Last updated: November 28, 2024
I'm a graduate mental health counseling student and plan to integrate my interest in RPGs into my practice down the line. As this is a burgeoning specialization, I think it'd be useful to make the resources I want to keep at hand available to others, which is what that post is for.
Academic Books & Resources for RPGs in Therapy
The majority of these resources are not ones I have had the chance to engage with yet myself, but they all come recommended from one source or another.
Therapeutically-Applied Roleplaying Games - Elizabeth Kilmer - book
Tabletop Role-Playing Therapy - Megan Connell - book
Role-Playing Games in Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide - Daniel Hand - book
Joint Conference on Serious Games - next event is August 13-14, 2025, in Rochester, New York
Game to Grow - nonprofit that offers trainings on using games in mental health care
Take This - advocacy organization for games in mental health
The Mythic Imagination - Stephen Larsen - book; my understanding is that this book is not primarily about RPGs in therapy, but that it does touch on the subject. I have yet to read it, though.
Game Systems with Possible Therapeutic Applications
Obviously not a complete list, but these all come to mind as more meritorious for use in therapy than 5e D&D.
Critical Core - Designed by Game to Grow for therapeutic use, specifically for building social skills
Unknown Armies - Uniquely models trauma in its game mechanics
The Quiet Year - Nontraditional community-building game
The Black Hack - Free, very simple OSR/"D&D-esque" game
My Own Musings & Work
Modeling Stress, Trauma, and Mental Illness in RPGs - older post on this blog - my thoughts have evolved since I wrote it but it's still relevant
Psychosis is Badly Written in Tabletop Games. - I didn't write this and don't fully align with the author's views, but I think it addresses some important concerns from the perspective of someone with lived experience. Relates to the above post.
Class Assignment on RPGs in Therapy - made on an assignment for graduate-level mental health counseling class on group work in Fall of 2023. Contains some overlapping resources to this post.
News Story on the D&D day camp I started at RIT
- I'm in the background a few times! (They wisely interviewed my more
concise coworker, who co-developed and co-instructed the camp the first
year we ran it.) Not a therapeutic application of RPGs, but somewhat
adjacent.
