Abstract: Video Game Therapy® is an integrated psychological approach, which allows you to undertake work of emotional containment and cognitive self-regulation, using commercial video games to establish a state of mental balance and well-being in the patient, thus promoting insight and lead him to reflect on some salient aspects of his own character and lifestyle that emerge in the game setting. This tool is particularly versatile, as it is suitable for use with patients of a wide age spectrum, not only children or teenagers, but also young adults and adults, and uses some already validated psychological techniques and models. The Video Game Therapy® approach was born in 2019, from an idea by Dr. Francesco Bocci, taking inspiration from the American literature of Anthony Bean’s Geek Therapy, from 2018, as well as from classic psychodrama and literature on storytelling, in a period in which video games still struggled to be recognized as a potentially therapeutic tool to be used in a clinical setting.
Key Words: Video Game Therapy ®, internal dialogue, Flow experience, life and transversal skills, compassion-focused therapy, acceptance, safe place, here and now, emotions, experiential learning, awareness, Self-realization.
*Psychologist, Adlerian Psychotherapist, Teacher of the Adlerian School of Psychotherapy of Brescia, creator of the Video Game Therapy ® approach
** Psychologist, enrolled in the Adlerian School of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy of Brescia, professional qualified Video Game Therapy ®
Introduction
Video games offer a valid and advantageous way of interacting within an imaginary scenario, visually concretized thanks to video-digital support. It is within this specific scenario that the patient becomes the direct protagonist of the experience in which he is placed, in a setting characterized by welcome, active listening, acceptance and non-judgment, essential and meaningful conditions for the promotion of a dimension characterized from aspects of comfort and openness. Only if placed in a setting having these peculiar characteristics, the patient, as a unique and unrepeatable being, can “feel safe” and be able to express the most salient and “hidden” aspects of himself, in absolute freedom and fluency but, above all, with less defended than the exclusive recourse relegated to dialogue (an element that is sometimes difficult to establish within particular therapeutic relationships), thanks also to the immersive properties of the video game.
The playful experience, recalling the nourishing and spontaneous experience of the child’s play, similarly represents a moment which, despite its natural and apparent simplicity, can offer a precious opportunity for self-knowledge, Insight Dialogue and openness to new feedback or unconfirmed, an activity that sometimes requires physical and mental effort and, at the same time, stimulates the ability to spontaneously express moods and experiences but also stimulates flexible responses to changing environmental needs as well as recognition and free functional expression of one’s emotions, at the basis of the formation of healthy and close social connections.
This experience also encourages the activation of the Flow Experience, in which the two hemispheres manage to reach a state of equilibrium with respect to the challenges and objectives that the game requires, that is, being and doing collaborate harmoniously for the optimal achievement of the goal or to face new challenges.
The model requires the presence of an adequately trained therapist who has acquired the ability to welcome the patient without judging him, listening to his story, adopting an attitude that models kindness, cooperation and “playfulness”, to the detriment of a sentimental style, corrective and containment. In this welcoming and safe place, the patient is accompanied by the therapist on the journey, represented by individual or group VGT® training, to reflect, rework, mentalize and attribute new meanings to their experiences, the emotions felt, the images and/or memories recalled, through innovative methods that use targeted tracing and guidance mechanisms useful for approaching even patients who are resistant or poorly motivated to access classic therapies.
This approach postulates that it is important first of all to involve the neurophysiological systems that allow the patient to feel safe in the current interactions with the therapist but, above all within the videogame session, since the activation of the same is associated with satisfaction, open-mindedness and social connection.
The video game experience allows the patient to “navigate” in new scenarios, implementing new behaviors, measuring himself in new skills, training those already possessed, making mistakes, trying again, thus developing the activation of social security and free expression responses of emotions, to the detriment of the reduction of compulsive responses and actions, of limitation or dependence dictated by negative moods.
The Video Game Therapy® approach is also characterized by its important psychoeducational effect, particularly suitable for dealing with issues related to personal well-being, the development of life skills and the approach to a conscious digital life in schools of all levels.
In this regard, it has been widely demonstrated how this approach is useful in order to educate the patient, through Life Skill training, on emotional response skills, to deal with pervasive emotions of fear, anger, anguish, pain by experiencing them directly and developing thus ways of coping with situations, openness to change and sociality, through strategies based on acceptance and free expression of one’s moods.
At the moment, numerous entities in Italy (Schools, third sector bodies, ASL and ASST) are actively using the Video Game Therapy® model in therapy and prevention contexts as well as in the field of care and the promotion of well-being.
But what really happens during a VGT® session?
Meet and explore yourself through the help of VGT®
Video Game Therapy® offers a safe and containment environment, where participants can explore their emotions and experiences with trust and curiosity. Through the use of video games as tools to facilitate personal growth and overcoming emotional difficulties, eliminating the fear of failure and encouraging exploration and learning in a judgment-free context, the patient is offered the opportunity to enter into a metaphysical dimension pervaded by well-being, lightness and spaciousness for the mind. Through virtual and interactive scenarios, people can face situations they might find difficult in real life, developing coping skills and building resilience in an environment that promotes experimentation and continuous improvement.
