Rethinking Gaming Addiction in Psychotherapy

A session at SXSW Interactive 2012

Ninety-seven percent of all adolescents in the US play video games, & more than half of the adults in this country play video games regardless of their race or income. The military has discovered that video games decrease symptoms of PTSD in veterans, & with the advent of the iPhone, mobile technology is making social media more prevalent than ever. Despite these numbers, psychotherapists & other healthcare providers are reluctant & uncertain how or when to integrate technology into their work. When gaming or technology is mentioned at all, it is only as an addiction or liability, never as a powerful innovation. This is in part due to an age-old mistrust & disdain of technology which has its roots in issues of class & psychology. But despite this, psychotherapy has passed the point where learning about technology is negotiable. This workshop aims to critique the idea of gaming as addiction & further, discuss how understanding and using video games may improve therapeutic outcomes.

About the speaker

This person is speaking at this event.

Mike Langlois

Mike Langlois MSW LICSW

I received my BA from Connecticut College in 1991, and my MSW from Smith College School for Social Work in 1994. I have over 15 years of experience counseling adults and families. I serve on the NASW GLBT Issues Committee and the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth. I am an adjunct faculty at Boston College School for Social Work and a teaching associate in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. I'm usually involved in destigmatizing video games in my field, and am a gamer-affirmative therapist. I wrote a book about it, called Reset: Video Games and Psychotherapy.