Nice Everything You Have There: Mindful Minecraft
Did you know that Minecraft has a lot to teach us about how we pay attention to, get distracted from, and cope with things? Embedded in the design and the lore of the game are nuggets of philosophy,...
View ArticleWant To Help Stop Youth Cyberbullying? Let Your Kids Raid More.
The above title is misleading. In fact it is as misleading as the term cyberbullying, which is an umbrella term used from experiences which range drastically. ”Cyberbullying” has been used to...
View ArticleEmpathy (Re)Training
Last night I was mining Gold Omber in the asteroid belt near Erindur VI, and I can’t begin to tell you what an accomplishment that was. (This post is not just about spaceships, but about pacifists,...
View Article10 Nonviolent Video Games
Sometimes mental health providers, parents and educators get so caught up in the debate about video games and violence that we imagine all video games have violent content. They don’t. So when I am...
View ArticleBad Object Rising: How We Learn to Hate Our Educated Selves
Recently I had the opportunity to work with a great set of educators in a daylong seminar. One of the things I do with teachers when I present is have them play Minecraft. In this case I started off...
View ArticleSaving Ideas
Sometime, over 40,000 years ago, someone decided to put images of human hands on the cave pictured above. It turned out to be a good idea. This painting has given scientists information on life in...
View Article“Can I Kill You Again Today?”: The Psychoanalysis of Player Modes
In 1947, Virginia Axline published the first edition of what was to become a seminal work in the field it was named for, Play Therapy. In her book she championed the concept of non-directive play,...
View ArticleBreaking Eggs and Holding Your Fire: Some Thoughts on Skills Acquisition
Not too long ago, I was learning how to fire a sniper rifle in Call of Duty. It wasn’t going very well. I kept firing (which you do by holding down the right-hand trigger) and missing. Or I would use...
View ArticleDopey About Dopamine: Video Games, Drugs, & Addiction
GamerTherapist blog is on vacation and will return with new posts after Labor Day. In the meantime, here is a reader favorite: Last week I was speaking to a colleague whose partner is a gamer. She was...
View ArticleInnovation is Dangerous & Gaming Causes Asperger’s
GamerTherapist blog is on vacation and will return with new posts after Labor Day. In the meantime, here is a reader favorite: At its heart, diagnosis is about exerting control. Clinicians want to...
View ArticleThe Internet Is Not A Meritocracy, That’s Why You Hate It
Recently, I had a discussion with a student about social media, and the fact that I usually start off a comment on a blog with “great post!” She noted two things: First, that it rang false to her...
View ArticleSelfie Esteem
“Photographs do not explain, they acknowledge.” –Susan Sontag Last month, the Oxford Dictionary made the word “selfie” not only an official word, but their word of the year for 2013. Defining selfie...
View ArticleNo Matter How You Feel, You Still Failed
Psychotherapists are often people who prefer to deal with feelings in their workings with people. Feelings are important, and being empathically attuned to how patients are feeling is equally...
View ArticleWorks, Life and Marshmallows: Iterative Design
They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single marshmallow. Ok, I say that, and more specifically I am talking about your life, job or relationship rather than a journey. I am coming...
View ArticleThe Relationship Between Emerging Technology & Psychodynamic Theory
Often when I present, people are surprised that I teach on both emerging technologies such as social media and video games, and classic psychodynamic theories. Although it may initially seem...
View ArticleGamer-Affirmative Practice: Today’s Play Therapy
The importance of play is universal, and in many ways the nature of play is timeless. That said, there is a lot to learn about video games as 21st-century play, especially if you are a play therapist....
View ArticleUsing Gaming & Gamification in Clinical Practice
What does “gamification” mean, and what is its relevance to mental health practice? In this video of a conversation I had at University at Buffalo with Charles Syms, I take a stab at answering those...
View ArticleThe Lava Expert
“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” –The Imitation Game Shortly before I fell into the lava I began a conversation with an eleven year...
View ArticleThe Internet & Real Relationships
Today I was slicing some lemons for shish kabobs and so not surprisingly I began to think about social media, attachment and what constitutes an authentic relationship. Authenticity was a key term when...
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