Meeting yourself in an authentic way, in the setting of VGT® training, can sometimes be painful because you open doors that have been closed in the past, it can make us suffer especially in the presence of evolutionary or other types of trauma, it can scare us or to block.
Protecting our Self is a normal reaction when life presents us with demanding challenges, to survive we do everything it takes but, in this we end up feeling disconnected or alienated from the life we live.
How can we then welcome and let go of what has helped us to survive in order to meet ourselves?
In the video game, unlike in reality we can allow ourselves to open the doors of our being and experience the emotions that have been hidden behind them for a long time.
While wearing armor is an excellent way to survive; it can also prevent us from being free and happy as well as from being fully in touch with ourselves.
In the game we are the protagonists of our being, our decisions and our actions; our armor falls apart to make room for the natural fluidity of our existence.
When we deny any part of ourselves, we distance ourselves from the natural vitality of existence; we not only suppress the pain but also the happiness and the feeling of being part of a whole.
When we exclude reality and close ourselves in, we are alone, safe but alone.
In the gaming experience it is essential to get back in touch with our heart, with our being, with the parts of the Self from which we have distanced ourselves and to do this VGT® offers itself as a valid approach as it allows us to observe things in depth as they are, moment after moment, it allows us to pay attention to what is happening, abandoning the desire for things to go a certain way. Furthermore, it allows us to develop patience and acceptance towards mental states other than a constant flow of emotions pleasant.
In this way the patient is “trained” not to react in case of defeat, in case of painful states, or frustration but, to live with love, kindness, compassion, shared joy and equanimity when he is experimenting through the exploration of his own Self.
Everything becomes more “facilitated” in the video game, this does not mean that it will be a walk in the park for the patient or that the results will be guaranteed, it simply means staying in the present moment of the video game experience with what is there and what one feels, with curiosity.
Remain present with things as they are, letting them manifest themselves naturally without forcing or avoiding.
Things, during the videogame experience, manifest themselves to our awareness spontaneously, they emerge, we observe them, we live them, we recognize them, we experience them and we rework them to give them a meaning and, to let them go, without any effort in a process “imperfect†“without labels†fluid like the one from VGT®.
Our mind always tries to classify experiences, things as excellent, good, bad, terrible etc., VGT® instead challenges us to go beyond these forms of stigmas and consider the fundamental nature of experience.
“What is this thing that’s happening strong inside me right now?†stated C. during the videogame session, leaning on a hand on his chest “Let’s try together to give a name to this emotion perceived in this particular situation and in this part of the body, be it anxiety, sadness, joy… and to understand why it manifested itself just now”.
You must be courageous and motivated to do this work of self-exploration because, as Rudolf Steiner said, “Things reveal themselves to me only if I let them flow freely”.
This is possible thanks to the peculiarities inherent in the innovative approach of VGT®, which allows us to cultivate stability, mental balance and concentration as well as to avoid jumping from topic to topic with the sole purpose of trying something pleasant in the gaming experience.
By working through VGT® on the deepest dimensions of the Self and its parts, a useful way is activated for the patient to explore, rediscover himself, meeting and welcoming everything that is in his own inner space and giving him the possibility to flow freely to lead us towards the profound knowledge of our own unique and unrepeatable being.
The satisfying calming system and its activation through VGT ®
Over the last decade, the panorama of psychotherapies has been enriched through the flourishing of new supportive intervention models based on fundamental principles recalling key concepts such as compassion and acceptance, summarized in the Compassion Focused Therapy approach.
Developed by Paul Gilbert, professor at the University of Derby, in the early 2000s, Compassion Focused Therapy was born with the precise aim of helping people with high levels of judgement, control, self-criticism and shame (inner judge) in whom thoughts do not develop characterized by warmth, kindness, respect for oneself and others, as they were permeated by a highly self-critical mental state, an attitude that exacerbated the suffering and intensified the psychosomatic symptoms. Gilbert realized that these people had in common family histories where care from their reference figures had been lacking; there was often abuse or long periods of neglect, of lack of harmony with the caregiver or reference figure. He understood, therefore, how these people were prevented from accessing feelings of warmth and security, as they were intimately convinced that they were wrong (“I’m not ok” “I’m not worthy of being loved”) and, that the origin of these beliefs was to be found in the attachment experiences experienced during early childhood.
The dynamics relating to attachment and care they play a key role within the Compassion Focused Therapy, on a par with VGT ® training, as well as in the child’s clear need for tenderness which is the cornerstone of Adlerian psychotherapy.
The drive to care and seek care, as well as other basic drives (bio-social motivations), are rooted in the human being at a biological level, so much so that the presence of real psycho-biological “systems” responsible for regulation of these functions. Examples are the sexual, cooperative and agonistic systems. Each system, when activated, pushes the person to achieve certain goals such as sexual satisfaction, affiliation and social rank. Caregiving and attachment systems aim to provide and receive security and protection. The activation of a motivational system generates thoughts, emotions and behaviors consistent with the underlying need, organizing human action as well as the subjective interpretation of the surrounding environment.
Specific emotions signal the achievement or otherwise of goals; here, anger, for example, can arise in response to attempts at submission, to which the person responds through the competitive system. Anger in this case signals that an attack on one’s social rank is underway.
As in the video game, even in everyday reality, different mentalities can permeate the patient:
– a constant caring mentality focused on the needs of the Other; it is essential to understand whether there is an internal motivation or a blocked social mentality which translates into behavior that is rigid within, which obviates the search for satisfaction of basic biopsycho-social needs. If there is an internal rigidity, there is no natural flexibility that guarantees a possible transition from one motivation to another; consequently the prevailing mentality becomes identitarian leading to a sense of Self built on the basis of success and status; if this were to fail, a depressing feeling of sublimation and personal devaluation would be created in the patient.
– a constant mentality of seeking care focused on the need to receive attention, caresses, availability and help aimed at our Self: we feel good if these important signals are available, vice versa, we can feel angry, anxious, depressed if we are unable to find the signs of personal and social care that we constantly need.
– a competitive mentality: we socially compare ourselves with others on their respective strengths and weaknesses, on the advantage / disadvantage compared to the Other, that is, we evaluate, we judge until we decide to compete or give up.
Thoughts about ourselves are formulated in terms of a sense of inferiority/superiority depending on which, we can experience a flow of positive emotions in case of success or, “negative” we get depressed or, we feel inferior if defeated, if we lose (even in the video game this mentality is often directly implemented which is then re-elaborated in the debriefing phase through a shared re-elaboration or through the aid of techniques such as STOP).
This last mentality, as active as it is, consistently takes hold over time, if we are not able to manage a loss, a defeat, that temporary sense of inferiority can lead, in the long run, to rumination, generalizing the defeat to the Sense of Self, to the turning off emotions and empathy towards others; it is difficult to look at the other as he is seen not as a resource for cooperation (social feeling) but as a rival with whom I am competent and who I must therefore somehow overwhelm.
– a “cooperative” and alliance-building mentality where our attention is focused on seeking and connecting with people, who will be available to cooperate and support us and/or pursue shared goals (in an Adlerian perspective definable as the development of Social Sentiment or Community); our desire to share thoughts, emotions and experiences evolves; we experience positive emotions when we develop an empathetic and cooperative mindset.
Cooperation (valued and encouraged in group VGT® training) promotes Empathy.
Competitiveness produces counter-empathy and brings excessive attention to the aspect of individual performance with respect to the theme of mutual support.
The switch of these bio-social mentalities are Emotions; they are the spice of our life, they color our days, they are those systems biologically predisposed to respond to certain stimuli and promote a series of adaptive responses to cope with them.
Emotions activate switches: bio-social mentalities and research (Doux, 1999 and Panksepp, 1998) tell us that from a brain point of view, each of us has at least, internally, 3 systems to regulate emotions.
According to Gilbert, there are three emotional regulation systems responsible for emotions themselves and which communicate the satisfaction or frustration of basic needs.
1. The threat defense system: WARNING, also known as the RED system; it is the default system that overrides all the others, when it turns on there is no room for anything else, like a sort of alarm, when it sounds it has the meaning of a warning.
It has a priority evolutionary and protective function compared to the other two, because the ancient brain functions in an overall very simple way “better safe than happy” but, at the same time, the speed and intensity of the response of this system can give us problems as it leaves room for the possibility of making thoughtful and functional choices with respect to the objectives we have set for ourselves (problem solving, decision making), furthermore, it activates physiological reactions such as anger, anxiety, escape, increased heart rate, conditioned emotional responses, shame and change in focus of attention. In this system our brain is interested in safety much more than happiness.
2. The system of searching for stimuli, resources, pleasure: DESIRE, also called the BLUE system; its function is that of activation, guidance and transformation in achieving results and in procuring resources from the desire – excitement system, it generates positive emotions, sensations of pleasure, pride, excitement, energy, it is ego centered and focused on the result, when active it increases the secretion of dopamine.
When this system is in a balanced condition compared to the other systems it is OK, if it is not balanced, if the search for stimuli, if the achievement of objectives, if the activation system is excessively activated it can generate Stress.
The BLUE system is extremely active in the pre-adolescent and adolescent phase; phase in which the mind is excited, defensive perfectionism is activated (to avoid feelings of inferiority and self-criticism) and in case of frustration, emotions of anger, impulsive, violent, self-harming or stressful situations can take over.
