Counseling Psychological Understanding and Considerations of the Metaverse: A Theoretical Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the interest in and demand for online platforms that can replace traditional face-to-face activities. Accordingly, metaverses have been increasingly used across society, especially in the Mental health field. This broad use of metaverses is now recognized as a major trend that will drive various industries across healthcare and society. In response to this societal change, this study provides a theoretical framework for understanding and applying metaverses as therapeutic spaces in mental health fields through a conceptualization and characterization of metaverses for a range of technologies and services. The value of metaverses as a human-centered "field of experience" was identified and proposed based on the essential aspect of the user, the human being, rather than from the technology used. According to existing psychotherapeutic theories, four therapeutic concepts for the metaverse were proposed: metaverse as an "average expectable environment" in the developmental and therapeutic categories of the self, a transitional stage for adaptation to reality, a creative space for memory and communication for the self, and an expanded or "surplus" reality. This work is expected to be a useful basis for expanding new psychotherapeutic strategies and methods as therapeutic spaces for maintaining mental health through the metaverse.