As the popularity of the classic tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons grows within groups of young people, one Denver-based therapist is using the game for good. Evan Forster of Moving Mountains Counseling Center in Littleton has been blending the game of Dungeons and Dragons—also known as D&D—with therapy to help improve teenagers’ mental health in a non-traditional way.
“Therapeutically applied D&D is utilizing tabletop role-playing games, in this case, Dungeons and Dragons, as a tool to work on a lot of different therapeutic skills,” Forster said. “We utilize this game that people play together at a table to work on collaborative problem solving, combating social anxiety, taking the perspective of other people, challenging rigid thinking, and decreasing isolation.”
Every Thursday night, Forster and a group of teenagers gather around a board, get in character, and work to improve themselves. The environment and situations that the players are thrown into are silly and fantastical scenarios. Forster builds these scenarios to provide players with a perfect playground to apply and strengthen their social skills, which is something individual therapy can struggle to do.
“I build encounters intentionally to allow for perhaps deeper improv or role-playing,” Forster said. “I work to help folks maybe collaborate together in a different manner than they would generally. I just really add spaces within this game to help people build different skills.”
According to Forster, therapeutically applied D&D helps to improve confidence and decrease social anxiety within players.
“[The game] is a safe place to just explore maybe being a little bit more outgoing,” Forster said. “You can explore cracking that joke you had in your head but were worried about telling.”
Forster has taken a special interest in blending therapy and D&D. He was a therapist under a grant program at STEM School Highlands Ranch and following the 2019 shooting he started playing tabletop games with other school staff members.
“Somebody sent out an email that was like, ‘Hey, who wants to play D&D?’ And I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do that,’” Forster said. I started playing with some teachers and found it to be very huge for creating community, especially during the pandemic.”
After being promoted to the clinical lead at the Center for Strength, Forster continued to look for ways to help those traumatized by the shooting to help rebuild trust and regain a sense of community. That’s when he got the idea to put D&D and therapy together.
“We were looking for ways to continue to build community,” Forster said. Following a traumatic event, individual therapy can be very impactful but can decrease your sense of trust in other people. So we talked about starting a [D&D] club, and I started training to run therapeutically applied groups.”
Since starting his therapeutically applied D&D sessions, Forster has been proud of the social skills that the players in his group have displayed. He believes that his sessions have helped teenagers around Denver find a place in the tabletop community, even outside of the therapeutic setting.
“One cool thing is that a lot of the folks who play at our sessions will go out and start their own D&D groups at their school, which they might not have done beforehand,” Forster said. “It’s like they leave with a set of skills or knowledge that transcends the game. Maybe when they see a sticker of a dice on somebody’s laptop at a coffee shop, they’ll say something when they wouldn’t have before.”
Forster knows just how impactful D&D can be on its players, building lifelong memories and a sense of community. He still plays with the same group of former STEM faculty, which hooked him initially. As an alternative to traditional one-on-one therapy, Forster’s use of D&D is helping to revolutionize how young people tackle mental health issues.
“D&D is just this really cool space for folks to be able to come together and let their guard down, be vulnerable, and have fun,” Forster said.