3. The calming system: SAFENESS, also called GREEN system, composed of two dimensions:
– absence of danger (Safety), removal of the threat;
– well-being and satisfaction (Safeness) component relating to what I am trying to cultivate through compassion.
Its function is to recover energy, contentment, a state of calm and feeling safe (absence of threat); presence of support; set of positive and profound feelings that are not equivalent to the sensation of no longer being in danger – security/freedom – it is a sensation that we obtain from affiliative relationships = presence of resources to face danger and explore.
The green system is activated in response to verbal or non-verbal affiliative social signals, it implies calm, slowing down, contentment (state of flow), warmth, openness, sense of connection and security; it represents, like the setting in VGT® training, a secure base, if we are sure, we are free to explore and interact with ourselves, even with the most hidden parts but also with others (non-ego centered system).
Satisfaction, also perceived in the state of absolute grace of the flow process, represents in VGT® training, a form of happiness for things “exactly as they are” in hit et nunc, combined with a feeling of safety (safety/safeness).
When the green system is active, it increases the secretion of endorphins and oxytocins, hormones that mediate the emotional regulation system and which lead to the connection with behavioral and mental modalities of affection and kindness.
It is inevitable to underline how the calming system has a fundamental inhibitory and regulatory effect on the other two systems (through the activation of the regulatory function of the prefrontal cortex). The regulatory function occurs mainly through the activation of the vagus nerve (metaphorically considered a sort of inhibitory nerve) associated with kindness, affiliation, gratitude, satisfaction and also gives the freedom to explore, as happens in the playful video session, and to connect (secure base).
When in the Video Game Therapy® session patients are invited and accompanied to slow down and land in the present moment in a compassionate mode, emotions of non-desire or effort are activated, sensations of being calmer on an internal level and of being connected to others (characters, video game avatars, therapist or other figures present or not in the setting).
The system calming fulfilling metaphorically seen as a green light, sets up our “safe place” for us; a place where we do not feel threatened and our internal resources are so recognized and valued that we manage to get by without too much effort, we find a sense of satisfaction, of fullness. We are calm, calm, satisfied and at peace.
For us, the safe place is like an adventure experienced in a Video Game Therapy® session where every object, every corner, every emotion and every experience can be explored in a spirit of creativity, kindness, trust, warmth, security and curiosity. There is no fear of failure, ridicule or loss, if we feel safe we are confident enough to look beyond immediate needs and we begin to look and observe what is outside with greater curiosity, we scrutinize the world in search of original ideas we weave threads to bring out hidden plots and bring new concepts to light and encourage divergent thinking. It is the place where warmth, acceptance and non-judgment reign.
It represents the Arena of our possibilities. The gaming experience encourages the activation of the satisfying calming system which, when active, allows us to establish a deeper harmonious connection with those around us. We are able to be kinder and less judgmental towards ourselves and others.
This strengthens bonds that encourage us to cooperate rather than compete.
In some patients the green system may be hypo-activated or frankly blocked due to genetic predisposition or, due to poor training or, due to specific resistance to developing warning emotions and affiliative motivations (fear, inability to exceed an emotional system that originates sensations of tranquility, security, warmth and amiability) but, above all also due to self-criticism and judgement, self-invalidating mechanisms.
In the VGT® session the warm sense of peace and the sense of fulfillment perceived thanks to the flow experience proves to be immensely useful in the long run because it is intimately linked to emotional intelligence, creativity and other very important skills for everyday life, the Soft Skills.
VGT® training trains, thanks to the help of compassion, the ability to access the green system, making it more available for the modulation of the other two systems and for experimenting with sensations of calm, interconnection and awareness.
The profound intention of the VGT® approach is to train as much as possible the availability of the green system – regulation system with focus on affiliation, calm, security and a sense of well-being.
Experiential learning activated in VGT® training
“Nothing is in the mind
that was not in the senses before”
Saint Thomas Aquinas
The experiential learning process, such as the one implemented within VGT® training, has a greater impact than conceptual learning as the information is not only processed on a cognitive level but, experienced directly by the senses and by the entire system mind – body. Intuition and change arise subsequently and directly from the reflective observation of this experience and, therefore, not through the passive acquisition of notions, concepts or relationships dispensed by others but, it is a model based on direct experience which is realized through action and experimentation in the first person where the subject is an active protagonist and uses his own resources for the elaboration and reorganization of ideas, behaviors, concepts, ways of being… that is, his own lifestyle.
The possibility and ability of the therapist to reach and involve the patient in single or multiplayer VGT® training (group training) depends largely on how much he will be able to make accessible a form of effective communication combined with an effective learning style by activating the different sensory channels, amplifiers of the gaming experience.
Sensory channels govern the perception of the internal and external world in all of us and therefore support the entire range of ways of experiencing and learning.
