Adam Johns and I founded Wheelhouse Workshop and run it together. We manage the business and facilitate its therapeutic gaming groups but, believe it or not, it’s not all we do. As we are about to expand to our third weekly tabletop role-playing group helping teens build social skills, we’re taking the opportunity to share what we do outside of running Wheelhouse Workshop and thus what we bring to Wheelhouse Workshop.
Adam and I are going to write about each other. I (Adam Davis) am a big supporter of what Adam does outside of Wheelhouse Workshop, and wish there were more therapists out there like him!
In addition to his work with Wheelhouse Workshop, Adam Johns is a marriage and family therapist, serving clients through his private practice at the Evergreen Clinic, where we run our groups on Thursdays. Adam’s license states that he is a marriage and family therapist trained in clinical counseling, but he is also part of a burgeoning therapeutic specialty known as geek therapy.
What is “Geek Therapy?”
Geek therapy isn’t a set of therapeutic interventions or strategies. Geek therapy functions as a cultural specialty, where Adam’s shared participation in geek culture allows him to connect with his clients on a deeper level, building rapport and strengthening the therapeutic alliance over their mutual understanding and appreciation of video games, comic books, science fiction and fantasy media, technology, and other parts of geek culture.
Adam is a geek. He loves what he loves and isn’t afraid to celebrate it openly. As a result, his clients feel like he “gets” them and their interests. When they talk about a show, book, or game they are interested in or a meme they came across on Reddit, Adam almost definitely knows it. The time they might spend with other therapists explaining — and too often apologizing for — their interests is spent engaging with and tackling life challenges.
Adam has a “Why Geek Therapy” page on his website, that starts with a great quote from Simon Pegg:
“Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something.”
Learn more about Adam Johns’ Geek Therapy here.
Check back soon for part 2 in the “Better Know your Game Master” series in which you’ll learn more about “the other Adam,” Adam Davis!