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Feelings Candy World plays similarly to Candy Land, but is an online version. Each color will represent a different emotion. Players will take turns discussing a time they felt each emotion as they land on the colors. This is a Google Slides document. The first slide is the title page. Go to the second slide to play the game. The game board contains links to other slides to answer questions. A video tutorial is available. You can download your free copy at: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/feelings-candy-world-free-telehealth-game

Thankful Heart is a counseling game based on cognitive-behavioral techniques to encourage positive thinking in children. The cards address positive friendships, a health self-concept, kindness, and taking control of thought life to end negative thoughts and redirect them to positive thoughts. Through this fun, interactive game, children can embrace basic CBT skills and rescript negative thoughts. It can be used in individual, group, or family counseling sessions. You can find it here: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/thankful-heart-telehealth-online-version

Spirit of the Tribe is a social skills game to help children understand the language of friendship, social cues and norms, and how to take action to find a group of friends where they belong. This game will help children recognize positive values, focus on shared hobbies and activities, and to build strong relational skills to solidify relationships. Topics include “Removing the Mask,” which discusses difficulties in social situations, anxiety, and avoidance. “Tribal Talk” teaches communication skills, “Fun Times” helps focus on the positive aspects of friendship and how to set goals for getting together with friends, and “ Friendship Goals” discusses values and expectations in friendship. You can find the game here: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/spirit-of-the-tribe-digital-download

Covid 19 has impacted children in many ways: fear of getting sick, missing friends, online schooling. Some have lost family members while some are just angry at the changes. This game is focuses on processing the changes that have occurred due to the virus. While many of the changes have had a negative impact on everyone, there is always a silver lining. The game encourages kids to think of the positives, ways to cope, and recognizing the importance of connection despite distance. There is a wide age range that this game reaches, as the basic concepts of keeping clean and respecting personal space may be more necessary for smaller children, the emotional and social impact affects everyone. This game will give kids an opportunity to voice their feelings through a play format. It also gives the therapist an opportunity to introduce alternative avenues to connect and cope. This is a versatile game which can be used in individual, group, or family sessions. This game is intended to be used by a licensed professional counselor or social worker. Here is a link to the game: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Y1mmHOGhDIoIBF7JvIBVUI2NF2rnB3Yo-DnIDsaxlrA/copy

This game is based off of the counseling intervention of making a memory box to preserve memories of a loved one who has died. The game allows children to remember favorite memories, process the shock of their loss, and discuss unresolved issues, and to cope with their loss. You can find the game here: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/the-memory-box-preprinted-game

Journey to My New Family is a counseling game to use with children who are in foster care or have been adopted. It addresses attachment problems, feelings of abandonment, and helps the child find their place in their new family. It also helps children process grief, anger, or other feelings related to birth parents. The game cards help children identify different family roles, rules, and interactions. They help children voice concerns and process feelings. You can find the game here: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/journey-to-my-new-family-telehealth-online-version

Coping Skills Toolbox is a counseling game to help children learn how to implement various types of coping skills, establish healthy social skills, and to manage self talk. It incorporates cognitive behavioral counseling through play. This is a go to game for counselors, as these skills can be beneficial to most mental health conditions. Topics include “Hammering Out Negative Thoughts,” “Leveling Out Your Emotions,” “Tightening Up Your Relationships,” and “Cutting to the Heart of the Issue”. The first topic will address basic cognitive behavioral skills to stop negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. The second topic focuses on emotional regulation and awareness of the emotional state. The next topic focuses on communication and boundaries within relationships. Finally, the last topic addresses underlying thoughts, beliefs, or resentments leading to negative emotions. This game was designed to be very general to be used for a wide range of issues and in various formats. It can be used for individual, group, or family counseling. You can find the game here: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/coping-skills-toolbox-digital-download

Cognitive Distortions is a cognitive-behavioral therapy game created to be used in counseling for elementary age children who battle with irrational thoughts or behavior patterns. This game focuses specifically on blaming, magnifying, filtering, controlling, global labels, mind reading, and catastrophizing. This game can be played in individual counseling with the counselor and client, in a family session, or in a small group format. This game focuses on educating clients on identifying these cognitive distortions, problems that may arise from using these thought patterns, and processing how these cognitive distortions have impacted them personally. This game will serve as a diagnostic tool for clinicians to identify problematic thinking and will allow the counselor, through play, to help clients learn how to control their self talk and implement coping skills. You can find the game here: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/cognitive-distortions-preprinted-game

Highs and Lows is a matching game to learn about emotions. Start by laying all the cards out on a table face down. Players will take turns selecting 2 cards. If they match, they will get another turn. If the two cards do not match, it will be another players turn. You could also play it like “Go Fish,” where each player starts with five cards. Players will then ask another player if they have a certain card. If they get a match they can continue to ask for additional cards. Once the player asks for a card that the other player does not have, they will choose a card from the stack. You can use prompts during this game, such as telling a time you felt the emotion indicated when finding a match. You could also focus on empathy, having the child describe what he/she thinks others might experience with the various emotions. Set printer setting to print on both sides. Cut cards on lines provided. It is recommended to use cardstock, as you can see through paper. Here's a link to the game: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/highs-and-lows-emotions-matching-game

This is a light-hearted story telling game. It is intended to help children work on communication skills, think through difficult situations, and to verbalize their thoughts and feelings in a meaningful way. It also provides opportunity to express deeper issues of the heart, insecurities, and fears. It can also provide a narrative approach to addressing these issues. There are eight different categories of cards, each with different prompts for story telling, role play, or answering questions about what they would do in a given situation. The game is about survival, preparedness, and coping - all helpful for kids with a history of trauma. Look for themes as you play, as trauma themes can appear.

