❋

ADVENTURING

PARTY:

Couples therapy through tabletop roleplaying

Eight weeks. One story you build together.

Mondays, 5:30–7:00 PM · Online
October 26 – December 14
(10/26, 11/2, 11/9, 11/16, 11/23, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14)

$150/session/couple, including a private intake session before the group begins ($1,350 per couple total)

Enrollment closes October 17
Can’t do Mondays? Tell me what would work so I can build a list for the next offering.

Let's talk 
❋ Who this is for

  • Couples who can articulate the problem pattern beautifully but aren’t able to interrupt it.

  • Couples who are currently in talk therapy and want more opportunities to practice what they’re learning.

  • Couples who have done talk therapy, found it useful, and hit a ceiling where the conversation is insightful but the week at home remains unchanged.

  • Couples where one person tends to manage everything and the other tends to go along, and both are tired of it.

  • Couples who are curious, a little skeptical, and willing to do something slightly undignified in front of two other couples and a therapist.

  • Couples who want more play in their lives to deepen their connection to each other.

❋ Who this is not for

  • This group is not appropriate if there is violence or intimidation in your relationship, if there is an ongoing affair that has not been disclosed, if one partner has already privately decided to leave, or if either of you needs individual care first. If any of that is true, email me anyway — I'll help you find the right kind of support.

  • Currently in couples therapy with someone else? Not a problem - just let me know and we can figure out how to coordinate before you enroll.

  • If you’ll be out of state on any of those dates, this group won’t work for you, as you must be physically located in Virginia to connect on our telehealth platform and the group needs all its members present to function optimally.

❋ Why play?

  • Talking about a pattern and changing it are two different things. Most therapy is very good at the first one. This is built for the second, because a game gives you a low-stakes place to practice the thing that is hard at home.

  • Novelty, connection, and even enjoyment are boons to relationship satisfaction. Taking time out of your week to play together and work together to solve fun problems is an investment in the quality of your relationship.

  • Therapeutic tabletop roleplaying games are growing in popularity, building on the evidence base of experiential work like play therapy and the idea that practicing a behavioral pattern beats discussing it.

Person standing in a field at night, holding a box, with a starry sky and the Milky Way galaxy visible, surrounded by tall grass.

What a session looks like

Check-In

10-15 minutes of where each person is landing this week, what is most salient to them. Review of goals.

Play

About an hour. Your characters travel together as a party, meet people, explore, solve puzzles, overcome challenges, vanquish foes, and make choices together under pressure. You practice making choices in alignment with your values, together, even in discomfort and uncertainty.

Debrief

20 or so minutes of exploring what happened — between you and your partner, other players, etc. Analysis of patterns, discussion of goals for the next session.

  • "Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."

    — Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (1978)

  • "Just like sex, playing as adults is about pleasure, connection, creativity, fantasy—all the juicy parts of life we savor. Play is the pleasure of being inventive, mischievous, imaginative, and trying something new. Why do we play? Because it helps us grow—and because it’s fun."

    — Esther Perel and Mary Alice Miller, Letters from Esther: Play

Book a free 20-minute call.

We’ll talk about your relationship and answer any questions you may have about the group.

Pick a time