The future of psychology: Approaches to enhance therapeutic outcomes

Recent years have seen a greater acceptance of mind–body approaches in the psychology field. Emerging research indicates that supplementing established and evidence-based psychological techniques (such as behavioral, exposure and cognitive processing) with physiological or digital/technological interventions — such as acupressure, diaphragmatic breathing, eye movements, and virtual reality - enhances therapeutic outcomes. Studies of therapies in the counselling space focused on the relationships between the mind, body, brain, and behavior are now being recognized as effective treatments by various official bodies, including the US Veterans Administration, the US National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, and the World Health Organization.

The goal of this Research Topic is to examine the evidence for the efficacy of interventions supplementing traditional approaches such as talk therapy. For example, by 2021 more than 400 papers had been published in peer-reviewed journals, including meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, and other outcome studies demonstrating the efficacy of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and Energy Psychology approaches with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other conditions, often at an order of magnitude greater than conventional therapies. It has now also been 25 years since the first mental health applications of VR technology appeared, but digital interventions including applied games, may also hold a key to increasing access to, engagement with, and potentially the effectiveness of psychological treatments. If the future of psychology is to improve and even face a paradigm shift, in both cost effectiveness and with constraints such as online delivery, how can we think outside the box to deliver highly effective interventions?