- (212) 994-4921
- hello@werisenyc.com
- Online Therapy in Manhattan, NYC and New York State
RISE UP
and out of the patterns fear has kept you locked in.
Most people who come to us for virtual reality therapy already know what they’re avoiding and why. They know the cost. They’ve tried understanding the fear, reading about it, and talking about it. And the avoidance has kept going anyway, because knowing why you’re afraid rarely stops you from being afraid. We also offer online therapy for people who want flexible support beyond phobia work.
That pattern makes complete sense. Avoidance works in the short term, keeping the fear quiet and predictable. But it keeps life smaller, one refusal at a time. Even in a city that never slows down, people find ways to reorganize their whole routines around what they avoid. When you’re ready to push back against that, the question is how to do it without it feeling impossible.
Virtual reality therapy was built for exactly that question.
People come to VRT looking for structure, guidance, and a way to face the fear that doesn’t feel out of control. That’s what this approach provides. It’s graduated, it’s paced, and it’s designed to stay within what you can actually manage, so the work is challenging without being overwhelming.
People who get the most out of VRT often recognize themselves in these:
Virtual reality therapy uses a VR headset to place you inside a realistic, simulated environment where you can encounter what triggers you, with your therapist guiding the experience throughout. All sessions at We Rise NYC are conducted via secure telehealth.
You’re at home, your therapist is on screen, and the virtual environment is fully controlled. The intensity can be dialed up or down moment to moment based on how you’re responding. Nothing escalates without your awareness and readiness.
What the work actually involves:
At We Rise NYC, we are a team of licensed therapists providing online therapy to adults across New York State. We specialize in anxiety, phobias, OCD, and trauma, using evidence-based approaches including virtual reality therapy, EMDR, CBT, and ERP.
People who work with us appreciate that we are direct, we don’t push faster than what works, and we take the hardest things seriously. We’ve been helping people rise above what’s been holding them back since June 2022.
What we offer:
Graded exposure is the therapeutic backbone of VRT. We identify the full range of situations connected to your fear and arrange them from least to most triggering. The virtual environment allows us to work through this hierarchy gradually, starting where you can manage and advancing only when genuine tolerance is established at each level. Someone with a fear of heights, for example, might begin at ground level before ascending gradually in the simulation. This stepped approach prevents overwhelm, allows your nervous system to adapt, and builds real tolerance over time.
What this looks like in sessions:
One of the most clinically important features of VRT is the ability to adjust the simulated environment in real time. Fear responses are not linear, and sessions vary. If activation becomes too high, we reduce the intensity in the simulation immediately. If you’re tolerating well and ready to advance, we increase the challenge. Nothing escalates beyond what you’re ready for, and nothing is pushed past what your nervous system can work with in a given session.
What this looks like in sessions:
Between and after VR exposures, we use cognitive restructuring to examine what your mind predicted before the session versus what actually happened in the simulation. This helps the brain update its threat assessment. When the catastrophic prediction doesn’t materialize repeatedly, the fear response begins to shift. People often notice that what they expected to be unbearable was manageable, and that recognition builds on itself across sessions.
What this looks like in sessions:
At We Rise NYC, all VR therapy is done from your home. If you already own a VR headset, including an Oculus, we can work with what you have. If you don’t, we can connect you with our partnering agent to order one at a very low cost. Your therapist guides the entire session via secure telehealth, so you’re never navigating the virtual environment alone. You stay in your own space while we direct every step of the experience.
What this looks like in sessions:
Habituation is the core mechanism behind why virtual reality therapy works. When the nervous system is exposed to a feared situation repeatedly in a safe context, its alarm response begins to decrease on its own. The brain updates its assessment because the feared outcome doesn’t materialize. Each session builds on the last, and the response that once felt automatic and uncontrollable gradually becomes quieter. This is not willpower. It is the nervous system learning new information through repeated, safe experiences.
What this looks like in sessions:
Fear that makes sense, and a life that keeps shrinking because of it. Let’s change that.
