Therapeutic role-playing: A primary care community health group with children

Abstract

The paper reports on the use of a therapeutic role-playing group programme for children within primary care and community health counselling services. The paper firstly provides a theoretical background including therapeutic tabletop role-playing games, narrative play therapy and adventure therapy. Secondly, the paper outlines case examples of the programme including, participant character and quest development, an outline of session gameplay and a session quest example. Using narrative analysis and symbolism the quest example is analysed correlating narrative symbols, real-world experiences, and therapeutic focuses. Therapeutic outcomes are presented analysing pre-post outcome measures, a child satisfaction survey, and a qualitative reflection by a participant’s parent. Outcomes identify preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of role-playing group programmes in a Primary Care and Community Health counselling context.