Paper short abstract:

Framed within the anthropology of play, psychotherapeutic techniques encounter art therapy, XR and gameplay processes in this interdisciplinary PhD by Film Practice.

Paper long abstract:

My research group is made of adults who all identify as suffering mid-childhood developmental trauma, as a result of being sent away to boarding school as children, between the ages of 4 and 13. My interdisciplinary PhD by Film Practice project is positioned at the intersection of anthropology, psychotherapy and immersive technology. This audio visual presentation provides an overview of their creative engagements with their past trauma. The session documents some of their psychotherapy sessions where participants are given the opportunity to experiment with reframing their past narratives through interaction with a photograph of their child-self, an avatar representation of themselves, and by embodying narratives using plasticine to address dissociation and disorganised attachment patterns. The final part of the presentation will cover how this research is now being transposed into intersubjective gameplay scenarios within a game engine as a way for the participant to regain agency and take back power over a previously powerless situation. The research methodology is been constructed using principles from the anthropology of play.