Your therapist should play D&D with you. Here's why.

Plot twist: this was the only way for the therapists to get a campaign where everyone showed up

"What archetype will you be channelling today adventurer?" - Carl Jung, probably

So, take Advantage on your next roll for bringing up other RPGs, and a +2 for showing the West End Games version of Star Wars. Also, one of my players once bypassed a combat by just asking the troll why he was attacking them. I improvised and said the bad guys later in the adventure had stolen his "treasure." Instead of fighting, the group decided to help the troll recover his treasure. So they and Ludo (the troll) rolled into the dungeon, kicked the crap out of the bad guys, and reclaimed his treasure... a rock. Lol. Anyway, they invited Ludo to travel with them, eventually getting him a suit of flame-resistant armor and Ludo became the guard at the village they founded from the victims of many other adventures, and he eventually found a lady troll and created a troll family. Lol. It was a helluva ride, but it really shows the beauty of TTRPGs and the freedom they allow.

D&D therapy changed my son’s life for the better. Nothing has helped him more with his social skills.

I moved to Canada 7 yrs ago and fell into a lonely depressive place. I ended up playing Playbypost DnD with some people on discord (where we play via messages whenever we're online) and even though it was a slow game because we had people in multiple timezones, we had some really beautiful moments. I will never forget dancing with the bard in the middle of the fight as they gave me inspiration. I've DMd an in person game with some friends and it's led to such bonding and laughter. I'm a therapist in training, hoping to run therapy dnd groups once Im regulated. Thank you for making this video and inspiring me!

i tried d&d once and my social anxiety noped out. but it's such a cool concept and i love that it even has the potential to help people this way

So I am currently in my freshman year in college, looking to get my degree in general psychology. I have been struggling with it because I had had the previous cognition that therapy was very closed ended in the sense that it felt like there was no innovation or anything like that that could occur. Then I found your channel, and specifically this video, and this has already vastly changed my outlook and has put a fire inside me to pursue this passion more. So thank you so much for putting out this video. And if possible, I would love to hop on just a phone call at some point, just to pick your brain. No worries if not, but in general just thank you for all that you do and thank you for putting this out on the internet.

You are my hero. As a mental health therapist and a dungeon master/D&D player, I love your video. I have used D&D a bit in therapy and I've used the TTRPG Magical Kitties Save the Day (cutest coolest game ever) with one of my younger clients. So much creativity and strength in these games! I'm going to look into Megan Connell's work and subscribe to this channel as well. My private practice is about to get a bit more interesting. Thank you!!!

Tabletop therapy as a topic continues to Intrigue me. I would love to see it adapted to older adults who have issues Beyond basic social anxiety. I actually have a traumatic memory from trying to participate with tabletop Gamers who were kind enough to invite me to a one-off. But I didn't know anything about tabletop culture or expectations and people at the table got really frustrated with how slow I was to pick up the basic rules. I had a panic attack before we could really even start taking turns because I can sense How Deeply impatient the other players were with my lack of knowledge. Even though they had chosen a very simple one time game just for me. There was still a huge learning curve and I didn't end up playing and they became upset at me for leaving the table and ruining their game night. I didn't know that was a social faux pas. It haunts me to this day. So now I have fantasies of joining a tabletop game where there is a very careful therapist making sure nobody feels pressured or overwhelmed and taking our time.

If you are interested in seeing the one-shot adventure that I created and ran with other YouTubers, check that out here: nebula.tv/videos/neurotransmissions-a-therapeutic-…

Something i find really interesting is that by playing for years with the same group, with a lot of different parties an scenarios, is that we can see a pattern in the characters that each of our friends likes to play with and the way they act in game. It brings a lot of insights in our personalities and how we handle with situations. Its pretty interesting and rpg helped me a lot dealing with difficult times in my life, and brought confort, helped me to understand what was going on inside, reflecting the troubles i was going trough at that point with the situation my characters was in. It also helps that my friend who is the Master knows all of us pretty well and creates some details the adventure around this too. It really is an amazing tool for therapy, even if it is just between a group of friends, is an incredible exemple of how we can communicate, understand and help each other.

👏👏🙌🙌 My kids love D&D! My oldest is a burgeoning artist and designs characters for his friends. They all take turns creating “campaigns”. It has blown open their creativity, and given them outlets to hone their social skills.

I have been a DM/GM for 40 years and can attest to the therapeutic aspect of the game, I have seen my friends and even myself grow from the experience. I survived the Satanic scare, just fine. Also, World Anvil is totally awesome. I have been moving my very large campaign setting to World Anvil for several months now. Down to 1 file drawer to move now.

11:50 This series was my first experience with TTRPG as a possible venue for therapy. Watching it was way more intense than I ever expected.

I started really playing DND during the pandemic as a means to stay socially connected in a time that we couldn't be together in person. I found myself falling deeper and deeper in love with the worldbuilding and exploration. I ended up doing a speech in my college course about this exact subject and how much it helped keep myself and my wife from completely losing touch with our loved ones in a time that was so up in the air and confusing. I'm glad more people are starting to explore this as an option in clinical situations because it has really seemed to help people with self discovery, connection, and healing in my experience.

This is finally the video I’ve been looking for to help explain to a friend about DnD and therapy. Thanks for putting it together. I appreciate your explanation of what am rpg is, it makes the video much more “shareable”.

Fascinating stuff, as always. Thanks Micah. Unfortunately, I never had any friends who were into TTRPGs. I was in a band for quite a few years and we'd often play board games to wind down after a show. We'd play Risk from about 2-3am until the sun was well and truly up. I have fond memories of those times, so I can definitely see the appeal of RPGs.

After I joined a regular D&D group, my loneliness and depression decreased a lot. I am a bit different and it was nice to have me celebrated for who I am. Also probably helped my social skills as I am on the spectrum

The story at the beginning about 80s panic and the investigation around James Dallas Egbert |||'s disappearance was in the podcast "Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons". That also ended with asking the same questions about "Who really was having trouble differentiating fantasy from reality here?" Interesting story. Recommended.

I don't enjoy small talk. Or going to a party for no reason, but if there is an activity like a Tupperware party or a card game, or fundraiser. Coastal cleanup, then conversations about the task at hand can spring up organically. I suggested dancing lessons to my husband when he refused to try marriage counseling. If we took lessons, we'd have something to do together each week, we'd have to communicate, develop trust. All things that marriage counseling works on. But he wouldn't do that either