The VR therapy that lets you paint surf boards with Sally Fitzgibbons

Devika will soon launch its newest VR offering called the Sally Fitzgibbons Art Therapy Experience, which takes users to a beach where the champion surfer talks them through painting surfboards with the aim of fostering a sense of calm and mindfulness.

Devika managing director Ken Kencevski said the product was inspired by the experience of Fitzgibbons (an ambassador for the business) during COVID lockdowns, when she found being at the beach and listening to the waves helpful for her anxiety.

The VR experience will be introduced at an event in Wollongong in July with Fitzgibbons, Paralympian Sarah Walsh and health scientist Dr Caroline Mills.

There Devika will donate VR headsets to the charity Disabled Surfers Association South Coast.

The Sally Fitzgibbons experience follows an earlier product that provides a virtual sensory room for people with neurodevelopmental disability, which can include autism and ADHD.

Mr Kencevski said Devika developed the VR sensory room after witnessing the positive impacts such rooms had on people.

But these rooms could cost more than $100,000 a year to build and maintain, he said, so his company looked at how it could deliver the same outcomes for a fraction of the price.

Dr Caroline Mills and Professor Robert Gorkin from Western Sydney University's Translational Health Research Institute conducted a world-first study looking at the impact of this sensory room on adults with neurodevelopmental disability, who can experience problems processing sensory stimuli and suffer health impacts as a result.

"It gives an opportunity for people to control and contrive the sensory input in the environment," Dr Mills said of the VR technology.

The study found improvements in anxiety, as well as improvements in depression for those who experienced it.

While more research was needed to confirm the findings, Dr Mills said they suggested VR might have a clinical application, not just use as entertainment.

She said physical sensory rooms could be expensive to set up, unsuitable due to lack of space, and, being in a fixed location, inaccessible.

A VR sensory room offers the advantages of being portable.

However, the study did identify some pitfalls: VR might be unsuitable for people with certain conditions, such as epilepsy, and some did not like using the headset.

"But our research found it was mostly acceptable to people with disabilities and their careers, with a few caveats," Dr Mills said.