Safe Space: The Video Games Mental Health Podcast Safe In Our World

On this episode, Rosie chats with Magic: The Gathering enthusiast, games researcher and Class of 2024 Ambassador - Sahar Mirhadi.

We discuss iGGi, (The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence), which is a leading PhD research programme aimed at the Games and Creative Industries.







Links:
https://www.zjayres.com/

https://linktr.ee/saharmirhadi

Rosie chats with Dr Raffael Boccomazzo, or Doctor B, who is a clinical psychologist and clinical director at video games mental health non-profit Take This.

We talk about Dr B's long history in psychology, therapy and diagnosis, why he's got to where he is today, and his own experiences in diagnosis.



Raffael discusses the intricacies of intersectionality within diagnosis and marginalised groups, and the differences in mental health and neurodiversity such as ADHD and Autism.



How to ADHD

Dr Russell Barkley
Take This⁠

Content Warning: In this episode there are non-graphic mentions of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, drug abuse, overdose, emotional abuse and violence. Please proceed with care and remember you can pause the episode and step away at any time.



Charlie Mullins from Companion Group joins Rosie on the podcast to discuss Borderline Personality Disorder, better known as BPD. Whilst uncovering the common misconceptions about BPD, we discuss Charlie's experiences with the disorder and how it's affected his life, relationships and coping mechanisms.



Charlie explains how getting a diagnosis can be bittersweet, and the path to recovery is often much longer than people anticipate. He talks about his support mechanisms, and what has helped him in his journey in the hopes of supporting other folks experiencing BPD or traits of BPD.



We chat about what the games industry (and beyond) can do to better support employees and gamers with mental ill health, such as borderline personality disorder, and the future of accurate representation of personality disorders in popular media.


Read Charlie's full story here.
Find help and resources here.

Rosie is joined by two guests; Charlotte McBurney, BAFTA-nominated actress known for her role as Amicia in the Plague Tale Series, and Hannah Rutherford, content creator and SIOW patron.

We deep dive into both A Plague Tale Innocence and Requiem to uncover what goes into emotionally preparing for a character such as Amicia's. Charlotte talks about her experiences in bringing a heart wrenching, beautiful story to life. Hannah talks about the journey of playing the games live with an audience, and managing her community whilst exploring the world of A Plague Tale.

This episode looks at specific themes of joy, grief, desperation and family within the Plague Tale universe, dissecting the Charlotte's personal highs and lows, and how the game connected so many players.

This podcast is split into two parts; the first part being spoiler-free, and the latter going into detailed spoiler territory.



Follow Charlotte

Follow Hannah

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In this episode, Rosie chats to Demi Fortson, Co-Founder at Mendu and Doctoral Student Researcher at Columbia University in the City of New York.

We talk about the origins of Mendu, and it's purpose. Mendu is a self-care app built with a culturally competent AI to talk through your problems with you. It promotes the premise of prompted audio journaling, whilst educating users on topics and feelings built on science and data.


"Our journaling prompts were made by diverse women for others facing similar life events. We are transforming the way therapeutic journaling and meditation is done by providing relevant and inclusive audio pieces you can connect with."



We discuss how mental health stigma differs across cultures, countries and wealth, as well as how this discussion can be broadened to include more experiences, and how diagnostic criteria is linked to group (mis)understanding around certain topics.

Demi explains the differences in therapy and how we can look to become more inclusive and informed when looking for/recommending therapists for example. We look into the concept of audio journaling vs traditional journaling, and why it might be more appealing to many folks, and the usefulness/convenience of audio features.

Finally, we touch on our go-to games for anxiety and stress, whilst highlighting active participation from games vs passive consumption of media and how it can aid in distraction during stressful periods.



Links

Mendu

Demi's LinkedIn



STEM Groups to follow

BlackWomenPHDs

BlackInChem

BlackInNeuro

CohortSistas

BlackInMarSci

BlackInPhysics

In this episode of the Safe Space Podcast, Rosie and Harry chat to Adam J. Harrington, the wonderful voice of Sindri, from God of War.

Now, before we go any further, this is an official spoiler warning.

SPOILER WARNING
In this episode we will be discussing heavy spoilers from God of War Ragnarok. If you'd like to avoid spoilers, please don't listen to this episode!

We were delighted to invite Adam J. Harrington to discuss the evolution of Sindri within God of War Ragnarok, and dive into the role that grief played in his character progression throughout the story.

Adam talks about his experiences playing Sindri, and his portrayal of loss within a game which is very much focused on healing and acceptance in many ways. We discuss the challenges that Sindri faced following the death of his brother, and how that translated to Adam's performance.

We also talk about how actors can bring lived experience to performances when tackling heavy emotions such as grief, and the expectations that Adam had for the sequel to God of War (2018). Adam shares memories and experiences that he had whilst performing scenes for God of War Ragnarok, and how the actors were such a tight knit community, and brings to light behind the scenes perspectives of creating this masterpiece of a game.

Sindri's theme also played a part in bringing together the character to the screens, and Adam talks about his relationship with Bear McCreary and the inspirations behind creating the music that accompanied Sindri as a character.



Follow Adam on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about Mrs. American Pie, a new TV show Adam is working on!