Anxiety has a way of building its own architecture in daily life. You start with one situation you avoid, then two, then a whole map of places and moments where the anxiety might show up. For people whose anxiety spikes in predictable situations, such as crowded spaces, elevators, public transportation, or social settings, virtual reality therapy offers a way to confront those moments gradually and safely. The anxiety response is real, and it makes complete sense. What VRT does is give you a way to work with it directly, at an intensity you can manage, until your nervous system has enough experience to settle.
Phobias are among the most responsive conditions to virtual reality therapy. Whether the fear involves flying, heights, bridges, driving, animals, or specific environments, a VR simulation can recreate that situation realistically enough to trigger the fear response while keeping you completely safe. You practice tolerating the experience inside the simulation progressively and repeatedly, until the fear response decreases on its own. Many people find VRT far more accessible than arranging real-world exposure, especially when the actual scenario would be difficult, expensive, or logistically impossible to set up in a therapy context.
For OCD, virtual reality therapy works alongside Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to help people confront the thoughts, situations, or triggers that drive obsessions, without acting on the compulsion afterward. The controlled VR environment allows us to introduce OCD triggers in a repeatable, measured way so that each exposure helps weaken the compulsion response over time. If OCD has been organizing your daily life around avoidance and ritual, VRT offers a structured way to begin changing that, step by step, without feeling fully exposed before you’re ready.
For trauma-related avoidance, virtual reality therapy can help people gradually approach situations or environments that have become triggering. The goal is not to relive the trauma in detail but to reduce the reactivity to specific situational triggers, such as crowded spaces, vehicles, or particular sensory environments, at a measured, guided pace. VR therapy for trauma works best when combined with other trauma-informed approaches. At We Rise NYC, we also offer trauma therapy through EMDR for people processing trauma more deeply.
Virtual reality therapy uses immersive, computer-generated environments to help people engage with feared situations in a controlled, therapist-guided way.
Talk therapy builds understanding of the fear. VRT builds the nervous system’s capacity to tolerate it.
Real-world exposure to feared situations can be impractical, expensive, or too overwhelming to begin without a controlled environment first.
Virtual reality exposure therapy is evidence-based and has been studied extensively for anxiety disorders and specific phobias.
The first session doesn’t involve any virtual reality exposure. It’s a conversation, and it moves at your pace. If you’ve been carrying anxiety about starting, that’s completely understandable. We’ve sat with this kind of hesitation before, and there’s no pressure to know what you want or have your thoughts organized before we begin.
What happens in that first session:
You don’t have to commit to anything in the first session. If VRT feels right, we’ll design the approach together before any exposure work begins. If another approach would serve you better, we’ll say so.
Virtual reality therapy (VRT) is an evidence-based approach that uses immersive, computer-generated environments to help people face and work through situations that trigger anxiety, fear, or avoidance. Instead of only talking about a fear in a traditional therapy setting, VRT allows people to experience realistic simulations of the situations they are afraid of, while remaining in a fully controlled environment with a trained therapist guiding the process throughout.
Talk therapy builds understanding. VRT builds tolerance. Many people have a clear intellectual understanding of their fear and why it exists, but still find that the fear doesn’t change. VRT works directly with the body’s threat response by exposing the nervous system to the feared situation in a safe, repeatable context, until that response begins to decrease on its own.
VRT uses a VR headset to create immersive, three-dimensional environments. At We Rise NYC, sessions are conducted via secure telehealth, meaning you use a VR headset at home while your therapist guides the session remotely. If you don’t have a headset, including an Oculus, we can help you get one at a very low cost through our partnering agent.
VRT works through a principle called habituation. When the nervous system is exposed to a feared situation repeatedly in a safe context, its alarm response begins to decrease over time. The brain updates its threat assessment because the feared outcome doesn’t materialize. Over multiple sessions, what once felt unbearable starts to feel manageable, and the response that once felt automatic begins to quiet down.
At We Rise NYC, we use a graduated approach. We identify the full range of feared situations and work through them from least to most challenging, moving at a pace that stays within your tolerance. The VR environment can be adjusted moment to moment based on how you’re responding, so nothing escalates without your readiness.