House of Boundaries: Helps children identify appropriate boundaries in social situations Children will become aware of red flags for potential problems in relationships. Children will recognize that all people have strengths and weaknesses Addresses online safety, exposing traumatic events, focusing conversations on appropriate topics for the situation, and looking for character qualities. Children will identify various stages of relationships. Can be used for individual therapy, group therapy, or family therapy. Ideal for a traveling therapists, as the game comes in a 9 x 12 plastic bag, taking up little space in your work bag. Contents include: Cover Sheet with instructions House Trivia cards Who Killed the Relationship Cards - Characters, Rooms, and Weapons Checklists Lamination is recommended for durability. All pages are printed on card stock. This game plays similar to Clue. At the beginning of the game a character, weapon, and room will be chosen and placed in an envelope. Players will receive the rest of the cards. Players will each get a checklist to help them use the process of elimination to identify who killed the friendship, with which weapon, and in what room. The player will first choose a trivia card and answer it. If they successfully answer the card, they get to make a guess of who did it. After an accusation is made, one other player in the group will lay down one card that was part of the accusation. If no players have the cards, the envelope will be opened to see if the accusation was correct. If they were correct, the player wins. Otherwise the round is over. Through this process, children will be learning social skills and appropriate boundaries as they answer the trivia cards. The underlying goal is for children to use the house as an analogy of various aspects of life. They will learn to set boundaries based on character qualities of the friend and to invite them into deeper aspects of their heart as trust is built. They can visualize keeping certain doors shut if they do not feel secure in the relationship.

Great Expectations is a game to help children manage expectations of self and others, to consider self-talk and the emotional impact of it, and to set expectations based on past results. This game also addresses ambiguous grief, such as the loss of a friend or the impact of a lost relationship. Topics include “Enjoying the Journey,” “Magic Wand,” “Worth the Wait,” “Jumping to Conclusions,” “Unrealistic Expectations,” “Severed Dreams,” “Poisonous Thoughts,” and “High Hopes, Low Expectations.” There are many aspects of expectations, from embracing their current phase in life and living in the here and now, to learning to accept disappointment. This game would be helpful for helping children process the frustrations of having family members come and go from their life. This game could be used in group, individual, or family sessions.

Battle in my Brain is a cognitive behavioral counseling game to help kids identify self-talk, think through choices, and to consider consequences before making choices. This game addresses temptations, coping mechanisms, and different emotions such as anger, anxiety, and sadness (including depression). They also address what it feels like to make poor choices and specific actions to try to make restitution for these poor choices. They can learn from past successes as they talk through times they have made good choices and receive positive outcomes. The questions are designed to have children challenge thoughts, embrace positive self-talk, and to improve their behavior by improving their thought life. This game could be played in individual sessions, family sessions, or in group sessions. It is designed to be used by a licensed mental health professional, knowledgeable in cognitive behavioral therapy. Helps are available at www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com. Look for CBT 101 videos in the blog.

This is an interactive game to help families open up communication, identify problem areas, and allows for a non-confrontational way to voice concerns. It is written with language to allow it to be used by any family constellation avoiding terms such as mother, father, brother, and sister. The cards are designed to address a myriad of issues, such as division of work load, who is in charge, how the family overcomes challenges, and the communication style in the home. This game can be used as an assessment tool, as many diverse issues can appear. Counselors should also pay attention to how the family members behave while playing. Do they encourage one another? Do they give hostile body language based on answers they do not like? Do they respond with empathy, or the lack thereof? It can also offer an opportunity to model appropriate behavior and communication. This game is available in print, as a PDF download, or in telehealth form, as shown in the video.

Medieval Minds is a game to help children learn about the fight, flight, or freeze response and to help them implement coping skills to manage strong emotions. It opens the door to communication about triggers causing emotional meltdowns, making a plan to better cope in the future, and to become more aware of body signals and self-talk. Children will have an opportunity to learn how to override this automatic response by taking actions to tell their body that they are safe. They will also be able to identify people who can offer support and help when they need it. I have included 3 YouTube videos on page 13 that may be useful in helping children learn more information about the response and how their brains process threats. One is Dr. Siegel demonstrating how to use his Hand Model of the Brain. One is specifically about the fight, flight or freeze response, and another is a more illustrated explanation of the Hand Model. More tutorials of basic CBT skills addressed in this game can be found at on my YouTube channel.

