Lay summary
Dance movement therapy (DMT) interventions increase quality of life and decrease clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety. The purpose of our research is to understand how to design a mixed-reality and AI-based application to facilitate kinaesthetic creativity that can be used within DMT interventions. The first year of research will involve co-creating the application with clients and dance therapists. The second year will involve a field trial using the application to evaluate its effectiveness to alleviate depression and anxiety. The anticipated benefits of a novel VR-based DMT with AI are the prevention and alleviation of mental health symptoms. Incorporating generative AI agents into DMT is ground-breaking. DMT tends to be expensive and is rare due to a dearth of qualified therapists. The system will disrupt existing norms in mental healthcare and be the first DMT intervention that can be used at home and delivered at scale.