Healing Through Adventure: Therapeutic Roleplaying Games 

At Guardian Adventures, we specialize in designing therapeutic roleplaying games (rpg)—both tabletop and live-action (LARP)—that help individuals of all ages navigate trauma, build resilience, and reconnect with their sense of agency. Whether you’re working with people in crisis, refugees adapting to a new life, or communities recovering from collective trauma or loss, our customizable roleplaying adventures offer a powerful, engaging, and evidence-based approach to healing.

How We Do This: The Co-Creation Process

We collaborate closely with therapeutic centers, educators, agencies, and organizations to co-create story-driven experiences tailored to your audience’s unique needs. Our programs are grounded in peer-reviewed research, and built to be affordable, scalable, and accessible—facilitated by trained, trauma-informed guides rather than licensed therapists (although we do have licensed psychotherapists on our development team).

We also offer both online and in-person training to help your staff run the programs effectively or even design your own. And we don’t stop there—we provide ongoing support to ensure long-term success.

Each program is developed and led in partnership with trauma-informed therapists and facilitators to ensure safety, effectiveness, and lasting impact. Their expertise ensures that every aspect of the program is scientifically sound, culturally relevant, and deeply transformative for children in crisis-affected regions.

The game is designed to be adapted and adjusted over time to address not just trauma, but also to support education, capacity building, and economic recovery. This is done by addressing the people’s personal capacity so that they can enact the development strategies for success.

Transformative play. Meaningful recovery. Real-world impact. Let’s build the journey together.

How do therapeutic roleplaying games work?

Through interactive role-playing and facilitated debrief, participants explore emotions, develop coping strategies, and safely process trauma in a structured yet imaginative setting. Unlike traditional talk therapy, these programs allow children, teens, and adults to express their emotions through the characters they play, creating an effective way to engage in healing that doesn’t feel too vulnerable. The role of the character is called an “alibi” in transformative games and it allows the players to explore feelings and perspectives because of the transfer that happens between them and their character. This solution is ideal for cultures or subcultures where therapy carries a stigma – because the process is game based and collaborative. But the therapeutic and cognitive results still apply.

By helping participants process trauma in a safe, creative space, we are giving them the opportunity to heal, regain a feeling of resilience, and rebuild their sense of self. From here, they have more mental capacity to learn and grow and emotional capacity to manage their feelings and build or rebuild their life.