During a session, you use your VR headset at home while meeting with your therapist via secure video. Your therapist guides you through the virtual environment, monitors your responses, adjusts the intensity in real time, and debriefs with you after each exposure to process what you noticed and how your nervous system responded.
Virtual reality therapy is most studied and most effective for anxiety disorders and specific phobias. This includes fear of flying, fear of heights, fear of bridges, fear of public speaking, fear of driving, fear of animals, and fear of enclosed spaces. The common thread is anxiety or panic that is organized around specific, identifiable, and predictable situations.
VRT is also used for OCD, particularly in combination with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and for trauma-related avoidance. For trauma, VRT helps reduce reactivity to situational triggers at a controlled, guided pace. At We Rise NYC, we treat anxiety, phobias, OCD, and PTSD using virtual reality therapy as part of a broader, individualized approach tailored to each person.
Yes. Virtual reality exposure therapy is evidence-based and has been studied extensively for anxiety disorders and specific phobias. Research shows that VRT can significantly reduce symptoms by promoting habituation, cognitive restructuring, and increased perceived control, all within a safe, repeatable setting. It is widely recognized in the mental health research community as an effective treatment method.
Effectiveness in VRT doesn’t mean the fear disappears after one session. It means that over time and across repeated exposures, the nervous system’s response to the feared situation decreases. The feared scenario stops triggering the same intensity of alarm. People find they can approach situations they had been avoiding with a steadiness they didn’t have before.
Virtual reality therapy has a substantial and growing body of research supporting its use. It is recognized as an effective, evidence-based treatment for phobias, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and OCD. Researchers at institutions including Weill Cornell’s Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies have been pioneering its clinical use for decades. At We Rise NYC, we apply VRT as part of a structured, clinically informed approach grounded in established therapeutic principles.
Virtual reality exposure therapy draws directly from established exposure therapy principles, the same principles that underpin evidence-based treatments for anxiety and phobias. The virtual environment is the delivery mechanism, not a replacement for clinical rigor. The techniques used, including graded exposure, cognitive restructuring, and response monitoring, are the same techniques used in traditional exposure therapy.
Virtual reality therapy is a form of exposure therapy. Specifically, it is a delivery method for exposure-based treatment that uses a simulated environment instead of a real-world setting. The underlying therapeutic mechanism is the same: repeated, controlled, graduated exposure to feared situations until the fear response decreases. The difference is that VRT offers a level of control, safety, and customization that real-world exposure cannot always provide.
Real-world exposure can be difficult to arrange. Airports, heights, and crowded social settings are not always accessible, affordable, or safe to use in a therapy context. VRT allows the therapist to create those environments on demand, repeat them as many times as needed in a single session, and adjust the intensity in real time. This makes exposure therapy more practical and more accessible than it has traditionally been.
The most reliable sign that VRT is working is a reduction in avoidance. The situations that were organizing your choices start to become more approachable. The fear response in the virtual environment decreases across successive exposures. Real-world confidence in similar situations begins to increase. Many people also notice they spend less mental energy managing the anticipatory anxiety around the feared situation between sessions.
At We Rise NYC, we check in regularly on how the work is landing. Progress is tracked by looking at your response to exposures across sessions, changes in avoidance behavior outside of sessions, and how you feel about your capacity to face the feared situation. We adjust the approach based on what’s working and what still needs attention.
VRT tends to work best for people whose anxiety, fear, or avoidance is organized around specific, identifiable situations. If you know exactly what triggers you, if avoidance has been your primary coping strategy, and if talking about the fear hasn’t been enough on its own to change how you respond, virtual reality therapy is often a strong fit. It is also well-suited for people who appreciate a structured, goal-oriented approach.
Many of the people who come to us for VRT have tried other approaches and found that understanding the fear didn’t change it. They’re ready to work differently. The convenience of doing VRT at home removes logistical barriers that have kept some people from starting exposure-based therapy, and the ability to move at their own pace makes the process feel manageable rather than overwhelming.
VRT is not suited for everyone. People with significant motion sickness sensitivity may find the VR headset experience physically uncomfortable. For people whose primary challenge is not situation-specific, such as generalized worry, mood-related concerns, or relational difficulties, other approaches may be more directly helpful. We discuss fit openly in the first session and always recommend the approach most likely to serve you well.
We don’t recommend VRT as a default for everyone. In the first session, we talk through what you’re experiencing, what you’ve already tried, and what your goals are. If VRT is a strong match, we move forward together. If another approach is a better fit, we’ll be straightforward about that and make sure you’re connected with what’s most likely to help.
Virtual reality is used in therapy because it solves a fundamental problem in exposure-based treatment: access. Feared environments are not always available, safe, or practical to use in a real-world therapy setting. VR allows therapists to create those environments on demand, during a session, at whatever intensity makes sense, repeated as many times as needed. It gives therapists a set of tools that traditional therapy settings simply do not have.
For many people, VRT feels less overwhelming as a starting point than real-world exposure. The sense of control, the ability to pause or slow the experience, and the fact that it happens from home all contribute to a lower barrier to entry. People who know they need to face their fear but can’t bring themselves to do it in the real world often find VRT a workable and genuinely manageable first step.
Several things make VRT preferable for certain people. The privacy of doing the work at home removes the social exposure of going somewhere new. The full control over pace, intensity, and stopping point makes the work feel less threatening. And for people who have found that imagining the feared situation in regular therapy hasn’t produced the same level of response as actually encountering it, VRT closes that gap in a way that feels real without being dangerous.
VRT tends to resonate most with people who are practical and goal-oriented, who want to see clear progress, and who appreciate structure. It also appeals to people who have found purely verbal therapy insufficient for something that lives so strongly in the body and nervous system. The combination of real-world simulation with clinical guidance and full control is what makes it work for people who wouldn’t try exposure therapy any other way.
Yes. At We Rise NYC, all of our virtual reality therapy is conducted online. You use your VR headset at home, and your therapist guides the session via secure telehealth. This is the model we use by design. It removes the need to travel to an office, makes sessions more accessible to people across all five boroughs and throughout New York State, and allows the therapy to happen in the comfort and privacy of your own environment.
If you already have a VR headset, including an Oculus, we can work with what you have. If you don’t have one, we can connect you with our partnering agent to order one at a very low cost. We’ll walk you through everything you need before your first VRT session, so nothing feels unfamiliar when we begin.
We Rise NYC is an online-only practice. We do not offer in-person sessions. All virtual reality therapy is conducted via secure telehealth, meaning your therapist connects with you over video while you use your VR headset at home. This model allows us to serve adults across all five boroughs, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, as well as Long Island and throughout New York State.
Individual VR Sessions: $175-$300
PACKAGES
Session rates vary depending on length, frequency, and clinician. We accept Aetna and United insurance. Below are the ranges of rates for Virtual Reality Therapy.
We Rise NYC accepts Aetna and United Healthcare. We also offer superbill documentation for out-of-network reimbursement. Contact us directly to confirm your specific coverage before beginning.
We Rise NYC is an online-only practice serving New York State via secure telehealth.
Virtual reality therapy (VRT) is an evidence-based approach that uses immersive, computer-generated environments to help people face and work through situations that trigger anxiety, fear, or avoidance. Instead of only talking about a fear in a traditional therapy setting, VRT allows people to experience realistic simulations of the situations they are afraid of, while remaining in a fully controlled environment with a trained therapist guiding the process throughout.
Talk therapy builds understanding. VRT builds tolerance. Many people have a clear intellectual understanding of their fear and why it exists, but still find that the fear doesn’t change. VRT works directly with the body’s threat response by exposing the nervous system to the feared situation in a safe, repeatable context, until that response begins to decrease on its own.
VRT uses a VR headset to create immersive, three-dimensional environments. At We Rise NYC, sessions are conducted via secure telehealth, meaning you use a VR headset at home while your therapist guides the session remotely. If you don’t have a headset, including an Oculus, we can help you get one at a very low cost through our partnering agent.
