The Alphaville Herald

Free Happiness Therapy – For You!

by Alphaville Herald on 05/02/09 at 7:31 am

by Alessandra Narayan

Have you ever heard of Sunshine Therapy Gardens? This is a place where you can listen to birds, nature sounds – and talk through your problems – relaxing and finding the answers you need, under the guidance of RJ Muni, a Netherlander licensed psycho/hypnotherapist decided to help people live better lives, especially their second ones.

RJ Muni wants to help people feel better

Alessandra Narayan (AN) – What is sunshine therapy all about?
RJ Muni (RM) – A new way of making people feel better.

AN – How do you achieve that?
RM – It’s internet therapy and makes use of the visual and auditive possibilities SL offers. In that respect it’s different from regular internet therapy.

AN – Based on what therapies to be more precise? What do you exactly do? Yoga? Tai-chi? Talk to people? Are you a psychologist?
RM – It’s very broad. We talk to people in one on one chat sessions. Do group talks around the fire. The natural sounds alone stimulate people to relax. We have different meditations using colors and sounds. It’s all designed to make people feel better.

AN – And what's your RL background to guide people?
RM – I'm a licensed psycho/hypnotherapist in the Netherlands. Hypnotherapy uses suggestions and visualizations. This place is packed with that in a different way.

AN – For how long has Sunshine Therapy group been working? Since when?
RM – We started building this place 2 years ago and we’re actively supporting people just over a year.

AN – Has it been a success?
RM – The number of visitors steadily grows. We have approx 150 visitors daily. Many people asking support come here because we understand the issues they have better than a RL therapist.

AN – Better than a RL therapist?
RM – We’re ourselves in SL. Many years, we know what’s going on here and what it does to people.

AN – You basically help people with SL problems?
RM – We help people with whatever problem they have. SL problems reflect in SL and the other way around. We understand how people run into identity and relation issues over here and people feel happy to discuss these issues here and as for all forms of internet therapy there’s a safe distance.

AN – Problems with identity and relationships? Those are your patients most common issues?
RM – Identity, gender, relations. SL works as kind of looking glass to many people. It enlarges issues that were already in the personality. Becoming aware of these issues may confuse people.

AN – How do you sustain the tier for this region?
RM – It’s a private initiative, so far we do consults at no charge. Some people give us donations. It’s not sufficient to cover cost but we’re happy to see people enjoy over here. Soon I’d like to be working with an university to prove the value of what we’re doing here.