{"id":455854,"date":"2025-12-18T16:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/455854\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:00:44","slug":"a-radical-use-of-deepfake-technology-is-offering-hope-for-survivors-of-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/455854\/","title":{"rendered":"A radical use of deepfake technology is offering hope for survivors of abuse."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for the Slatest<\/a> to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.<\/p>\n

Marina vd Roest hadn\u2019t faced the man who abused her in decades when she first sat down in front of the laptop. Confronted with his realistic, blinking, speaking face, she felt \u201cscared \u2026 like a little child again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I had to close the laptop and get my breath back before opening it and continuing with the conversation,\u201d she says. Vd Roest is one of the first people to have tried out a radical new form of therapy that involves putting survivors face-to-face with A.I.-generated deepfakes of their attackers as a means of healing unresolved trauma.<\/p>\n

Many people now count chatbots among their friends<\/a>, therapists, and lovers, while griefbots mimic deceased loved ones. The technology can be dangerous; chatbots have been tied to some psychotic episodes<\/a> and suicides<\/a>. Deepfake therapy of the kind vd Roest tried is closely monitored by clinicians, and the avatar is voiced by a trained clinician. The same approach could prove hugely risky if attempted solo. For vd Roest, it was a revelation.<\/p>\n

Vd Roest had suffered from decades of post-traumatic stress disorder following her abuse. She had tried traditional therapy, as well as interventions like eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, where a patient is asked to recall traumatic events while experiencing auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli. While it was temporarily effective, her PTSD returned, prompting her to try out the experimental approach.<\/p>\n

She was part of a two-person pilot study<\/a> on the new therapeutic approach published in 2022. Following the participants\u2019 positive responses to the intervention, there is currently a larger study underway in the Netherlands, the results of which are due to be published sometime next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a child when it was happening and now I\u2019m older, and I thought maybe it would be good for me, to help me process, to talk to the man who did it,\u201d she says. Vd Roest was well aware that the man\u2019s virtually generated image wasn\u2019t real, but that didn\u2019t stop a fight-or-flight response from kicking in upon seeing his face. Afterward, she was rushing with adrenaline.<\/p>\n

Given the chance to finally express herself, she questioned the deepfake about why he had attacked her. \u201cDo you know how old I was? Why did you do it? Was I the only one? Did anybody else know about it?\u201d she says she asked. \u201cEverything that was in my mind, I could throw out.\u201d<\/p>\n

She became angry with the avatar. \u201cFor the first time in all those years I could express my feelings, my anger, my pain,\u201d she says. \u201cI think the therapist [who voiced the deepfake] was a little afraid of me afterwards,\u201d she adds with a laugh.<\/p>\n

The therapy involves asking survivors to bring photos of their attackers, which are used to build a realistic deepfake that is operated by a therapist during a live session. The image is responsive to the therapist\u2019s movements\u2014when they blink or open their mouth, so does the A.I. avatar.<\/p>\n

The setup involves having the patient in one room with a therapist on hand to coach them through the conversation while a therapist in a different room operates the technology. The patient can say whatever they want over the course of a session lasting up to 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

The idea for the treatment was inspired by a preexisting form of exposure therapy in which survivors of sexual abuse are asked to bring in a photo of their attacker to speak to, as well as the restorative justice model that sees victims of crimes meet with those who wronged them. Some of the research on these interventions show the interactions can \u201cpromote psychological well-being, increase a sense of justice and empowerment, and decrease anger, anxiety and guilt, as well as the fear of revictimization and a desire for revenge,\u201d says Jackie June ter Heide, the clinical psychologist who is leading the current study.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives the victim the sense of being heard,\u201d says ter Heide, who is directing the project in her capacity as senior researcher at the Netherlands\u2019 ARQ National Psychotrauma Center. \u201cEven if the perpetrator is not able to be very empathetic, at least it gives them the sense that \u2018I have spoken up for myself. I have done justice to myself.\u2019 \u201d For survivors of abuse, who often carry around guilt and shame for years afterward, this therapy can offer the chance to finally externalize these feelings onto the rightful owner: the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

Patients undergo thorough preparatory interviews to help them set expectations for the confrontations. \u201cWe ask them things like: What is your goal with the deepfake session? Can you give us an idea of the perpetrator? What are they like? What would you like to say and how do you think they might respond?\u201d<\/p>\n

