Rephobia: Using VR to help people overcome their fears

Founded last year, this Belfast-based start-up wants to use VR to make ‘fear less scary, therapy more human and support more accessible’.

With millions of people worldwide suffering from at least one phobia, there’s a good chance that you either suffer from a phobia yourself or you know someone who does.

As an anxiety disorder, a phobia is defined as an extreme or irrational fear or aversion of an object or situation.

Some common phobias range from the fear of spiders and clowns to heights and even social situations. Phobias can trigger an extreme reaction depending on the severity, and can be difficult to deal with – especially if the source of a person’s phobia is somewhat unavoidable in their daily life.

But how do you treat a phobia? Often the most successful treatment is through exposure therapy – however, some may not be able to access or afford this treatment.

Luckily, our Start-up of the Week provides an alternative method of treatment using technology.

Rephobia is a therapist-led virtual reality (VR) platform that helps people overcome their phobias through safe, guided exposure therapy.

The brainchild of Queen’s University Belfast student Liam Harte, Rephobia uses immersive VR scenarios built around real psychological frameworks, all of which are supported by a qualified therapist.

“It’s about making fear less scary, therapy more human and support more accessible,” says Harte.

How it started

As Harte explains to SiliconRepublic.com, the idea for Rephobia was born out of his technical background in VR research and his personal connection to mental health.

The computer science student has lived with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) for most of his life.

“Rephobia started as a solo project, combining that lived experience with technical know-how to build a new kind of therapy platform,” he says. “Rephobia is rooted in my own experiences with OCD and anxiety, which makes the mission deeply meaningful – but also demanding. Balancing that personal connection with the objectivity needed to run a business has taken time and reflection.”

As Harte explains, the Belfast-based start-up is targeting those who suffer from phobias that can’t access the necessary treatment. The initial focus on younger adults between the ages of 18 and 35 who are “tech-savvy, open to digital mental health and currently underserved”.

“Many can’t access or afford exposure therapy, and even fewer want to face their fears in the real world right away,” he says. “By combining immersive VR with therapist support, Rephobia offers a middle ground: clinically effective, cost-efficient and far more accessible.”

How does it work?

As Harte explains, the Rephobia platform works on treating phobias in a controlled, step-by-step process.

“At its core, we recreate real-world fear scenarios in Unity using VR headsets, giving users a sense of presence that’s powerful enough to trigger anxiety but safe enough to manage it,” he explains. “Each experience is built with therapist input and grounded in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles – specifically graded exposure, where users gradually face their fear in small, manageable steps.

“We track user progress and physiological responses in-session, and therapists can guide the experience in real time.”

He tells us that the start-up is currently developing its own library of phobia environments, ranging from public speaking to spiders, each with different levels of intensity and customisation options.

“The tech allows users to pause, repeat or adjust difficulty – all while staying in a therapeutic space.”

According to Harte, the Rephobia platform differs from “self-help VR apps” in the way that it’s designed to be used alongside a trained therapist.

“We’re also mindful of accessibility, ensuring the platform works on widely available, affordable VR headsets – making effective support more reachable for more people,” he says. “Our long-term vision includes data-driven insights and adaptive environments tailored to each user’s progress.

“The goal is to make evidence-based phobia treatment as accessible and human as possible. We want Rephobia to become the go-to platform for therapist-led VR mental health support – starting with phobias, but expanding into broader anxiety disorders over time.”

The journey so far

Despite only being founded last year, “things are moving fast” for Rephobia, according to Harte. So far, the start-up has secured multiple rounds of equity-free funding and recently won a Unity for Humanity Grant, which recognises innovators that use the Unity game engine to address global challenges.

“While we’re pre-revenue, we’ve had strong early interest from clinics and universities – and we’re just getting started.”

As well as this, the Rephobia team has been growing. Harte tells us that he recently brought on a team member with a background in psychology and CBT-aligned research to help shape the start-up’s clinical content and ensure everything is ethically grounded and evidence-based.

Currently, the team is working on its minimum viable product and plans to test its first phobia environments this summer.

“Long-term, we aim to partner with health systems, universities and insurers to make this technology widely available, affordable and scalable,” says Harte. “It’s about giving people the confidence to face what scares them – and proving that therapy can be immersive, empowering and even a little bit beautiful.”

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