Battling both dragons and inner demons by applying games like ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ to therapy

Roll for initiative. Against your brain? The first part is a line heard around the world these days

Tabletop role-playing games have hit the mainstream hard, with shows like Stranger Things and podcasts

like Critical Role. But getting to that second half, there is a new industry games like Dungeons

and Dragons have found their way into. Healthcare. It is very difficult for the average person to go

without knowing what these sorts of games are. Alicia Merrick is a researcher at James Cook University in Australia

who has studied the use of role-playing games in psychotherapy. In an interview with Straight Arrow

Merrick explains how role-playing in a fantasy world can improve your mental health

Through sort of the engagement of challenges within tabletop role-playing games, whether that be fighting a dragon or picking some locks

you engage with sort of short-term successes um whether that be you know successfully cracking

over the safe you were trying to get into or uh you know dealing the the killing blow to whatever

monster you're fighting in their research merrick writes the games can build self-esteem and

self-efficacy the ability to sort through challenges in the game can apply to real world

issues self-efficacy refers to beliefs that one is capable of performing a specific behavior

or set of behaviors when called for in challenging situations. Self-esteem describes a person's positive or negative attitudes

and evaluations of themselves. Basically, it's what you believe you can do

and how you think about yourself. You develop a sense of allyship

not only with the other people playing with you, but also the person running the game

And by taking on these characters you learn either directly or indirectly different things about yourself and the others around you

Mackenzie Amstutz is a TTRPG enthusiast and an adult mental health therapist with Northwestern Medicine in Chicago

Because I think as adults we have this tendency to, like, completely lock out imagination, exploration, just a sense of fun

And when we have that opportunity to explore things and to imagine something different, we're really working a part of our brain that is needed in adult life, like problem solving and creative thinking and stuff like that

As we put those parts of ourselves into the characters that we create, we're playing out these things that we're struggling with in real life, just in a setting that is more relaxed and has less like ultimate consequences

While role-playing games can be a useful therapy tool, experts warn you shouldn't read too much into a player's in-game choices

I would not use this as a tool for assessment or diagnosing or anything like that

I think it's more of a working therapy tool and helping people reach their goals

So we can learn a little bit from the client the way that they play out their characters, but it's always something that needs to be motivated by them internally

It can be a really good tool for social skills, collaborative teamwork, questions of morality

what is a person responsible for, how to even just be kind to each other and hold space for others

While playing Dungeons & Dragons can't solve all problems, experts find role-playing games can be used to help achieve therapy goals

For Straight Arrow, I'm Robin Stoltzfus