Video Gaming as a Bridge to the Real Self

From Avoidance and Disorder to Connection and Intimacy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20177579
AutoresClaire Bowers (Private Practice, Liverpool; Academic Tutor, Psychotherapy Institute, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume55
Fascículo1
Páginas62-76
Data de publicação2025-01-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTransactional Analysis Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0362-1537 • E-ISSN: 2329-5244
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03621537.2025.2438521
OpenAlexW4407235909
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas29

This paper explores the integration of play and video gaming into psychotherapy, emphasizing the unique transitional space cocreated between therapists and clients who are gamers. The author highlights the importance of understanding the gaming world as a bridge to clients’ internal worlds or “secret gardens.” The author draws from Winnicottian concepts to emphasize paradoxes in play and the transition from isolated gaming spaces to realms of connection in the therapeutic relationship and in clients’ real lives. Case vignettes illustrate the therapeutic journey, showcasing video gaming as a tool for expressing unspoken traumas, supporting deconfusion, and fostering deeper intimacy. The therapeutic alliance is strengthened by validating clients’ gaming experiences and bridging the gap between the language of transactional analysis and that of gaming. When therapists embrace games and play in therapy, transformative possibilities become available to their clients. Overall, the paper explores these possibilities

Digital Games and Media · Engineering · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology