Tragedy, Trauma, and Cultivating Resiliency: How Dungeons and Dragons can impact a student body's healing following a mass shooting

In this session, individuals will learn further about the therapeutic impact of Dungeons and Dragons, but this time related to D&D's impact on a traumatized population. The unfortunate reality is that mass shootings continue to happen, and at this time 59% of adults in the United States know someone who has been impacted by gun violence.

Following mass shootings, there is a period of heroic community building that occurs, while the population is in the spotlight, and the community works together for a common cause. However, following this time period, things go back to a different normal, and the sense of community that was experienced is often sought after by survivors. TT-RPGs can have a tremendous impact on this community building, and give survivors a space to feel comfortable, vulnerable, and create a sense of control within their environment; something that this population strongly desires.

In this presentation, I will discuss how I've utilized D&D within this community, how I've advocated for it's use within the confounds of a stringent grant that funds the resiliency center that I've worked at, and that are created following many mass shootings, and the success that I've seen in utilizing both D&D, art activities, and video games in cultivating community and resiliency among this population.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will recognize the recovery process among communities following a mass violence event, including the Heroic, Honeymoon, Disillusionment, and Reconstruction phases.

2. Participants will differentiate the importance of both individual trauma therapy (EMDR, TF-CBT, etc.) and community driven/peer led interventions.

3. This workshop is designed to highlight the nuanced recovery that different individuals experience following mass violence, and how Dungeons and Dragons and other Geek Culture can impact community building and cultivate resilience.