Embodied Therapy in Virtual Reality
An interview with Rachel Xu, the Co-founder and CEO of Curalens.ai, by Akhila Khanna.
When many young adults were deciding between colleges and summer internships, Rachel Xu strapped on her VR headset. She began dreaming up Curalens — a virtual island where a therapeutic journey between mental health practitioners and their clients can begin.
Akhila Khanna, an MA Drama Therapy candidate at New York University interviewed Rachel Xu, the Co-founder and CEO of Curalens, to understand how immersive technology can bring alive embodied therapeutic techniques. In this in-depth interview, Rachel shares her struggle with mental health, her love for technology, her apprehensions and excitement about VR and the raging fire in her belly that keeps her innovating in the face of the unknown.
A: Why Virtual Reality (VR)?
R: Two years ago, I was working for a few VC firms where I was researching VR and its applications across disciplines like training, education, traveling and even real estate. I found it to be so multifunctional! Unlike a phone, which is two-dimensional, VR is three-dimensional. You…
