John Francis Leader is a psychologist and cognitive scientist at University College Dublin. He’s the director of the Mixed Reality Therapy research project where they use virtual reality as a therapeutic tool with their patients. Leader describes the approach as “theme park meets therapy.”

Fay Nugent had a serious fear of heights for years. The simple act of getting on an escalator was terrifying. Nugent heard about a clinical trial for virtual reality therapy at Oxford University and gave it a try. Could a four hour virtual reality session really ease her fears and change her life?