Using RPGs as Tools for Player Skill Development

Upon completion of this training, the individual is awarded one (1) APA/NBCC/ACE/APT CE Hour of Completion. 

About This Event

We know that RPGs can impact players on a profoundly personal level. How can practitioners harness the potential of these impacts in a therapeutic context? This talk by Dr. Sarah Lynne Bowman will discuss the potential of using RPGs as tools for exploring identity, training affective skills and processing personal emotional content. The class will focus upon three broad categories:

1) Ego/self development;

2) Processing the past, emotional expression, and regulation; and

3) Group validation of personal experiences.

The talk will cover several aspects pertaining to each category, including examples of how practitioners might design therapeutic containers to encourage development within each area. Dr. Bowman will include both hypothetical and personal examples from leisure virtual, tabletop, and live action role-playing (larp). Join us as we explore the potential of role-playing as a tool to explore the vast terrain of the human psyche!

Disability Accommodations

It is the responsibility of the Individual to contact Geek Therapeutics to request disability accommodations at Hello@geektherapeutics.com.

Geek Therapeutics is committed to helping each student reach his/her academic potential and to providing every student equal opportunity to participate in and engage with the course. In keeping with this commitment, effort has been made to develop accessible learning materials that provide equal access. Please contact Geek Therapeutics immediately if access to course materials is restricted due to a disability so the issue(s) can be resolved in a timely manner.

Learning Objectives

1. Apply different RPG theories to affective skills, emotional processing, and identity exploration.
2. Identify examples of how these applications are useful in RPG context.
3. Identify several RPGs in which these skills can be practiced with applied facilitation.

Course Instructor

Sarah Lynne Bowman is a professor, scholar, game designer, and event organizer. An instructor at several institutions including Austin Community College, she received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in Radio-TV-Film. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in Arts and Humanities. Bowman publishes regularly in scholarly and popular media about the transformative power of role-playing. McFarland Press published her dissertation in 2010 as The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems, and Explore Identity. She served as an editor for The Wyrd Con Companion Book from 2012-2015, is a coordinating editor for the International Journal of Role-playing, and is a managing editor for the magazine Nordiclarp.org. Bowman was the lead organizer for the Living Games Conference 2016, helped coordinate the Role-playing and Simulation in Education Conferences in 2016 and 2018, and served on several committees for Living Games 2018. Learn more at her website: http://sarahlynnebowman.com/

Continuing Education Credits

Psychologists: Geek Therapeutics is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Geek Therapeutics maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 

Counselors: Geek Therapeutics has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7042. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Geek Therapeutics is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. 

Social Workers: Geek Therapeutics, #1769, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Geek Therapeutics maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 05/19/2022 – 05/19/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 1 continuing education credits. 

Play Therapists: Geek Therapeutics has been approved by APT as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, No. 21-649. Programs that do not qualify for APT credit are clearly identified. Geek Therapeutics is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. 

Other Professions: This activity qualifies for the specified number of hours of instructional content as required by many licensing boards and professional organizations. Save your course outline and certificate of completion, and contact your board or organization for specific requirements. Completion of the course(s) with a post-test score of 80% or better is required to receive continuing education credit; there is no partial credit.