Our hearts are a beautiful garden full of our most precious characteristics, our talents, dreams, and ambitions. It is in our hearts that we experience love, compassion, and greatness. However, weeds can take root when we allow things like bitterness, hate, self-deceit, and insecurities take root. Once we start to believe negative self-talk statements or unkind thoughts about others, the roots of the weeds entangle our hearts and can squeeze out the goodness that was once there. This game is designed to bring awareness to the heart condition, to uproot negative thoughts, and to plant new seeds of goodness to take over the garden. This game provides an overview of CBT skills for kids to learn to recognize self-talk, challenge irrational or unhelpful talk, and to rescript statements. It also helps bring awareness to the choice of what to allow in your heart and mind. There are four categories of cards: “Plant Seeds of Goodness,” “Weed Out False Beliefs,” “Embrace Your Beauty,” and “Nurture Your Garden.” The metaphoric language lends itself to addressing issues of diversity, building a positive self-esteem, and embracing characteristics that are different from other people.

This new counseling game is deigned to improve communication and the display of affection in relationships. Kid will learn to assertively communicate emotion, how to use non-verbal cues, and to show kindness and empathy. Game cards address improving social skills through showing empathy and kindness as well as recognizing the needs of others. It would also be helpful in improving family communication skills. Kids who have social anxiety and avoidance may benefit as well, as there are cards focused on these specific issues. The game addresses forgiveness, thinking the best of others, and considering the risk of relationships is worth the reward of connection.

Here's an idea to cheat a little when playing games with littles. You can read all the questions to the cards yourself (blame covid if necessary) and ask whatever question you would like instead of reading the card. Just be sure to look convincing and don't get busted! This video also discussing using the wheel with envelopes on the back. Here is the link to more information on the wheel and how to make it: https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/post/spin-the-wheel-a-telehealth-idea

Thoughts pop in your head all the time, but that does not mean they are true. Once you have been thinking the same negative thought for a while, it eventually becomes a belief. To uproot these beliefs, we must argue a case against them. Imagine a court hearing in your head. You are giving evidence of why the intrusive thought is a lie and cannot be believed. As you speak truth to the thought, it loses it's emotional power over you. Next, you will deliberately focus thoughts on a truthful, positive replacement thought. This new thought will eventually become the automatic thought in your mind, but it takes some hard work to get there!

Affirmations are positive self-talk statements you tell yourself to improve self-esteem, reduce anxiety, and to combat intrusive thoughts. Affirmations are used by deliberately and routinely focusing thoughts on something positive to reduce negative thoughts. I like to help kids make flash cards on index cards to place somewhere they will see them often. They are used as a reminder to meditate on the positive self-talk statement to rescript thoughts.

Grounding techniques are used as a coping skill to calm down when feeling out of control. They are especially helpful for panic attacks. They help you focus on things you can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch to calm down. The goal is to use your senses to distract your mind from the trigger that is causing the distress. Using your senses will help your body turn off the fight or flight response faster.

Thought stopping and replacement techniques are at the heart of CBT. They focus on identifying a thought that is distressful and replacing it with a calming thought. This is a tutorial to show how I teach children how to stop intrusive thoughts. They will begin with picturing a stop sign in their mind. They will then redirect their thoughts to a calming object, such as a teddy bear or bunny. The goal is to stop intrusive, negative thoughts and replace them with calming or positive thoughts. It is helpful to start teaching with items they can see or touch, then once they understand how to use thought stopping and replacement, they can focus on abstract ideas.

This is a tutorial demonstrating how to use visualization to stop intrusive thoughts. Visualization is particularly helpful for people who are struggling with anxiety or phobias. It is also helpful for people who have high levels of stress.

The Comparison Game uses cognitive behavioral concepts to help children identify how to stop intrusive thoughts of comparison and to focus thoughts on being content. When you compare yourself to those you think you are better than, you come across as arrogant and rude. When you compare yourself to those who have more, it ignites jealousy and discontent. Either way, you lose. This game helps children evaluate their own attitude and recognize ways to be content with what they have and to value the differences between people. Since it is a game you can never win, the game board is designed in a circle with no ending available. This helps drive home the point that comparing yourself to others never pays. The game can be played in individual, group, or family sessions. https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/comparison-game-the-game-you-can-never-win-digital-download

This counseling game was designed to help children identify goals, set objectives, and create a plan to achieve their goals. There are four categories of cards: “Goal Setting,” “Time to Reflect,” “Time is Ticking,” and “Removing the Mask.” It incorporates solutions focused ideas by reflecting on successes from the past and achievable goals for the future. It also includes self esteem activities to identify positive qualities about self and recognizing how differences are an asset instead of a liability. Social skills are addressed, as part of being confident is being honest and transparent with other people. Children will have an opportunity to identify barriers to social engagement or to fulfilling goals they had set. While this game focuses on goal setting for a new year, it could be used throughout the year as goal setting is needed. Other significant times might be the beginning of a school year or around the time of the child’s birthday. https://www.pathwaystopeacecounseling.com/product-page/new-you-in-the-new-year