VRelax is a virtual reality therapy app that reduces stress, anxiety, and pain in just minutes. Used in hospitals, mental health institutions, and workplaces, it offers immersive natural environments where sound plays a central role in creating calm and presence. As Audio Director and co-founder, I crafted over 100 spatial audio soundscapes - from serene beaches to tranquil forests - making VRelax one of the leading examples of how sound can function as medicine.

Case Study: VRelax

The Challenge

Creating therapeutic VR environments demands more than visuals. For people to truly relax, the sound has to be convincing, natural, and emotionally grounding. That meant:

  • Balancing presence and peace: Enough sonic detail to feel alive, but never overwhelming or distracting.

  • Reconstructing impossible places: Many environments were recorded under difficult conditions. Rebuilding these into clean, convincing soundscapes required extensive layering and creative reconstruction.

  • Innovating with purpose: Traditional sound design for games or films often uses sound to excite. Here, the task was the opposite: finding new ways of using audio to calm, reassure, and reduce stress.

The challenge was not just technical - it was about proving that sound could actively lower heart rate, reduce cortisol, and support mental well-being.

The Process

At Sphere of Sound, we approached VRelax with the mindset that sound isn’t background > it’s the backbone of relaxation.

  • Immersive ambisonic field recordings: Capturing environments in full 360° using ambisonic microphones, then cleaning and sculpting them in post-production.

  • Spatial precision with trueSpatial: Partnering with Atmoky, we positioned sounds exactly where they belonged - every rustle of leaves, every wave, every bird call feels placed naturally in 3D space.

  • Creative reconstruction: When recordings weren’t usable due to noise pollution, we rebuilt entire soundscapes from scratch, layering recordings, synthesized textures, and foley to create believable yet calm sonic worlds.

  • Therapeutic soundscapes: Drawing on psychology and neuroscience, we fine-tuned frequencies, dynamics, and pacing to guide users into relaxation without them ever feeling “guided.”

This process made VRelax one of the first VR platforms where sound was deliberately designed as the therapeutic core - not an afterthought.

  • Capturing Iceland.

  • Music Therapy Concept.

  • Recording water.

  • Spatial Audio Integration.

  • Client feedback.

The Result & Impact

Clinical validation: Independent studies showed stress levels reduced by nearly 50% in just 10 minutes of use.

  1. Adoption in healthcare: Deployed across hospitals, mental health institutions, and rehabilitation centers in Europe.

  2. Proven behavioral change: In psychiatric care, VRelax reduced agitation and the need for restrictive interventions by more than 50%.

  3. Scale: Over 11,000 sessions per month and growing — making VRelax a leader in VR mental wellness.

Winner of the Prix Galien MedTech Innovation Award, widely considered the “Nobel Prize” of medical technology.

Listen.

Why It Matters

VRelax demonstrates that sound is medicine. By shifting how we think about audio - not as background but as a therapeutic tool - we opened a new path for mental health support. It’s a project that proves how sound design can have a measurable, positive impact on people’s lives.

Partners.

  • Client

    Scientific validated VR Mental Health application

  • Atmoky True Spatial Renderer

    atmoky

  • Universtair Medisch Centrum Groningen

    Research

Work with me.

Do you want to tell delicate stories with impact, without falling into spectacle? I help museums, cultural institutions, and heritage projects use immersive sound to connect people with history on a deeply emotional level.