Games [4Therapy] project : let's talk!

20% of Dutch youth suffer from psychiatric disorders that hamper their daily functioning and their personal development. Clients tend to drop out of school and have problems in their social environment. These clients often suffer from low social competencies and low empathic behavior, resulting in low treatment compliance. The study targets treatment motivation in order to prevent therapy dropout by introducing playful interventions. Amongst others, social problem situations that arise from interactions between clients and their socio-cultural environment often lead to aggressive behavior and behavioral problems. It is not only the client, but also the reaction of the environment that plays an important part in the aggravation of clients’ problems. We focus on the group as a whole in order to gain insight these social interactions, to make them explicit and tangible, in an attempt to help clients (and their environment) to play and learn from these interactions, in order to contribute to a better social climate.