VRT works through a principle called habituation. When the nervous system is exposed to a feared situation repeatedly in a safe context, its alarm response begins to decrease over time. The brain updates its threat assessment because the feared outcome doesn’t materialize. Over multiple sessions, what once felt unbearable starts to feel manageable, and the response that once felt automatic begins to quiet down.
At We Rise NYC, we use a graduated approach. We identify the full range of feared situations and work through them from least to most challenging, moving at a pace that stays within your tolerance. The VR environment can be adjusted moment to moment based on how you’re responding, so nothing escalates without your readiness.
During a session, you use your VR headset at home while meeting with your therapist via secure video. Your therapist guides you through the virtual environment, monitors your responses, adjusts the intensity in real time, and debriefs with you after each exposure to process what you noticed and how your nervous system responded.
Virtual reality therapy is most studied and most effective for anxiety disorders and specific phobias. This includes fear of flying, fear of heights, fear of bridges, fear of public speaking, fear of driving, fear of animals, and fear of enclosed spaces. The common thread is anxiety or panic that is organized around specific, identifiable, and predictable situations.
VRT is also used for OCD, particularly in combination with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and for trauma-related avoidance. For trauma, VRT helps reduce reactivity to situational triggers at a controlled, guided pace. At We Rise NYC, we treat anxiety, phobias, OCD, and PTSD using virtual reality therapy as part of a broader, individualized approach tailored to each person.
For people dealing with ongoing stress connected to specific situations such as commuting, work environments, or social demands, VRT can provide a structured way to build tolerance and regulation skills alongside other approaches.
Yes. Virtual reality exposure therapy is evidence-based and has been studied extensively for anxiety disorders and specific phobias. Research shows that VRT can significantly reduce symptoms by promoting habituation, cognitive restructuring, and increased perceived control, all within a safe, repeatable setting. It is widely recognized in the mental health research community as an effective treatment method.
Effectiveness in VRT doesn’t mean the fear disappears after one session. It means that over time and across repeated exposures, the nervous system’s response to the feared situation decreases. The feared scenario stops triggering the same intensity of alarm. People find they can approach situations they had been avoiding with a steadiness they didn’t have before.
Virtual reality therapy has a substantial and growing body of research supporting its use. It is recognized as an effective, evidence-based treatment for phobias, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and OCD. Researchers at institutions including Weill Cornell’s Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies have been pioneering its clinical use for decades. At We Rise NYC, we apply VRT as part of a structured, clinically informed approach grounded in established therapeutic principles.
Virtual reality exposure therapy draws directly from established exposure therapy principles, the same principles that underpin evidence-based treatments for anxiety and phobias. The virtual environment is the delivery mechanism, not a replacement for clinical rigor. The techniques used, including graded exposure, cognitive restructuring, and response monitoring, are the same techniques used in traditional exposure therapy.
Virtual reality therapy is a form of exposure therapy. Specifically, it is a delivery method for exposure-based treatment that uses a simulated environment instead of a real-world setting. The underlying therapeutic mechanism is the same: repeated, controlled, graduated exposure to feared situations until the fear response decreases. The difference is that VRT offers a level of control, safety, and customization that real-world exposure cannot always provide.
Real-world exposure can be difficult to arrange. Airports, heights, and crowded social settings are not always accessible, affordable, or safe to use in a therapy context. VRT allows the therapist to create those environments on demand, repeat them as many times as needed in a single session, and adjust the intensity in real time. This makes exposure therapy more practical and more accessible than it has traditionally been.
The most reliable sign that VRT is working is a reduction in avoidance. The situations that were organizing your choices start to become more approachable. The fear response in the virtual environment decreases across successive exposures. Real-world confidence in similar situations begins to increase. Many people also notice they spend less mental energy managing the anticipatory anxiety around the feared situation between sessions.
At We Rise NYC, we check in regularly on how the work is landing. Progress is tracked by looking at your response to exposures across sessions, changes in avoidance behavior outside of sessions, and how you feel about your capacity to face the feared situation. We adjust the approach based on what’s working and what still needs attention.
