Video Gaming as a Bridge to the Real Self
From Avoidance and Disorder to Connection and Intimacy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20177579 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Claire Bowers (Private Practice, Liverpool; Academic Tutor, Psychotherapy Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 62-76 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactional Analysis Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0362-1537 • E-ISSN: 2329-5244 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03621537.2025.2438521 |
| OpenAlex | W4407235909 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 29 |
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
The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment
Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery
Transactional analysis in psychotherapy
Problematic involvement in online games
The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance.
Inside Out
Sandplay and Family Constellation
A Place for the Ecological Third
Inquiry, Attunement, and Involvement in the Psychotherapy of Dissociation
Working in the Terrain of the Damaged Self Core
Scripts in the Sand
Connection, Hungers, and Time Structuring
Psychotherapy of Schizoid Process
Playing Video Games During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Effects on Players’ Well-Being
Beyond Doer and Done To
Play Changes Us
The benefits of playing video games
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |