The Forest of Resilience VR Experience
Company: Born Studios London / Mesmerise Group Role: Creative Director/Senior Copywriter
An Immersive Experience to Activate Resilience
With around 75% of workers experiencing mental health issues annually and burnout on the rise, we saw a need for a solution to improve resilience at work. Therefore, we collaborated with Dr. Anna Rowley and transformed one of her resilience workshops into an immersive experience.
The idea I came up with was using the metaphor of a tree, one of nature's most resilient entities. The journey starts with planting a seed. As users nurture and watch it grow, they also cultivate their own resilience through mental health activities like forest bathing, breathwork, body scans, and letting go of negative thoughts.
The Forest of Resilience was showcased at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Next 2022 and CIPD Festival of Work events. It won a Silver Award at the Telly Awards 2023 and became a finalist in the AIXR Awards 2022 for VR Healthcare of the Year.
By the way, Forest of Resilience is in the App Store. Try it and let me know if it works for you as well!
What works here?
The idea of growing your own tree while doing resilience exercises added a subtle gamification element. It made the experience more intuitive and helped shorten the learning curve.
Also, giving users a seed at the end created a simple but unforgettable bridge from virtual reality to real life.
Also, giving users a seed at the end created a simple but unforgettable bridge from virtual reality to real life.