VRT tends to work best for people whose anxiety, fear, or avoidance is organized around specific, identifiable situations. If you know exactly what triggers you, if avoidance has been your primary coping strategy, and if talking about the fear hasn’t been enough on its own to change how you respond, virtual reality therapy is often a strong fit. It is also well-suited for people who appreciate a structured, goal-oriented approach.
Many of the people who come to us for VRT have tried other approaches and found that understanding the fear didn’t change it. They’re ready to work differently. The convenience of doing VRT at home removes logistical barriers that have kept some people from starting exposure-based therapy, and the ability to move at their own pace makes the process feel manageable rather than overwhelming.
VRT is not suited for everyone. People with significant motion sickness sensitivity may find the VR headset experience physically uncomfortable. For people whose primary challenge is not situation-specific, such as generalized worry, mood-related concerns, or relational difficulties, other approaches may be more directly helpful. We discuss fit openly in the first session and always recommend the approach most likely to serve you well.
We don’t recommend VRT as a default for everyone. In the first session, we talk through what you’re experiencing, what you’ve already tried, and what your goals are. If VRT is a strong match, we move forward together. If another approach is a better fit, we’ll be straightforward about that and make sure you’re connected with what’s most likely to help.
Virtual reality is used in therapy because it solves a fundamental problem in exposure-based treatment: access. Feared environments are not always available, safe, or practical to use in a real-world therapy setting. VR allows therapists to create those environments on demand, during a session, at whatever intensity makes sense, repeated as many times as needed. It gives therapists a set of tools that traditional therapy settings simply do not have.
For many people, VRT feels less overwhelming as a starting point than real-world exposure. The sense of control, the ability to pause or slow the experience, and the fact that it happens from home all contribute to a lower barrier to entry. People who know they need to face their fear but can’t bring themselves to do it in the real world often find VRT a workable and genuinely manageable first step.
Several things make VRT preferable for certain people. The privacy of doing the work at home removes the social exposure of going somewhere new. The full control over pace, intensity, and stopping point makes the work feel less threatening. And for people who have found that imagining the feared situation in regular therapy hasn’t produced the same level of response as actually encountering it, VRT closes that gap in a way that feels real without being dangerous.
VRT tends to resonate most with people who are practical and goal-oriented, who want to see clear progress, and who appreciate structure. It also appeals to people who have found purely verbal therapy insufficient for something that lives so strongly in the body and nervous system. The combination of real-world simulation with clinical guidance and full control is what makes it work for people who wouldn’t try exposure therapy any other way.
Yes. At We Rise NYC, all of our virtual reality therapy is conducted online. You use your VR headset at home, and your therapist guides the session via secure telehealth. This is the model we use by design. It removes the need to travel to an office, makes sessions more accessible to people across all five boroughs and throughout New York State, and allows the therapy to happen in the comfort and privacy of your own environment.
If you already have a VR headset, including an Oculus, we can work with what you have. If you don’t have one, we can connect you with our partnering agent to order one at a very low cost. We’ll walk you through everything you need before your first VRT session, so nothing feels unfamiliar when we begin.
We Rise NYC is an online-only practice. We do not offer in-person sessions. All virtual reality therapy is conducted via secure telehealth, meaning your therapist connects with you over video while you use your VR headset at home. This model allows us to serve adults across all five boroughs, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, as well as Long Island and throughout New York State.
Individual VR Sessions: $175-$300
PACKAGES
Session rates vary depending on length, frequency, and clinician. We accept Aetna and United insurance. Below are the ranges of rates for Virtual Reality Therapy.
We Rise NYC accepts Aetna and United Healthcare. We also offer superbill documentation for out-of-network reimbursement. Contact us directly to confirm your specific coverage before beginning.
We Rise NYC is an online-only practice serving New York State via secure telehealth.
You don't have to keep organizing your life around what you avoid.
After filling out this form, you will be redirected to our online calendar where you can book a 10-minute Q&A call to see if we are a fit for your needs.