Different perpetrators might dictate different approaches. For example, some patients were groomed over time by someone who tried to appear kindly and gain their trust, while others might have been violently attacked by a stranger. To help the encounter feel as realistic as possible while still promoting healing, the therapist can adopt a slightly different persona in each case. For a perpetrator who has groomed someone, they could say something like, \u201cI was lonely. I felt like I wasn\u2019t worth anything.\u201d For a more violent, outwardly callous perpetrator, they could say something like, \u201cI had a feeling of power. I was angry with everyone,\u201d says ter Heide.<\/p>\n

The most important job for the clinician is to make sure that the shame and guilt remain firmly on the perpetrator. \u201cWe have example sentences that can help the deepfake therapist stress that,\u201d says ter Heide. \u201cSentences like: This shouldn\u2019t ever have happened. I never realized what I did to you. It wasn\u2019t your fault. You were only a child. I made this choice. It\u2019s my responsibility. I am the one who should feel guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, in many cases it\u2019s unlikely that the real perpetrator would accept blame and apologize. The therapist must tread a fine line between posing as a somewhat believable perpetrator and providing the patient with the opportunity for healing.<\/p>\n

The sessions are intended to be limited, and patients have differed in how many they want. While one patient was satisfied after a single deepfake encounter, another asked for four, because in early sessions she had had \u201cdifficulty looking at the screen\u201d and expressing what she wanted to say.<\/p>\n

In the first instance, she struggled to confront her attacker due to fears that this would make her \u201cnasty\u201d like him. But ter Heide stressed that \u201cyou don\u2019t need to, as a patient, swear at the perpetrator, or tell him he\u2019s horrible,\u201d but it helps to \u201cacknowledge the truth \u2026 hold somebody accountable and stand up for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether this therapy could threaten to re-traumatize some patients, ter Heide said it was \u201ctheoretically possible,\u201d but this is what the preparatory sessions are aimed at preventing. Patients who don\u2019t appear to be appropriate candidates aren\u2019t offered the intervention.<\/p>\n

The risks would be far greater if the interactions were taking place outside of a clinical setting, or for \u201cre-animation\u201d technologies like griefbots, which offer a simulacrum of speaking to a deceased loved one. \u201cIt\u2019s really about having good therapists in control,\u201d says Marieke Bak, assistant professor in medical ethics at Amsterdam UMC. She is working with a group of ethicists and lawyers who are using the study to inform guidelines that could shape this kind of therapy.<\/p>\n

Bak has considered potential risks like the blurring reality for patients or over-attachment to the deepfakes. Importantly, in the current study, \u201cNo one is going to take home the deepfakes,\u201d she says. However, deepfake software is publicly available, so it is possible that someone could attempt an intervention like this on their own. In this case, the risks of re-traumatization or other malign mental health impacts would be much higher.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

The group has also looked at the privacy implications for the perpetrator, whose photographs are used to design the deepfake. \u201cIn this case, it\u2019s really undesirable to go to the perpetrator to ask for consent,\u201d Bak points out.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    \n This Content is Available for Slate Plus members only<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s One of the Hardest Confrontations Anyone Can Have. It Might Be One Good Use of a Controversial Technology.
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Ultimately, it comes down to a balance of interests. \u201cIf someone has a complicated case of PTSD, and this is thought to be the thing that will work \u2026 we say that the legitimate interest of the patients would generally outweigh the privacy risks of the perpetrator,\u201d says Bak.<\/p>\n

    Her team has proposed safeguards like using watermarks on any manipulated media to clearly show they\u2019re fake, in case any materials were made public in a data breach. The European Union has some of the strictest data-privacy laws in the world, so the therapy might encounter fewer regulatory hurdles in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

    The results of ter Heide\u2019s ongoing study won\u2019t be published until sometime next year. Vd Roest and the other participant exhibited a reduction in PTSD symptoms and less self-blame, combined with more self-forgiveness, at one week after the sessions. The current study will need to wrap up before researchers can fully quantify the impact. But vd Roest says that a few years on from her intervention, a strong sense of relief has persisted. \u201cI think I needed it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

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