The Psychology of Tabletop Role Playing Games

There's a growing trend among therapists who bring people together --often children, but sometimes adults-- to play Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games in a therapeutic context. Run by game masters who are qualified mental health professionals, these sessions help people dealing with ADHD, autism, learning disorders, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many other diagnoses. Using their expertise both in the game and in providing therapy, these dungeon masters set goals, guide players into encounters that help them reach those goals, and then pause so that the group can reflect, ponder the application of what they've experienced to life outside the game, and grow.

How does it work? How WELL does it work? What makes tabletop role-playing games such a good vehicle for therapy in this way? Those are all questions I will ask of this episode's guest expert.



Audio Credits:

• “Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
• "Friendly Day" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/