In the video game experience, as in everyday life, each of us, in fact, comes into contact through active and direct experiential methods with what surrounds us through the senses and, through them, we build internal representations of the world in which we live (our apperceptive patterns): a series of images, sounds, sensations useful for filtering information, signals and stimuli together with our experience.
As we grow, we draw a map of the world that ends up determining and influencing our interactions, our behaviors and the experience we will have of the world itself (including the gaming experience).
This map is subjective and is present in each of us as a unique and personal model of the world. The therapist in the VGT ® training, regardless of his own experience and his own map, will try to know that of the patient, in order to understand its functioning, the common thread and, to meet his feelings through the modality perceived as preferential (visual, auditory or kinesthetic). From this perspective, communication becomes effective if it occurs through the same filter, therefore along the same channel, this represents an advantage, especially initially useful for building a therapeutic alliance and opening the way to active experiential learning (especially with pre-adolescent or adolescent patients).
Experiential learning allows the person to face situations of uncertainty, difficulty and unpredictability by developing new behaviors, improving the management of their emotions in moments of greatest stress.
It also allows the person to develop self-awareness thanks to self-observation and hetero-observation which develop in the dynamics of the game, recognizing limiting behaviors and enhancing constructive ones. It also develops new problem solving and decision making skills as well as emotional regulation and self-awareness.
It often happens in video games that we feel like we are in an impetuous river that flows in constant movement, where it is impossible, as in life, to imagine the possible curves, the differences in height, the subdued rocks as well as, it is impossible to stop or slow down the natural parallel flow of our being.
When we are dragged into the experience of flow, we find ourselves in a state of well-being, safe but at the same time at the mercy of strong currents that we have never felt before; the first thing to do, as foreseen in the VGT® training, is to re-center ourselves, return to the present moment and let our internal system regulate itself. Only tranquility, the accepting and non-judgmental support of the therapist, allows us to restore the fluid flow of our intuitions. We must stop and wait for calm waters, this allows us to reach the estuary of awareness and compassion, a place where we can reunite with the natural tranquility of our true nature.
In an experiential learning context, such as VGT®, the person brings their consolidated mental and behavioral patterns into play in favor of new response strategies which will then be consolidated over time.
The professional who accompanies the person helps them to share their experience in the form of dialogue by creating a cooperative, collaborative environment and, offering ideas for a vision, gives more angles of the lived experience towards the use of divergent, more open thinking, smoother, more flexible.
The VGT® training encourages people on their journey and at the same time leaves them free to express themselves and their emotions, to ask questions about their own experience and that of others, acquiring awareness of action, stimulates the reflection of the participants through different modalities (dialogue, inquiry…) dedicating time to observing the lived experience and re-elaborating it through dialogue.
Learning is learning that never ends, it lasts a lifetime, our learning is never complete, learning is a spiral that is never finished.
Unlike directive teaching, in experiential learning, such as that which takes place in VGT® training, people have a concrete experience, engage in reflective observation, connect it to the conceptualization in order to make it relevant and applicable to the own real life, directly experience what they have learned.
It is therefore a continuous process of discovery and exploration that comes to life within the game phase, through access to a state of flow.
The reworking, the transformation, the change aimed at personal realization do not start from concepts transmitted by others but arise through the evaluation of the personal experience lived in the game, which provides the most important and precious learning material for the individual, a full of cognitive, emotional and sensorial experiences.
Learning is a social experience as it can be learned in any situation, games and video games are the only valid testimony to this.
Self-realization through VGT®
The realization takes place in a state of the body of active, open, tension-free listening.
It is a form of peace and inner listening that allows us to reach landscapes, images, destinations and makes us feel the scent of a possible future that we were unable to envisage, hope for, imagine. To realize.
The video game represents a metaphysical dimension which, through flow, offers us precious and unique opportunities to explore in depth every single one of our thoughts, sensations and emotions that emerge from it, allowing us to give a different shape to what we usually do and see, ” imposing oneself†in an indiscreet, loving and attentive useful way, to mark one’s own form of realization. Attention to the present moment, in a dimension of flow, represents nourishment for our being!
In the VGT® training, achievement, understood as an improvement in one’s psycho-physical and mental state, does not represent a thought, an objective but love, the passion for a new journey made up of moments of deep listening, moments of STOP useful for focusing on the bodily sensations of the present moment, as well as the creation of an internal space to train and get used to naming and feeling the emotions experienced.
The internal dialogue, trained within the VGT®, aims to become a daily exercise so that what remains most subdued, invisible can emerge so that we can, without judgement, sow our seeds and cultivate them, strengthen them, through small gestures that are sometimes more visible, others more imperceptible, invisible; small and large internal movements capable, over time, of transforming our lives and leading us to full fulfillment as people.
All this leads to the exploration of our being which encompasses past, present and future, helping the patient to recognize the right to be and be there as a unique and unrepeatable person.
