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This book offers an accessible, comprehensive resource to practitioners who wish to incorporate RPGs into their client-work. Tabletop role-playing games, RPGs, have long been associated with various unique emotional, cognitive, and social benefits, but only recently has the term 'RPG Therapy' entered into the mental-health lexicon. Presenting simple game- and storytelling mechanics, and demonstrating how they may be utilized in accordance with specific professional modalities, this supportive guide explores every step of the implementation process, from underlying therapeutic principles to initial creative exercises to actual in-session play, and encourages readers to have confidence in their own imaginative abilities. Written for practitioners of all levels of client- and RPG experience, this groundbreaking and authoritative book provides case examples and practical tools, along with pragmatic and straightforward advice on how to implement this exciting new form of intervention.
List of contents
Introduction: Role-Playing Games as Therapy.- Part I: Underlying Principles.- Theoretical Approach.- Core Mechanics.- Part II: Preparation.- Character.- Setting.- Obstacle.- Part III: Implementation.- Telling the Story.- Playing the Game.- Applying your Modality.- Extended Example of Play.- Concluding Therapy.
About the author
Daniel Hand is an author, game designer and therapeutic counsellor in private practice. His work has appeared in venues such as
Therapy Today and the
Popular Culture Psychology series, and he regularly speaks on the uses of gameplay and storytelling in psychotherapy.
