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What In The World Is Geek Therapy?

Geek Therapy is a modality that is fairly new to Australia, but has been used in the US and Europe for over 20 years.  It’s basically taking stuff in the geek cultural zeitgeist and using it in a therapeutic setting.  The reason that we use it can be different in every session; in one, we might play a video game with a client as a way of taking the pressure off of them while we talk about things (this is called an aesthetic barrier), but in another session, we might play the same videogame with a different client, but this time use it as a way of illustrating a concept in their life that they are struggling with.  But largely, it is an entire culture, complete with its own mythologies, rules, and intricacies, and it would be a gross oversight to not utilise these things to help the therapeutic process. 

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I could spend a lot of time discussing it, but rather wax eloquent about the wonders of Geek Therapy, I’ll just utilise the “7 Reasons” for geek therapy from Geek Theraputics (*1) (the leaders of Geek Therapy education for mental health professionals in the US) as I can’t put it any better than they do:

 

1.)  Geek Culture is used by millions of people everyday. 

Geek culture is a form of mythology designed to be engaging, entertaining, and educational. In Geek Therapeutics, we utilize geek culture as a mythological artifact, meaning we separate it from itself and examine it as a cultural item. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), for example: ten years of interesting characters and engaging storylines weaving together to create a giant mythology (a mythology that borrows from other mythologies, like Thor and Loki from the Norse). When we look at this mythology from a mythological studies perspective, we can separate out the lessons it portrays: friendship, resiliency, family connections, saving the world, becoming a personal hero, dealing with loss, grief, depression…the lessons buried in these action-packed films can connect in a multitude of ways to teach important life lessons. And these lessons are delivered through characters with whom your client feels connected.  Becoming a Certified Geek Therapist teaches you how to build these connections, evidence based interventions, and grow your practice with clients who will thrive.

 

2.)  Geek culture has been around for decades - even as early as the show: The Golden Girls!

The underlying thread between all these busted myths is simple: when we can speak geek, we get a clearer picture of the culture. We do not need to become an expert geek ourselves, but we can pick up enough of the language to understand its natural ebbs and flows. We can create an opportunity for our clients to teach us the language. When we explore geek culture with our clients, they can show us it is not all bad, and engaging with it benefits everyone.  Learning how to use these evidence based interventions through Certified Geek Therapist training is key to client’s transformational growth.

 

3.) We must engage in the geek mythology our clients are interested in if we want to engage with them on their level.

Every geek culture artifact has a mythology to frame it. Most things in our world are influenced by mythology, too. The ethos of mythology is everywhere. It can be found in religion, social standards, family dynamics, games, school, work, play… all were created out of lessons from one mythology or another. 

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Mythology from comic books, video games, and roleplaying games are exaggerated versions of our society’s personal mythologies. Different games and subcultures engage in mythology in different ways: video games have you act as a hero in someone else’s virtual mythology, anime shows a cast of characters making tough decisions in their own mythology via relatable, personal journeys, and Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaigns use a wide variety of mythologies to create a new one based on the players’ choices. When we consume mythologies from different mediums, they expand and influence our morals. Engaging in the same mythology as our clients helps Geek Therapists understand their clients’ motivations, hesitancies, and values better. 

 

4.) When we help a client understand their own agency in their life through a “geek” metaphor, we help them feel like they matter.

They start to understand the cause-and-effect relationships: their daily chores might feel daunting and counterproductive to their overall journey, but Iron Man does not conduct business from a messy Avengers Tower! If he did not take time to clean up after himself, he would never find his suit in time to save the world. There is some magic in the act of playing the hero, so why not extend the same magic into the real world?  The trainings at Geek Therapeutics helps you bring these real time interventions into your therapy room enhancing your clinical abilities, client growth, and personal well-being.

 

5.)  A Geek Therapist involves studying the rules of geek mythologies and intentionally breaking out of them into real-world applications.

Other forms of therapy use similar techniques: art therapy involves studying symbols and visual cues, and relating them to human experience. We are simply switching a bowl of fruit for dungeon treasure and extrapolating its relationship with our lives, creating permeating changes.  And everything we do is evidence based so you can be sure to know you will have the most recent interventions for your practice. 

 

6.)  Geek Therapists bridge the gap between geeks, parents, peers, and therapists to create practical and innovative therapy sessions.

Geek Therapy encompasses many paradigms of thought, intellectual curiosities, and specialized interests outside of “normal” social conformity. This can range from well-known areas like video games, comic cons, and TV shows to the less well-known topics of board games and verbose fantasy novels. There are clinicians who use these geek cultural artifacts to promote social normalcy, community, reduce anxiety and depression, and help clients understand who they are through their interests.

 

7.)  Geek Therapists can help clients overcome obstacles as if they are literal barriers straight out of the client’s favorite mythos.

The obstacle could be a sleeping Snorlax in the road we must move or go around, or it could be a more complex problem we cannot overcome without a new skill. In Kingdom Hearts, the main character, Sora, travels past dozens of treasure chests he cannot access until he learns the skill “Glide” from Tinker Bell in Neverland. We can take these obstacles and look at them in real-life from a mythological standpoint.

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“I understand your fight with your parents was really upsetting for you. I wonder, what do you think we need to overcome this obstacle? Is there a skill we must learn before we try talking to them about it again?”

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Geek Therapists practice some appropriate skills to help them grow. We acknowledge the obstacle, think critically, and overcome it – Geek Therapeutics is there to help you learn and grow with your clients.

 

 

*1. https://geektherapeutics.com/