How therapists are using video games like Minecraft to help vulnerable children
261‘When I started offering Minecraft counselling, I’ve had parents just rush to me and say: «I think you might be able to reach my child and nobody else has been able to do that».’
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This is what Ellie Finch, a UK-based counsellor who started thinking about using games in therapy in 2012 when she began playing Minecraft with her nieces, told us.
In 2020, the pandemic forced Finch to practice counselling online and she realised that she could reach the young people more effectively through playing video games with them.
‘I realised pretty quickly that providing counselling to children and young people via video calls had quite a few limitations and I noticed that many of them were playing video games,’ Finch said.
Minecraft has proved particularly useful in therapy for a number of reasons, writes journalist Keith Stuart, who covers video games and digital culture for the Guardian. ‘It’s one of the most successful games on the planet, with more than 200 million players globally, so a lot of children are familiar and comfortable with it.
‘It also has an open, highly creative structure – players can do what they want in the game’s blocky landscapes, they can gather materials and build houses, they can explore, they can fight zombies – and their decisions, aims and actions within the game all provide vital psychological and emotional insights.’
Finch works by creating an online Minecraft world accessible only to her and the child or young person she’s working with. The client gets to set the parameters – some want to only play in the creative mode, with no hostile characters, others prefer a totally flat, empty landscape.