The world of video games provided a good language for clinical work this week. One client made Minecraft as part of his crisis plan. He talked about playing video games but this seemed to make him more agitated. The solution was for him to say, “I will play Minecraft on easy and that will relax me.” Sometimes you have to meet a person where they are and also compromise.
Another client was talking about how when he “slowed down” with his game he did a better job. I told him about the clinical term called the “speed and accuracy trade off.” The more time you spend on something the more accurate it will be. He laughed and said “where do you learn some of this stuff?” We talked about how slowing down and thinking before he acts can help him in school and conflicts with others at home. It was this parallel to video games that opened the door to a very productive conversation. You sometimes have to find that common language and run with it.
