The Mental Health Benefits of Role Playing Games Like Dungeons & Dragons

"Allows me to do something different and stimulates my brain and allows me to chat with other people when I can’t get out"

"It's an escape. The social connections we make in a game are also beneficial for our good mental health"

Game Therapy UK (GTUK) is a registered charity set up to promote evidence-based therapeutic gaming and is recognised as the UK’s authoritative body on best-practice therapeutic gaming. It was recipient of the Ian Livingstone Award for Innovation in Games in 2023.

One of the first projects GTUK set up was a group called ‘Tactical Advance to Game’ (TAG). This was set up with military veterans and serving personnel and is working with a approx. 120 military gamers in both the UK and USA (with numbers quickly growing). The aim is to provide a healthy online social space for military gamers to game, but to also work with Veterans NHS to develop a separate therapeutic gaming project for military veterans with mental health conditions caused by their service.

GTUK uses complex, cooperative games, such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) to address social isolation, trauma, and aid recover. Whilst many of their volunteers are clinical psychologist, teachers, occupational therapists, and researchers, most are gamers, primarily table-top role-playing gamers (like D&D). Whilst many of the players do play D&D, the charity is ‘game agnostic’ and works with a wide range of role-playing games including video and table-top games. All the volunteers with the TAG group are either serving or veteran military personnel.

As well as TAG, GTUK works with many other charitable projects including games for people experiencing homelessness, survivors of modern-day slavery, autistic adults and young people, kids with special educational needs and young people with life limiting illnesses.

Whilst GTUK are the UK experts in therapeutic gaming (they run the Academic Therapeutic Gaming Conference in various UK Universities, and publish the International Journal of Therapeutic Gaming) they rely on volunteers from the gaming community, such as the military volunteers who run TAG. All volunteers get training, peer-support, (and clinical supervision and insurance if required).

About Gary

Gary Colman served 14 years as doctor with the British Army, the last 4 years in medical support of UKSF.

He still currently works one day per week as a doctor providing End of Life Care to people experiencing homelessness in London. He has played, and written role-playing games (such as Call of Cthulhu and D&D) since the 1970s and is currently chairman of Game Therapy UK.

Live Talk

Hosted by Company of Makers' co-founder Steve Bomford.

Q&A

You'll have the opportunity to get involved and ask questions of our guests. We'll endeavour to answer as many of your questions as we can squeeze in.

We're trying to reach, and better understand, members of the armed forces community who are also gamers, so if that's you we'd really appreciate you taking the time to complete our super short questionnaire.

Over the coming months we will be hosting a range of gaming activities for you to get involved in.

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Company of Makers are funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust Fund, Arts Council England and the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity.