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*image by liuzishan on freepix
Yes, you read that right. Dungeons and Dragons (and other Tabletop Roleplay Games or TTRPGs) can be used as valid forms as therapy. One of the certifications I’ve earned is “Therapeutic Game Master” meaning I went through training to use one of the passions I have in my outside life as a tool in my work life.
TTRPGs are games that involve 1 or more people role-playing a character and engage in activies such as daring adventures, solving mysteries, or rescuing damsels. One person often takes to role of the Game Master to help drive the story forward and offer challenges to the players. Some games only need one person and can offer a lot of insight into who they are, what they are processing, or even what they are feeling in that moment.
Being a therapeutic game master, I can use these tabletops in a variety of ways with clients either individually or as a group!
Individually we might work on communication with non-playable characters in the story, use it as a safe space to practice skills, or use it to process heavy emotions or trauma in a way that is outside themselves.
As a group the clients can also use it as a safe space to work on skills, communication, teamwork, socialization, or processing through heavy, but similar events together rather than alone. Using a character rather than themselves allows them to pretend to step in someone elses shoes and approach the task or situation at hand from a different angle than they might have in the real world. Maybe they use the character to practice being a version of themselves that they want to be.
An example (None of the names in this example are real clients, nor is this a situation that I have been in as a counselor):
Laura is very shy and suffers from Social Anxiety as an adult. She was bullied as a kid for being “strange” or “weird” and now struggles to be herself around others. She has decided to join in a TTRPG group playing Dungeons and Dragons. When building a character, she decides to make a Gnome Bard named Fiora, who loves to perform on their lute and entice the crowd with their wild storytelling and songs. This character is outgoing, joyous, and is very knowledgeable about the myth and stories of old. Laura is using Fiora to express aspects of herself in a way that is safe to her and eventually will feel confident enough the express Fiora’s traits in the real world as Laura!
This is something we call bleed out and it is something that happens in casual games as well. Characters tend to have an effect on the Players that play them. They may learn confidence in standing up for themselves or better listening skills. The opposite of that is called Bleed in, Players often put aspects of their lives into their characters and the real life of those players may bleed into the characters such as fears, worries, heavy emotions, etc.
Therapeutic Game Masters use this bleed out and bleed in skillfully to help their clients heal from heavy emotions and traumas as well as practice being themselves or new skills in a safe environment.
