| Counselling Seminar - Understanding Video Games & Counselling Pathological Gamers
This 1-day counseling seminar was an enriching, enlightening and practical workshop
for the 70 participants, which included school counsellors, social workers and probation officers.
With increasing demands for support in counselling pathological gamers, TOUCH Cyber Wellness & Sports (TC&S) organised this seminar, aimed at helping
educators, counselors and social workers understand the positive and negative effects
of video games as well as equipping participants with the necessary counselling skill sets.
Invited speaker, Assistant Professor Douglas Gentile, Iowa State University (US) and
Director of Research for the National Institute on Media and the Family, enthralled the
participants with his insightful sharing and research data. Dr. Gentile explained that
playing violent video games is not the direct cause resulting in a person’s violent behaviour.
However, it definitely is one of the critical factors involved in shaping aggressive behaviour
as the brain neural network is constantly stimulated by the in-game violence.
With research data from 37,000 people worldwide, Dr. Douglas mentioned, “If what you
practise in the game is being vigilant for enemies, and when they do something, you
immediately respond aggressively, then when you are walking down your school hallway,
and you get bumped by another kid, instead of assuming it was an accident, you assume
that this had hostile intent and that the other kid meant to make you mad."
Ms Ruth Tan, Counsellor and Social worker, commented, “The in-depth research findings
shared by Dr. Douglas Gentile were highly useful and substantive evidence to the
topic.”
Besides Dr Gentile, experienced counsellor and youth workers from TOUCH provided an
overview on the video gaming scene in Singapore and their insights on the draw of massively
multiplayer online games (MMOGs) which teenagers are playing today.
Poh Yeang Cherng, Manager, TOUCH Cyber Wellness, said: "Some of the warning signs
that parents should look out for in their children are - they are losing interest in their
school work, they are lying, there is damage to social relationships, there is withdrawal
and they need to play more to experience the same level of thrill."
As part of the counselling seminar, participants were given the opportunity to interview
two volunteers who used to be pathological gamers (they are ex-clients, who were counselled by TOUCH for excessive gaming, but now volunteers helping others better control their gaming habits). This hands-on experience allowed
the participants to understand the pathological gamer as well as learn to ask the right questions
when counseling them.
Mrs Lim, Management Executive of Family and Child Protection & Welfare Branch, MCYS, has this
to say about the seminar - “This has been a wonderful and knowledgeable seminar. I have learnt practical
counseling tips and gotten a better understanding of the motivations behind the gamer.”
Download TOUCH's presentation slides on "Counselling Pathological & Problematic Gamers" here 
Download Dr. Douglas Gentile's presentation slides here
For resource materials by Dr. Douglas Gentile, please visit http://www.drdouglas.org
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