.  

Over one hundred people made up an interested and engaged audience who had  lots of questions to ask about  the  therapy   as Chief Medical Officer, Derek Tracy Chaired the Q&A  portion  of the evening.  

There was also  lots of positive feedback  from attendees that the T alk was  “ incredible , ”  “inspiring” and “thought-provoking . ”  

What’s  next for AVATAR? As well as potential for AVATAR to be used to support people facing other mental health difficulties,  it has been recommended for routine use in the NHS while further research evidence is generated.