In this way, through VGT®, awareness of the Self becomes a spontaneous and habitual reality of human experience, highly important in leading us towards the path of full and healthy personal fulfillment.
Achievement is a state of mind of calm, relaxation and awareness: the awareness that we are now doing what we can and that we feel we are capable but also overcoming ourselves, daring, facing new situations with curiosity and importance towards ourselves and towards the others. A useful, possible, achievable gesture within the Video Game Therapy® training where, the result of the realization, the objective wants to remain blurred in the fog, to be a distant shadow, which does not allow us to reveal what the thing is that awaits us, as an unconscious and propulsive goal of change.
This is the secret hidden behind the intentions of the VGT® training, the secret that step by step leads us to full awareness of the energy of the self, revealed through the intersection of the dynamics of the video game with those of our being and being there in a continuous and profitable dynamism leading to renewal, transformation and realization.
Accepting the challenges of video games helps us to also accept the challenges of life, transforming both experiences into real, concrete, enriching opportunities for our Self.
And, like in a video game, letting ourselves be carried away by emotions allows us to free ourselves from all our pre-established limits, to open our borders to allow free expression to the essence that reigns deepest within us.
Just as a painter releases colors on the canvas to create a work of art, so we too have the possibility in everyday opportunities, such as in a video game, to release and let the best that is within us flow to create our own. lifestyle, giving shape to our personality.
How to respond to everyday life experiences always remains our choice and the video game experience constantly trains us in this, through the use of problem solving and decision making, training and strengthening these and other life and soft skills, the person becomes the protagonist of herself and her own choices.
Letting go of difficult emotions through the gaming experience
“You call them (if you can) emotions…â€
Letting go indicates the act of releasing our emotions, it is something that happens naturally when we observe them without resisting them; many of us in different situations have developed the habit of not allowing this to happen.
We have become accustomed to interfering with our emotions; what we usually do with disturbing emotions is to suppress them, we can do it in different ways, we can repress them in the depths of our unconscious, we can express them by ranting or screaming at someone, we can project them onto others by judging, criticizing, condemning or, we can avoid them by distracting ourselves with any other What.
In the VGT® training the patient must be accompanied in embodying the principle of “letting go”, abandoning expectations and, above all, the impulse to guide the playful experience towards a certain result or the temptation to force it or speed it up. The only program he will have to follow is to explore and understand, in the present moment, deploying all his abilities and his whole being. Nothing more and nothing less
It is the fear of painful emotions that makes us act like this, we are afraid to look them in the face, when a painful emotion arises the idea of experiencing it on our own skin scares us, if the emotion is particularly intense it may seem impossible to control and, then we resist, we fear that by not resisting the unpleasant emotion we will be enslaved by it and instead it is the opposite, if we don’t resist those emotions will pass.
Let us always remember that we can feel our emotions in complete safety, there is no need to resist, there is no need to bottle them up, there is no need to chase them away, if we just allow ourselves to feel them the emotions will pass by themselves, but if we try to repress them or avoid them, they will become more intense.
Everything we repress remains within us, as Jung asserted “What you resist persists and grows bigger”; unfortunately, there is no way to escape this truth, a repressed emotion will try to manifest itself somewhere without anyone having asked it, it wants to be left free but we often don’t do it because it scares us.
The opposite of “What you resist persists and grows bigger” is, ‘ what you accept dissolves and what dissolves integrates and transforms into propulsive energy of the Self’.
Transmitting to patients, through the video game experience, a model of kind and compassionate acceptance towards their own mental and emotional contents, which are often controlled and judgmental, allows them to calm the self-criticism, blame and intolerance to which they often cling.
This model, if repeated, invites the patient in the videogame session to turn towards what is being held back, allowing him, in the long run, to become aware of his own suffering to which he finds himself “attached”, harnessed and how it is possible to free himself from these conditioned habits simply letting go of what is in the here and now is of little use.
How letting go?
Letting go is the completely natural act of allowing our emotions to pass through us, to manifest themselves in a flow and flow characteristic of water in its course, we let go simply by not resisting. Let’s try to let go of the emotion but, above all, to let go of the resistance to the emotion, let’s not oppose it, let’s not suffocate it, we can do it by stopping, taking a break and relaxing.
When we feel a disturbing emotion we enter the mode of doing, we want to do to feel better, to not feel, to not suffer but, by interfering in this way we end up suppressing the emotions; instead, when an emotion arises we don’t have to do anything except let it be, we do our best to relax and allow the emotion itself to manifest itself as it was on its own, we don’t have to do anything.
In VGT® training, predefined programs or ladders are not followed but the patient is trained to stay in the present, to listen and open his/her receptivity in favor of the learning process in a flexible way, tuning in to his/her own feedback or to the group’s feedback and adapting to the needs of the moment.
