By Dr Gary Coleman a volunteer and chairman at GTUK. His background is as a medical doctor who has played TTRPGs since the 1970s. For the past 12 years he has provided GP Outreach to people experiencing homelessness in central London and prior to that he worked for 14 years as a doctor in the British Army. 

Game Therapy UK(GTUK) is a registered charity set up to provide evidence-based therapeutic gaming (primarily cooperative tabletop role-playing games) to combat social isolation and provide support to vulnerable groups. We also have charitable aims to provide education and support research in this area. We currently have projects for people experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, survivors of modern-day slavery and military veterans. We are also setting up groups for young people and adults with autism and groups in mainstream schools and for children with special educational needs.  All our projects are provided free to our clients, and we rely upon donations for funding. In 2023 GTUK was awarded the inaugural ‘Ian Livingstone Innovations in Gaming’ Award for its innovative work. 

By Zoe Thomas, Trainee Clinical Psychologist, The University of Surrey 

D&D & You is thematic analysis of young adults' experiences of playing Dungeons and Dragons. Specifically, it asks participants about experiences exploring identity and the impact of roleplaying on their wellbeing and mental health. As this research is not yet complete, the presentation will update attendees on the project so far, as well as potential ideas for further research.  

By Lauren Wilde (Registered member of the BACP) 

It is tacitly understood within the Dungeons & Dragons gaming community that playing Dungeons & Dragons is often unintentionally therapeutic for players. This study aims to understand what it is about tabletop gameplay that is understood as therapeutic by the players. Continuing from previous studies, this study seeks to explore three main areas of gameplay experience, which are the perceptions of overlap between the players and the characters created; the relationships that are built or deepened in gameplay; and how players understand the process of group decision-making to occur.

Based on a review of the literature and the philosophy of interpretative phenomenological analysis as the chosen methodology of the study, four participants were sought in order to study their experiences at depth. They were then each interviewed individually with the use of a topic guide and semi-structured interviews, with the interviews then analysed according to the IPA guidelines.

The results indicate that the factors that make Dungeons & Dragons gameplay therapeutic are the cathartic experiences during roleplay and character creation; the increased social skills-building opportunities, notably through disagreement, while still maintaining a safe emotional distance; the trust developed in the relationships formed; and the way that gameplay enables creative exploration and experiences. Further research is recommended in order to explore how Dungeons & Dragons could be used by the counselling profession in a deliberate way.

Rich Hind, Senior Learning Technologist, University of Chester 

Working with Policing to create Game Based Learning (GBL) material to support students in Leadership and Decision making, focusing on policing crowd control at sports events.