• Encourage players to make choices and acknowledge both positive and negative consequences. The power to make choices will get more buy-in from them when they feel their actions and voices matter. This also allows for opportunities for direct teaching and building resiliency and creative problem solving. Hugaas (2022) wrote about the concept of “bleed” in using role-playing games in therapy. According to Hugaas, “bleed-in” occurs when the game provides a safe space for clients to explore emotions like anxiety and stress through their character. “Bleed-out” occurs when the lessons learned during game play shape their actions in the real world.
• If the team cannot agree on an action, teach them problem- solving skills like writing a list of 10 possible choices and then discussing each choice until a solution can be found. Teach them to use active listening when teammates are explaining why they want to do their choice.
• Always make sure that safety and consent are at the table, and that all involved are respecting boundaries.
RPG and the Therapeutic Powers of Play Consider the following scenarios:
Scenario 1:
This scenario demonstrates the Therapeutic Powers of Play self-expression, teaching stress management (self-regulation), counterconditioning fears, and increasing self-esteem (Schaefer & Drewes 2014).
a monster, and the therapist notices Bobby (age 11) is struggling. that she notices that Bobby is raising his voice and snapping at his teammates, his hands are clenching and he appears to be angry. She frustration or adrenaline can come across as anger. She can give heart rates are when they are in the heat of the battle. Then, she can offer extra intelligence points for lowering their heart rate and give them an opportunity to work together to come up with ways to calm down. The storyline can continue with “as the orc took a moment to calm down and assess the situation, his clarity grew stronger by an extra roll.” This allows for direct teaching of understanding our body cues to intense emotions, self-regulation when the child is upset, and of resilience when the child must learn how to bounce back after calming down. As Bobby is able to help his team conquer the monster using his “extra clarity roll,” his self-esteem is increased.
The therapist can incorporate Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy into this scenario if the child expresses that they are frustrated that the rolls are never going their way. She can encourage the children to start a roll-tracking sheet and monitor good vs. bad rolls to see if what they
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are perceiving is accurate or if it only appears that way during the intense situation. The therapist can use this to review the cognitive distortions of disqualifying the positive and all-or-nothing thinking.
Scenario 2:
This scenario demonstrates the use of the therapeutic relationship in a group setting, empathy, social competence and resiliency.
The team has been working hard to negotiate with a shop-keeper for the tools they need for their next excursion. The shopkeeper is rude and continues to refuse to sell them the weapons the team wants to buy. The therapist can have the team take an in-game short rest where they can discuss what happened and reframe the loss from something the cognitive distortion of personalization through thoughts like "We failed because we suck or we are weak" to something such as "We did not succeed this time because we were unprepared, but now we know what to expect and can know better for next time". Encourage the players to make a list of strengths that each player is bringing to the situation and talk about how to incorporate those strengths better next time. Help direct conversation to be positive and supportive of teammates to teach how to show empathy and build positive relationships among the team members. Help the team come up with alternatives to buying those tools from the shopkeeper, or new ways to entice the shopkeeper by increasing their charisma through helping other townfolk.
Incorporating Adlerian Play Therapy into the
Game Play Therapists
Some basic concepts of Individual Psychology are that people are socially embedded with a need to belong, that people are self- determining and creative, that all behavior is goal-directed, and that reality is perceived subjectively based on a person's lifestyle convictions. These convictions are their beliefs about themselves, others, and the world. Children base their behaviors on these beliefs. (Kottman, 2022)
RPGs offer a great landscape to challenge those beliefs in a safe setting.
character’s backstory to help the participant strive for a sense of connection and highlight the steps they take toward achieving that as well.
Another example is to track the community's favor toward the party, and to have positive and negative outcomes based on that favor, thus increasing players' experience and understanding of how their actions affect those around them -- a lesson they can then extrapolate to their regular lives.
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