(COMING EARLY 2025 TO THE MOODUS/EAST HADDAM OFFICE)
Does your teen struggle to understand social norms and interactions? Have difficulties making or keeping friends? Understanding the intentions or emotions of others? Dragon’s Guild is a new therapy group using evidence-based strategies and fun role-playing games to help teens build crucial social skills. This 8-week group combines techniques from proven models of social skills instruction and implementation with the adventure of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons™. Through collaborative game scenarios, participants will practice skills like empathy-building, perspective-taking, teamwork, conflict resolution, social confidence and anxiety management, and more – all in the context of a high fantasy adventure.
Dragon’s Guild is for high school aged teens who want to expand their “social toolbox”. Participants may struggle with general social awareness and interaction and do not have to carry a diagnosis. However, teens with the following diagnoses may be a good fit.
- “High-Functioning” Autism (formerly characterized as “Asperger’s Syndrome”)
- ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)
- Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder
- Non-Verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD)
This group will work within the framework of Michelle Garcia Winner’s SocialThinking model, while incorporating concepts from evidence-based intervention models such as PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills). Teens and parents will have a brief video meeting with the therapist before the first group session.