«Playing activates the flow, the stream of consciousness favored by the immersive dimension which also activates the memory, works on the left hemisphere which allows one to feel masters, that is capable of controlling», explains Bocci (in the picture). «It is a moment in which our body and mind are in balance with respect to external situations and all this allows us to contain our emotions, to control the part of ourselves most linked to emotions. While playing I start from an emotional containment and I activate the flow». The Vgt was born from an idea by Bocci himself in 2019, but the response to the method came above all during and after the pandemic. After all, Bocci has developed an interest in the psychology of digital and the psychology of video games since the first years after his degree. And it is in this context that he conceived, followed by a group of professionals, the approach of Video Game Therapy. However, the video game struggles to be recognized as a potentially restorative tool to be used in a clinical setting.
It should be noted that video games in the clinical setting are used in the rehabilitation of cognitive functions (attention, problem solving, memory) in all age groups (infancy, adolescence, adults, the elderly). “They can be used for therapeutic purposes both video games already on the market and ad hoc developed titles» observes Bocci who recalls how in June 2020 the Food and Drug Administration-Fda «approved the use of a video game as the first treatment of digital medicine. Endeavor rX is a video game that can be prescribed as a treatment for ADhD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in children (8-12 years).
The identification with the avatar and with the story, however, is never passive. Online the minor feels free to be someone who still has to mask in daily life, for reasons of social acceptability and therefore of shame and can recreating, starting from acting in the “fairy tale” of the video game, one’s own story. The anonymity guaranteed by the game can lead the gamer to express himself in attitudes of violence, and to release emotions of anger, hate, sadness, ecstasy, pleasure, security, belonging and many others, but it is also true that video games allow people to deal with challenging situations, to compete and cooperate together and to compare themselves with other gamers. «The game in the Vgt is guided and assisted, thus helping the boy to bring out emotions, one can also work with the help of the psychologist and psychotherapist on skills» continues Bocci. Which underlines how good all games are. «each video game has a specific function. You have to figure out what story is right for that boy. For example, if you need to help develop attention, Tetris could be fine, then there are narrative games that let you enter a story. For example, a war game can help to discover cooperation dynamics».
And it is the therapist’s task to use the contents of the story to «operate a “transformation” and “therapeutic” process, starting from his subjectivity but above all from his “limit”. It would be very simplistic to reduce therapeutic gaming to its use only to train skills or as a distraction and evasion element or to simply “do” something.
The “doing” “playing” in the relationship thus allows the therapist and the gamer patient, the therapeutic dyad, to “imagine”, to “be and remain fluid” in the relationship, to revive projections and identifications, as well as emotional experiences, traumas past, childhood memories, without getting stuck in them» explains Bocci. Vgt is still little known in Italy while «in Geneva, Switzerland, it is used in psychiatric clinics, even in France video games are used with adults and the elderly. We can talk about a digital evolution of therapy that recovers the playful part to create, activate internal processes of the person as Video Game Therapy does» concludes Bocci.
Top photo by Morgan Basham – from the press office