A Virtual Human Agent for Training Novice Therapist Clinical Interviewing Skills

Virtual Reality (VR) is rapidly evolving into a pragmatically usable technology for mental health (MH) applications. Over the last five years, the technology for creating virtual humans (VHs) has evolved to the point where they are no longer regarded as simple background characters, but rather can serve a functional interactional role. Our current project involves the construction of a natural language-capable virtual client named “Justin,” which derived from a military negotiation training tool into a virtual therapy patient for training novice clinicians the art of clinical interviewing with a resistant client. Justin portrays a 16-year old male with a conduct disorder who is being forced to participate in therapy by his family. The system uses a sophisticated natural language interface that allows novice clinicians to practice asking interview questions in an effort to create a positive therapeutic alliance with this very challenging virtual client. Herein we proffer a description of our iterative design process and outline our long term vision.

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