Non-judgment is fundamental, in the videogame dimension, it is necessary for the patient to assume the attitude of an impartial witness towards his own experiences, avoiding judging what is happening but letting himself go to observation and experimentation alone.
Life doesn’t have to stop we can continue doing the things we were doing. Let’s listen to what emerges in us without resisting, let’s not judge our feelings, let’s not look for results, let’s not convince ourselves that we shouldn’t feel this way, instead let’s try to relax, let’s sit with our emotion, let’s anchor ourselves to our breathing and observe it, let’s allow it to manifest itself, it won’t do anything to us, at a certain point we will notice that it is changing that it is becoming gradually less intense or, that it manifests itself in the form of a different emotion (anger can become sadness, guilt can become pain and then lead us once experienced, once welcomed and left free to flow with a sense of peace and lightness), we simply stay with what is there and let the emotion reveal itself and transform, in the end it will go away by itself.
Letting go is a natural process that happens spontaneously, only if we acquire loving awareness towards ourselves and allow it. We do not repress, we do not avoid our emotions, when we feel a strong or disturbing emotion arising, we do not interfere, we do nothing, we let it be, we leave it free to flow, we observe it, we let it take all the time necessary to manifest itself in its entirety without let ourselves be overwhelmed by the wave.
By not resisting we are letting go of the choppy emotional wave and, while this happens, we will realize that the energy of the Self that was previously necessary and used to repress it can now flow freely and fuel our creativity.
The more we get used to letting go, the lighter and more spacious our mind will become.
Letting go is a simple act that we can also bring into our daily lives and into our different areas of life (work, friendship, love), whatever we are doing let’s observe our emotions and let them free to flow, let’s not resist.
When shame arises in us, let’s relax, when we feel anxiety, let’s relax, when we feel anger, let’s relax, let’s anchor ourselves to our breathing, it represents our ever-present and useful anchor to rediscover a sense of peace and loving compassion towards ourselves; with a positive caress it allows us to return to our safe place (satisfying calming system) where tranquility and well-being reign.
The habit of resisting is often applied in various areas of our life, we always want to feel controlled and we think that resisting is synonymous with “having everything under control” but, this is not the case, it is just an unnecessary effort as we obtain the exact opposite.
Let’s open ourselves to difficult, unpleasant, unpleasant, annoying emotions, let’s let them arise and pass, if only we allow them to exist, to be, we will be able to stay inside them and face them to live in the here and now enriched and serene.
Return to the center of yourself through Video Game Therapy® training
“Making mistakes, trying again, starting over every time, even several times, is not always considering yourself “wrong”, “frustrating”.
In the VGT® training, this phrase takes on qualities of full wisdom and simplicity and can easily be approached with the practice of centering oneself.
The quality of our being of our Self is closely connected to our ability to remain centered, to notice when we are no longer centered and to refocus to remain in the state of flow where well-being guarantees us a greater openness towards new experiences than any nature they are.
In the video game experience, we can encounter situations from which we emerge “victorious” which bring us a state of joy, satisfaction, fulfillment (“I did it!” “I found the solution!”), but we can also encounter situations tortuous, difficult, emotionally engaging which lead us to develop our decision making and our problem solving, awareness, knowledge of ourselves and our limits experienced in a dynamic of trial and error in which we can feel initially frustrated but then satisfied and enriched for having found the solution (“I finally managed to defeat the monster, I feel better now”).
Being centered represents a continuous dynamic movement that rarely reaches completeness but improves through training, loving compassion and the kindness we direct towards ourselves and others.
Being centered is a useful skill in life and, which develops over time thanks to training, it is like a muscle that we can train and strengthen and Video Game Therapy® represents a valid training ground for this.
In the game we listen to our body in its various parts, we listen to our emotions, our perceptions, we listen to our will, we let go of tension, emotions, our deepest voices and find our happy island, our safe place, our base from which we can start again in search of even difficult, new adventures never experienced before.
Training centering ensures that the moments of imbalance, agitation and fear experienced in the game become less intense because they are perceived in this particular context as manageable, bringing into play skills we already possess or new skills. In the video game we can experience everything in life that we sometimes have difficulty, fear or fear of facing.
This dynamic reinforces learning through experience as a direct useful resource for facing future challenges.
Life changes continuously and presents us, as in a video game, with various situations and tests that are sometimes pleasant, sometimes less so, sometimes difficult, sometimes less so.
In life as in a VGT® training we encounter unexpected difficulties which, faced in a state of flow and re-centering, allow us to make continuous adjustments and improvements on our being and on our way of approaching ourselves and the world.
The flow dimension and the self-centeredness dimension guide us towards a dimension of balance of radicalization in which the mind and body collaborate in harmony (right hemisphere and left hemisphere, the pouring dimension and the dimension of being collaborate harmoniously to guarantee us a state of satisfaction, well-being and homeostasis).
