Minecraft is a Lego-like virtual environment where players team up to cobble together cities, raise digital farm animals for food, and build fantasy castles in the sky. Ivan and other children are processing grief with support from a clinical therapist who meets them in a private area of the wildly popular video game.
Unlike violent shooter games, such as Call of Duty, Minecraft has been adapted by therapists as a tool to connect with children coping with mental health problems and to encourage social development in kids with autism. About two years ago, Meaghan Jackson, a certified music therapist based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, wondered if this game might enhance her work with grieving kids.
What if they could express their feelings about a death — and discover they’re not alone — through group discussions and creative activities in their favorite video game?
Jackson developed the concept with support from her employer, the Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society, a Canadian nonprofit that offers counseling and camping retreats for bereaved families.
Launched in July 2022, the Minecraft Virtual Support Group for Grieving Kids is for children aged 7 to 12 who have experienced a loss — most often of a parent, sibling, or other close family member.
Jackson acknowledges that most kids already get plenty of screen time. But compared with in-person groups she has led for nearly two decades, “it is a lot easier to hold kids’ attention in Minecraft,” she says. In…
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