CounselAR: Exploring How AR Filters Facilitate Online Psychotherapy In the Wild With South Korean Young Adults

In a society where mental health issues are prevalent, engagement with psychotherapy remains low due to stigma and accessibility barriers. Telepsychotherapy offers a potential solution but holds challenges, including difficulties in encouraging open self-disclosure and ease of access. In this paper, we introduce CounselAR, an augmented reality (AR)-mediated therapy service designed to facilitate CHI '25, April 26-May 01, 2025, Yokohama, Japan Noh et al.

one-on-one therapy sessions by allowing both client and therapist to use AR filters to maintain varying degrees of anonymity. Through a six-week field deployment involving nine clients and four therapists, we explored how AR-mediated therapy might support psychotherapy from both the clients' and therapists' perspectives. The results illustrate the potential role of AR filters in enhancing self-disclosure, building rapport, and lowering entry barriers to psychotherapy. Drawing on these findings, we discuss the nuanced role of AR filters and the implications of leveraging AR in psychotherapy.

• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Field studies.