Centering is a precious human ability of being that can be trained and developed within the VGT® training to achieve the important objective of acquiring greater awareness of the treasures contained within us in the present moment.
Andrea’s case
Video game used: Spiritfarer
Intervention: Literacy and emotional management, management of frustrations and minor stress.
Andrea is a 21 year old boy, placed in a Semi-residential Psychiatric Community in the province of Brescia since the age of 18 where he has been diagnosed with severe Schizophrenia with bizarre behavior (he cuts himself and then gets blood on his face, runs through his community environments with a black mask, often persistently hits his head against the wall, in conditions of particular stress he scratches until the area bleeds). He presents autistic, withdrawn traits and high selectivity towards the Other (he only made a good friendship with one other boy in the community, finding himself united by several shared interests).
In the VGT® training period, he follows a pharmacological treatment and is well compensated, thanks to the treatments he manages to find a place in the preparation/tidying up activity of the refectory, other small cleaning jobs and participates enthusiastically in the Creative Writing laboratory.
Andrea very willingly accepts, also mindful of last year’s experience, to participate in the Video Game Therapy® Laboratory which will be held at the Community itself.
At the first meeting Andrea shows up on time, with a slow pace, a shy gaze turned downwards and still, standing in front of the armchair.
I kindly ask him to sit down and try to welcome him, thanking him for his participation,
We begin the session by trying to give voice to the emotions that reflect the last period experienced through the aid of the Plutchik wheel, I immediately notice the hesitation and difficulty, I put the patient at ease by giving him further time and trying to support him in reliving the last salient events of the past week and the corresponding moods experienced.
After ten minutes he presents me with the wheel with four emotions written on it:
– anguish and sadness at the departure of his only friend from the Community;
– serenity and contentment because, just today, she saw him again for an outing together at the shopping center;
The answers to the questions, even in the first gaming session, were short and not very expressive, without glances and sometimes silent, the only sentences that Andrea addressed to me were “I can’t express emotions” “I don’t like physical contact”, I prefer not to insist and let him play freely in a visible state of flow.
In the next meeting I try to present myself in a different way, not asking him questions and waiting for the right moment for him, for him to be totally at ease, not judged and listened to.
In gaming sessions, he starts checking me out of the corner of his eye, involves me verbally in reading messages, often smiles at the jokes in the game and looks at me expecting a reciprocated smile from me and often uses the “hug” function of the two characters and then rejoices in the act.
In the game he is very skilled, he never keeps the character still, he knows how to orient himself well ” Luckily I don’t travel as much in life as in the game, I would really like to travel but, I don’t know to orient myself, if I leave the Community, I immediately get lost instead in the game I can understand where I am and what I want.”
Slowly Andrea manages to immerse himself more and more in the game and this allows him to open up in his own way and making me participate in his ” being there”.
Often at the end of the sessions he reads his writings to me, short stories that trace his life and where the countless emotions he felt are hidden.
The game allowed Andrea to feel protagonist, relaxed, at ease and more involved in the explication of the actions, behaviors and moods of the characters and, at the same time, also of his own,
The range of emotions expressed has expanded during the training, and even in cases where he does not find the solution immediately, thanks to the application of the STOP technique, he is able to re-center himself and proceed with greater serenity and self-confidence.
The facial expressions during the VGT® session have clearly changed, he smiles often, looks me straight in the eyes and tries to get my attention to share what he is experiencing through the gaming experience.
“The game got me involved. I felt caught. I liked it because I felt good and it made me think of a possible personal rebirth like the light that guides the character in his journey towards new destinations, new landscapes in the game.â€
Andrea has also refined important skills through play such as problem solving, decision making, planning, memory and attention as well as better management of stressful situations.
The immersive nature of the game allowed him to know how to orient himself even in a videogame context and give free rein to his hidden vitality (the character was never kept still, he continuously jumped from one side of the boat to the other even during moments of pause during island hopping).
Conclusions
Working on one’s Self through the innovative evidence-based approach of Video Game Therapy® means learning to better manage emotions and even difficult situations the next time they will present, it means having more compassion for ourselves and others, knowing how to recognize which situations trigger our “dysfunctional” behaviors and setting stronger boundaries thanks to continuous life skills training.
It also means being clear about what we deserve and demanding it, understanding what we want and how to achieve it through “a Hero’s journey”, also taking into consideration the fact that not everyone will be able to understand our path of personal growth and fulfillment.
In essence it means putting our mental well-being above everything; it is not a return to the starting point; life is made up of many chapters and as in a book, even in a video game, we must experience what we believe is right simply by taking note of our choices.
At the basis of healthy boundaries is self-awareness, through VGT® training, we develop the ability to know who we are, what we feel, what we need (life skills and social connection) and which things we want to devote energy to or no.
Only in this way will we be able to define healthy boundaries, within which we can feel part of everything that happens around us, we will not be simple spectators but protagonists of our lives as happens in the VGT® session.
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