Dungeons and Dragons Support Tribes
D&D Support Tribes.
You’ll work together with me in a blend of one-on-one therapy and weekly D&D session with my Dungeon Master/Life Coach.
Because lets face it, we feel alone. This option brings you into a 4-person team. You’ll grow together and develop trust and bonds with one another that could last years to come. Your quests are tailored to inspire growth and motivate you towards life progress
D&D Support Tribes was created trying to scratch my own itch
In 2018 I was in living in Vietnam and working at an internship. I had maybe 6 people I could talk to in a week outside my family that spoke English. And no access to the woods. I was strugglin! I wouldn’t have admitted it, but it was overwhelming! I was poor, isolated, and I couldn’t focus to save my life. I thought ‘ there has to be something for guys like me? what would help me feel connected. And consistently stay motivated? That was the question, that led to this thought baby.
I called it Hero’s Leap and it underwent many iterations. I gathered data around this and practiced a model of this for my final project incorporating this program with Solution-Focused Therapy and Narrative Therapy Modalities. (Ideal because it’s geared towards 1. Being 100% focused on finding the strengths of individuals not their weaknesses, 2 externalizing our challenges and weaknesses to help up recognize our strength, stamina, and resourcefulness, not our failings. 3. It’s brief!, designed to be effective over limited amounts of time. Think weeks, not months.
D&D Support Tribes is all about
Helping you get your goal,
Connecting you to a Like-minded support team.
Giving you the little Dopamine hits and check-ins along the way to stay motivated.
Versus
Coaching
Approach: Empowering clients to reach their fullest potential.
Flexibility: Can be conducted outside of Idaho for accessibility.
Goals: Building skills or accomplishing goals in areas such as improving health, social skills financial goals, maintaining focus, relationship skills, daily habits etc.
Qualification: Not intended for diagnosing or treating mental illness.
Requirement: Clients should be able to handle critique without being overwhelmed or compromising functioning.
Qualification: Can be provided by licensed life coach, or counselor.
Counseling
Focus: Centered on treating psychopathology and mental health issues.
Flexibility: Can be focused on a range of issues all of which affect a person’s mental health.
Goal: Healing and growth through therapeutic interventions.
Approach: Addresses deep-rooted emotional and psychological challenges.
Accessibility: Limited to clients within Idaho due to licensing.
Qualification: Provided by licensed professionals for diagnosing and treating mental illness.
Requirement: May involve more intensive therapeutic support.
Note: Dungeons and Dragon’s Support Tribes is designed to act as supportive coaching to help you reach our goals and not as mental health treatment. I am a licensed therapist in the state of Idaho, and can provide mental this mental health coaching piece to clients within the state of Idaho.
I do not offer therapy services across state lines. If I at any time determine that coaching is not the right fit (e.g. there is evidence of psychopathology and the need for therapeutic support), I will facilitate you finding a suitable licensed therapist within your state to offer the services you need, either in place of our work or in addition to our work.
What the Heck?!
So How does this work?
And why is it effective?
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1
We do a thorough intake to get your history, your challenges, your goals, and your interests. We work together to hammer out what you want to stay focused on for the duration of this Campaign.
Each of your Goals will align with an attribute of your avatar. Overcoming Shyness might be Courage, or Studying for that exam might be Wisdom. Character attributes that actually impact your Avatar’s progress.
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2
Campaigns are typically 8 weeks long. This gives you time to build connections, try things out, and get a good amount of work done.
Each week you will do a mentoring or therapy session with myself, or our life coach, and a 3-hour D&D group.
You’ll also complete a short daily tracker detailing your progress on your 3 primary goals for this campaign.
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3
This program uses elements of gamification and social pressure to make it easier for you to meet your goals It’s kinda like body doubling. You’ll get an extra umph of focus because you know your progress in real life affects the campaign. It affects your friends.
But beware! Slacking on the job will cause your numbers to drop!
Because of the daily tracker, you can see your progress, It brings out a sense of Leveling Up in the same way you would a video game, but now trackable in real life!
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4
Not only does your work throughout the week reflect on the attribute growth of your character: ( like courage, strength, intelligence, etc). but it is reflected in your character’s individual quest within the campaign.
For example, maybe Dru is starting his online business and makes youtube videos to promote the business. It might be that in his campaign, Dru has the skill of blacksmithing, and is searching the world for new materials and techniques to make armor that cannot be pierced. This creates a metaphor in the game.
Metaphors are cool this way. This quest is something I can be excited about! “Yes, I want to travel the world, and find everything and learn everything I can! And the end goal? It’s legendary in it’s own way. it honors my desire to contribute to the safety of the world, not it’s destruction.
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5
And if I’m Dru? This 2x weekly check-in (individual mentoring and group campaign) would help immensely. I already feel the heaviness, a kind of pressure to make this business work. I’m doing this on my own. How great it would be to have a team that gets me, sees my progress, and wants me to succeed. How great would it be to have a professional story teller coordinate with my mentor and create a chapter that reflects my struggle, my victories this week. I know that would give me hope, motivation wisdom I might have missed. Most of all, it would give me the support of a tribe.
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6
It is very hard to fashion a D&D game that is a reflection of our current life that is still fun. Even typing it out loud - it makes me sick! - Where is the escape in that?! That requires a very skilled Dungeon Master who creates a great campaign first, and weaves in reflections or metaphors of your goals and progress weekly.
This is Huge! As you progress towards your real-life goals it helps your character and your quest move forward. If you slack… well Karma, and your team, is there to motivate you to get back on track.
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7
Each week you’ll meet with me for one-on-one individual mentoring. I’m skilled in helping my clients get their goals change their habits whatever they are. In my therapeutic work I do a blend of solution focused therapy, narrative therapy and motivational interviewing to help my clients realize changes they need to make, and plow forward! Whether we’re addressing a mental health issue or a real-life goals.
You’ll take a few seconds to log your progress each day in the tracker.
And you’ll reap the rewards of you hard work in the 4 person weekly D&D campaign group. hosted by a professional D&D Dungeon Master and licensed Life Coach.
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8
The emphasis of the weekly campaign is on having fun. But there is some time built in to connect with your party and reflect on your progress or struggles towards the goals each week. We’ve limited groups to 4 ‘heroes’ so we can move through the campaign and actions with the most speed. More than four and it slows everything down and people start to wander.
This team has a unifying aura to it. You get to form lasting connections with real people who have similar interests and are working very hard to be better- just like you are. It’s our hope that these connections form a support tribe, invested in you and your progress.
So it’s 90% play with only a touch of seriousness. We know better than to drag heaviness into a campaign. When we do explore our progress, it’s done tactfully. And of course, it wouldn’t be D&D it wasn’t crafted in a way that your individual mission wasn’t intertwined with the progress stories of your other 3 party members.
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9
D&D Dungeon Masters have years of experience and many have become master story tellers. There are those that have the makings for fanstatic mentors and life coaches. This is because of their intellect, compassion, and charisma. We value this and recruit from this pool. We provide a good wage because we recognize how rare these skills are. We want to work hand in hand to level up your game.
Our hope is that you won’t want to end at one campaign. We hope you’ll love this modality so much that you keep working with your party for years to come. We’ve priced it affordably, and hope to roll out more options to make this the life hack that doubles your progress. And gives you a team of fellow heroes at your back.