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Game Therapy UK

An innovative, evidence-based approach to address social isolation, trauma and aid recovery

We are a new and innovative charity (recipients of the Ian Livingstone Innovation in Gaming Award 2023) and use cooperative Games as an Aid to combat social isolation and improve mental and physical wellbeing in vulnerable groups across the UK.

Our team of volunteer psychologists, recovery workers, educators, and of course gamers, use role-playing games (such as Dungeons & Dragons) as they are fun and self-motivating.

The positive effect of using these games on our vulnerable clients has been profound. Funding from GamesAid supports projects for autistic young people, young people experiencing homelessness, with Special Educational Needs, life limiting chronic disease, and gender identity issues.

We are the UK authority on therapeutic gaming and, as well as hosting the UK Academic Conference of Therapeutic Gaming, our work has been presented at International Health Conferences, and featured in the media including The New Scientist magazine and BBC radio.

Camden Game Cafe'

One example of an established Game Therapy UK project is the ‘Camden Game Cafe’ for people experiencing homelessness. Evidence shows that over sixty percent of homeless service users are classified as ‘lonely’, and over a third of service users reported feeling isolated ‘often’. For the past 18 months volunteer staff from Game Therapy UK have been meeting up each week in a homeless hostel to play a specially designed game of ‘Dungeons & Dragon’s’ with several groups of people experiencing homelessness in Camden, London.
This weekly game provides not only a fun, collaberative, social experience but also is designed to stimulate creativity, increase social skills and support recovery.  The volunteers from Game Therapy UK include psycholgists, recovery workers and professional game designers. Whilst the clients are engaging with the game, volunteers from Game Therapy UK take the opportunity to intervene and provide training in social skills, support drug and alcohol recovery, and offer psychological therapies.
Feedback from the clients has been incredibly positive.
“I enjoyed playing someone different. Playing a brave character instead of just running away. I can see how playing different people and facing challenges could help me to become more confident”.
“There’s no shame here. It’s kinda like being a kid again. You’re told as adults you can’t do this, you can’t have that imagination. And here you can have as much imagination as you want and that’s really fun. You feel way less self-conscious and able to lose yourself in it. It’s really helped me. It’s been absolutely fantastic, and it’s been a great place to come and forget and have fun and be a bit of a kid again”.
The innovative work done at ‘Camden Game Cafe’ has been presented at International Conferances on Homelessness Health and will be part of a future research project into the benefits of therapeutic gaming.

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