Digging into Therapy
From relatively humble beginnings, the video game Minecraft is now played in millions of homes and sees both educational and therapeutic applications. With this year celebrating 15 years of Creepers and diamond pickaxes, we thought it’s the perfect time to take a deep dive into the juggernaut of gaming and explore how it is being used in counselling and psychotherapy around the world.
Originally developed by Mojang Studios in 2009 under the name ‘Cave Game’, Minecraft would see full release in 2011 to massive critical acclaim and over a million sales in its first month (4). To say that since then, Minecraft has been successful would be a gross understatement. In 2014, Minecraft was acquired by Microsoft for a whopping $2.5 billion (3). By comparison, the value of the global music industry is estimated to have been just short of $15 billion in the same year (5). This means that the trade value of Minecraft alone equated to nearly 17% of the entire music industry in 2014!
For those unfamiliar with Minecraft, cast your mind back to a childhood sandpit. That favourite pastime where you could build anything with a hardy bucket & spade and a little imagination. Minecraft is the 21st Century’s digital remake of this concept taken to its extreme. Indeed, so apt is the analogy that Minecraft introduced a whole new genre to the gaming industry; the sandbox game. Where Minecraft differs from the sandpits of old is in its sheer scale, both in terms of the size of sandbox (Minecraft plays out in an entire digital world) but also in terms of possibilities. Beyond simple sand castles, Minecraft players can craft new tools, build mind-bending structures (see below), explore whole new biomes and so much more. Most importantly however, what remains from our sandpit analogy is the freedom to create and realise what might be imagined.
It has been this freedom that some experts have sought to expand upon with the possibility of more practical applications for Minecraft. One of the first things to manifest from this initiative was Minecraft Education, through the collaborative efforts of many professional educators and culminating in an education platform that’s employed by over 100,000 teachers across 115 countries (2). For those unfamiliar with the application of e-learning in modern classrooms, it may be surprising to discover that Minecraft has been used to help students learn to code (6), engineer sustainable cities (7) and even explore indigenous cultures (8).
Today, Minecraft is crossing broader horizons as therapy and mental health support enter the digital age with increasingly more online tools and services. The idea of using Minecraft for therapeutic intervention came about quite early on in the 2010s with various reviews and case studies popping up over the years (9, 10, 11). However, with the global pandemic of 2020, developments in the realm of digital therapy accelerated substantially. In fact, such has been the success of using Minecraft therapeutically that in 2021, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) published a detailed case study (12) promoting the benefits of using Minecraft therapeutically on their own website.
Embracing the future, Primrose Hospice has been exploring the use of Minecraft therapeutically throughout 2024 and we’re proud to host several members of staff who have been officially trained in the therapeutic application of Minecraft by none other than Ellie Finch herself (author of the BACP article)! This gave us the opportunity to sit down with Ellie and ask about her journey with using Minecraft therapeutically…
“I had the idea of using Minecraft therapeutically back in 2012 while writing my MA dissertation on engaging children and young people in online mental health services. In 2014, I was preparing to launch a pilot project using Minecraft in school counselling sessions when my daughter faced health challenges, which put that project on pause until 2020. In March 2020, I was working for a young people’s counselling service. With the onset of COVID-19 and the shift to online work during lockdown, it became evident to me that this was the opportune moment to integrate Minecraft into therapy sessions.”
“It has proven to be highly effective in engaging children, young people, and adults in counselling sessions, especially those who are neurodivergent or experience social anxiety. As word spread among other professionals, I began receiving requests to provide training. This aspect of my work has expanded significantly in recent years and I have now trained numerous organisations and private practitioners in the therapeutic use of Minecraft, many of whom initially had little to no experience with video games. It has been rewarding to witness them enthusiastically embrace Minecraft and discover its therapeutic possibilities for themselves within this much-loved and immensely popular game.”
“I’m excited to see the positive impact that the counsellors at Primrose Hospice have using Minecraft in their sessions with children and young people.”
To learn more about Ellie’s work, check out her website at www.elliefinch.co.uk.
We were also able to catch up with Jenni, the Children Team Lead at Primrose Hospice, to find out how the team have been getting on with Minecraft, this is their story…
“As a team, although excited, we were all quite apprehensive about training to use Minecraft therapeutically. The amount of gaming/IT
skills varied within the team but none of us had ever really played Minecraft. We needn’t have worried – despite breaking a few bricks in places we maybe shouldn’t have we all loved the training and felt skilled enough to use it with young people after. Ellie Finch the trainer was very patient and explained to us that we didn’t need to be an expert in Minecraft to use it therapeutically, just like we don’t need to be artists to use paint in our support.”
She continues;
“Since the training we’ve all used it to varying degrees in our work. For some young people this may be the main activity we use, for others it might just be a one off session. What we have all found is that it’s a unique way to engage young people in the work we do. As well as using Minecraft in one to one therapy we have also held our first Minecraft group session which went well and we learnt a lot. Children were able to join the same world which we had created for them to complete different activities to support them in sharing their feelings.”
Do you have any thoughts about the game itself? Perhaps some likes or dislikes you’ve found along the way?
“We like the fact that it is something that our young people feel comfortable and familiar with which is a positive place to start support. It’s great to have another tool we can use to engage children and support them to share how they are feeling. Something we dislike – there’s no undo button – but I guess life doesn’t have an undo button so we’re all learning to embrace the mistakes and blocks we accidentally destroy!”
What has the general feedback been like?
“We have had lots of positive feedback from our first group. One child approached the session with ‘Some excitement and a little anxiety regarding meeting other children’ but left ‘Happy, relaxed and excited to come again’ they also commented that they ‘had so much fun and enjoyed being with the other children.”
Big thanks to Ellie and Jenni, we look forward to catching up again soon.
For many of us, it can be easy to prejudge video games. I for one won’t argue that everything to come out of the gaming industry has been positive. But the next time you see someone digging away at their phone or computer screen, give a moment to consider the possibilities that these worlds might contain.
If you believe you or someone you know might benefit from bereavement services, take a look at our referrals page for more information.
Written by Josh Davies
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NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG OR MICROSOFT.
