Jesse Finkelstein, doctoral student in clinical psychology & DBT therapist, joins Cheddar News to discuss his card game, 'The Game of Real Life'.

Between Bells

The Creator Behind 'The Game of Real Life' Talks Improving Your Emotional Problem-Solving

Welcome back to Between Bells everyone. The game of real life is a one of a kind card game with the mission to teach emotional problem solving and interpersonal skills. The card game incorporates mindfulness with therapeutic life skills? All with the mission to combat anxiety, promote active listening and preventing burnout And with nearly 20% of US adults experiencing mental health illness, this game couldn't come at a better time. And we're so excited to say joining us Now is the creator of this game, Jesse Finkelstein welcome of course, the creator of the game of real life doctoral student in clinical psychology and DBT therapist jesse. You are busy, thank you so much here we have the game here. So tell us explain to us how this game would work. Sure thing. So the game is based on the principles of dialectical behavior therapy which is a therapy that was developed to help folks with emotion dis regulation offering people really concrete skills to tolerate distress, act more mindful, be more inter personally effective. So the game is kind of like cards against humanity, basically a wonderful game. You have a set of conflicts and then everyone is dealt a set of skill cards and you have to make an argument why your skill card is most suitable for solving or resolving a conflict. So I'm going through through these because I'm so interested. So this is what it looks like. So it's a conflict, you probably can't see it. So one is you've thrown the best dinner party ever. The food is delicious, music is perfect, Everyone's having a great time. Suddenly you're knock on the door, It's your worst enemy. What do you do, essentially? So that's so why did you decide to create this game? And there's so many conflict situations in this box by the way? Yeah, I created the game because DBT skills as a DBT therapist, I I've seen how powerful it is for the patients that I work with. I've seen how powerful it is in my own life. And I've sort of tried to find a fun and playful way to introduce these skills to the rest of the world, especially as he pointed out, we're living in a time. We're living in a mental health crisis and people need as many skills as they can. What challenges did you face in creating this game? You and I were talking off camera that you actually created this during the pandemic? I mean, you know, one tolerating my own distress because it was the pandemic. Sure. Um I think, you know, trying to incorporate these sort of at times complex skills, complex ways of sort of engaging with therapeutic techniques and really accessible ways that people can sort of digest easily. And then alongside some pretty illustrations that I made. I love that no, going through the books right now, this really looks great. What are the lessons you're hoping players take away from this game jesse? Um I think the biggest lesson is that emotional freedom comes when we are not afraid or avoiding what we're experiencing when we are validating our emotional experience and not holding onto it or pushing it away. What is the response you're getting from the players out there? It's been really it's been wonderful. Um you know, again, for folks who know D. B. T. This is a wonderful way to practice these skills for folks who don't know DBT. You know, this is a nice introduction to this incredibly powerful therapy. What I love about this is your game is one of many ways for people to understand their own mental wellness because sometimes you can't figure that out in a tangible way. What other ways would you suggest? People begin that mental health journey? I mean, I think, you know, depending on, let's say the severity of what you're experiencing. Obviously this is not a replacement for individual therapy but any evidence based treatment that you know, you can research online. That is the place to start going to places like psychology today and finding perhaps an individual therapist, going to behavioral tech, which is the organization around DBT away to find a DBT therapist. Yeah, this game includes a 96 page pocket guide that I'm holding right now to DBT skills, explain to our viewers who may not know what DVT is and how do you utilize those skills, jesse? Absolutely. So DBT as I said, stands for dialectical behavior therapy and the therapy involves something called skills education and those skills are sort of in four different modules. Mindfulness interpersonal effectiveness to stress tolerance, emotion regulation and they're very concrete practical skills in each one of those domains. So let's say you're presented with a particular interpersonal crisis you can use, let's say a skill called Dear Man to help you navigate how to set limits in a relationship and achieve your goals. What is the user experience like for this game? When and where? How do you want the how do you envision this game moving forward? You know, it's friday night you got nothing to do. You invite some friends. I mean, you know, I think a fun gathering and I love the idea that you know you're waking up in the morning, you're like okay what is a skill that I can potentially practice today? So at the bottom of the deck there are all the different skill cards, I'm going to just pick one out and say okay, you know today I'm going to practice a mindfulness skill. So kind of like that. I'm reading one now during a holiday dinner, your drunk uncle keeps making offensive comments about your date, suggesting that you shouldn't be with that kind of person. What would you do? I think this is so great. Yeah, we've all been there, we've all been there as a therapist. What have you taken away from the last two years of Covid, You know I've been thinking quite a lot about this. I think that what Covid has taught us is that when we are sort of sitting alone in our spaces just with our thoughts without the support of the immediate sort of interpersonal connections, our relationships, our family, you know, a lot of stuff bubbles to the front and we can't really run away from it. And so it's it's just been incredibly challenging to see people suffer in this way. Well, thank you for making this game. I think that's gonna help so many people, jesse Finkelstein, creator of the Game of Real Life and doctoral student in clinical psychology and DBT therapist. Here's the game looks awesome.