How Collaborative Storytelling Groups Like TTRPGs Can Help Teens and Adults With Depression
Depression can make people feel isolated, disconnected, and stuck in the same internal story. For teens and adults alike, it often shows up as withdrawal, low motivation, difficulty expressing emotions, and a loss of meaning or agency.
Collaborative storytelling groups, including tabletop roleplaying game groups, offer a different path forward. Instead of focusing only on symptoms, these groups invite people into shared stories where connection, choice, and imagination become tools for healing.
When facilitated in a trauma-informed way, collaborative storytelling can support emotional regulation, social connection, and a renewed sense of purpose for people experiencing depression.
What Is a Collaborative Storytelling Group?
A collaborative storytelling group is an experience in which participants build a shared narrative. This can take many forms, including creative writing circles, improvisational storytelling, or tabletop roleplaying games.
In tabletop roleplaying games, players take on fictional characters and work together to navigate challenges, solve problems, and shape an ongoing story. Games like Dungeons & Dragons are popular examples, but many systems exist that focus more on story and less on rules.
The key element is collaboration. No one controls the entire story. Everyone contributes, and the narrative evolves through shared decision-making.
How Can Collaborative Storytelling Help With Depression?
Depression often narrows a person’s sense of possibility. Collaborative storytelling helps widen it again in several important ways.
It Reduces Isolation Through Shared Experience
Depression thrives in isolation. Group storytelling creates regular, meaningful social connections without forcing people to talk directly about their own lives. Participants engage side by side in a shared task, which can feel safer than traditional conversation-based groups.
It Restores a Sense of Agency
Depression can make people feel powerless or stuck. In a collaborative story, every choice matters. Characters make decisions, influence outcomes, and adapt when things do not go as planned. This experience of having an impact can gently rebuild a sense of personal agency.
It Supports Emotional Expression Without Pressure
Many people with depression struggle to name or share their feelings. Storytelling creates emotional distance through metaphor. A character’s fear, grief, or hope can be explored safely without requiring self-disclosure before someone is ready.
It Encourages Engagement and Motivation
Unlike some therapeutic formats, storytelling is inherently engaging. Curiosity about what happens next helps participants stay involved even when motivation is low. This can be especially helpful for teens and adults who struggle with anhedonia or emotional numbness.
Are TTRPG Groups Effective for Teen Depression?
Yes, when facilitated appropriately, tabletop roleplaying groups can be especially helpful for teens experiencing depression.
Adolescents often benefit from play-based and narrative approaches because they support identity exploration, peer connection, and emotional regulation without feeling overly clinical. Teens can practice social skills, problem-solving, and boundary-setting through their characters while feeling protected by the fictional frame.
For teens who feel different, isolated, or misunderstood, a roleplaying group can become a place of belonging where they are valued for creativity and collaboration rather than performance or productivity.
Can Adults With Depression Benefit From Story-Based Groups?
Absolutely. Adults often experience depression as burnout, loss of meaning, or disconnection from others. Collaborative storytelling groups give adults permission to play, imagine, and reconnect with parts of themselves that may have gone quiet over time.
Adult participants often report that story-based groups feel less intimidating than traditional therapy groups. They offer structure without pressure and depth without forced vulnerability. Over time, insight, connection, and emotional movement often emerge naturally.
Is This the Same as Group Therapy?
Not always. Some collaborative storytelling groups are clinical therapy groups led by licensed clinicians. Others are community-based or therapeutic support groups that focus on well-being rather than diagnosis or treatment.
Trauma-informed groups are clear about their scope. They prioritize consent, emotional safety, and pacing. When run within a clinical framework, they can be aligned with therapeutic goals such as improving mood, building connection, and increasing emotional regulation.
What Makes a Collaborative Storytelling Group Trauma-Informed?
A trauma-informed storytelling group does not assume that play alone is healing. Instead, it intentionally creates conditions that support safety and choice.
Key elements include:
Clear group agreements and boundaries
Consent-based participation and opt-out options
Emotional safety tools that allow scenes to pause or change
Predictable structure and pacing
Facilitators who are attentive to regulation and group dynamics
These elements help ensure that storytelling supports healing rather than overwhelm.
Who Might Benefit Most From These Groups?
Collaborative storytelling groups may be especially helpful for:
Teens with depression, social anxiety, or school avoidance
Adults experiencing depression, burnout, or isolation
People who struggle with traditional talk therapy
Neurodivergent individuals who prefer experiential learning
Anyone drawn to creativity, imagination, or games
They are not a replacement for crisis care or intensive treatment, but they can be a powerful complement to other supports.
Final Thoughts
Depression often tells a story of disconnection, hopelessness, and stuckness. Collaborative storytelling offers a different narrative. One where people are not alone, where choices still matter, and where meaning can be rebuilt together.
Whether through tabletop roleplaying games or other shared storytelling formats, these groups remind teens and adults that healing does not have to happen in isolation or silence. Sometimes it begins around a table, with a shared story, and the chance to imagine something new.
