Barbara Rothbaum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Barbara Rothbaum
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | Emory University |
Barbara Rothbaum is a smart scientist who helps people feel better. She is a psychologist, which means she studies how the mind works and how it affects behavior. Dr. Rothbaum works at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. She is a professor there and has done amazing work helping people with anxiety.
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Helping People Overcome Fears
Dr. Rothbaum is a leader in treating problems related to anxiety. She helps people who feel very worried or scared. She leads two special programs at Emory University. One is called the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program (TARP). The other is the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program. These programs help people who have gone through tough experiences.
Using Virtual Reality to Help
In the mid-1990s, Dr. Rothbaum started a company called Virtually Better, Inc. This company uses virtual reality (VR) to help people. Imagine putting on a special headset and seeing a computer-generated world. This is what VR is like.
Instead of going to a real place that might cause anxiety, patients can experience it safely in VR. For example, someone afraid of flying could practice being on a virtual airplane. The therapist can control what happens in the virtual world. This helps patients slowly get used to things that make them anxious. Virtually Better, Inc. helps people with anxiety, addictions, and even pain.
Helping with PTSD
Dr. Rothbaum also played a very important part in developing treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can happen to people who have experienced or seen something very scary or traumatic. It can make them feel anxious, have nightmares, or avoid certain places. Dr. Rothbaum's work has helped many people learn to cope with and recover from PTSD.
Leading in Her Field
From 2004 to 2005, Dr. Rothbaum was the president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. This is a big group of experts from all over the world. They work together to understand and treat the effects of trauma. Being president shows how much her work is respected by other scientists.
See also
- Prolonged exposure therapy (a type of therapy for PTSD)
- List of psychologists
- List of persons associated with Emory University
