Dr. Gary Colman from Game Therapy UK shares how therapeutic gaming is really similar to existing therapies, such as art and creative therapy, leveraging imagination and creativity for healing. What’s compelling, in the case of my project, is how these gaming environments allows players to practice and rewind their communication and interactions, providing a safe space to practice their face-to-face social skills in a comfortable and familiar gaming environment.
Finbar Westall, a complex needs worker, suggests that for those overwhelmed by conventional therapy, therapeutic gaming offers a welcoming alternative. This idea particularly strikes a chord with my research, highlighting how the familiar environment of gaming can make such therapeutic play more welcoming and accessible to my target gamers. This structured play could help them feel more comfortable and open, helping them along with practicing their face-to-face interactions.
Gary mentioned in the video that they are currently working on a project for young neurodivergent adults, and they have organizations coming to them asking them to develop projects for the prison population, and even hospitals asking them to help develop a project for the cognitive impaired, Gary said that they are able to tailor scenarios to fit different individuals. This made me wonder if there could be a way to tailoring TTRPG scenarios to specifically help affected gamers bridge their online social prowess to real-world social interactions? Moreover, I’m also quite curious about potential overlaps between the groups – young individuals with neurodivergence and gamers – who might both benefit from such therapeutic gaming environments.
Game Therapy UK’s work and their openness to adapting scenarios for different groups hints at a promising avenue for collaboration. If I can show a need or interest within the gaming community, maybe it could lead to new therapeutic approaches tailored just for them?
very interesting.