Collaborative Role-Playing Integrative Therapy (CRIT): A Theoretical Bridge Between Tabletop Role-Playing and Group Therapy Through Dialectical Therapeutic Factors

Abstract: This article is the second in a planned, three-part series that explores the utility of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in therapy. It introduces collaborative role-playing integrative therapy (CRIT), a transtheoretical framework for utilizing TTRPGs in group therapy. Much like Yalom's common factors approach, this model identifies nine dialectical therapeutic factors that illustrate how TTRPGs foster interpersonal growth and psychological flexibility. These nine dialectical factors are self and system, intent and impact, play and work, reality and imagination, vulnerability and safety, ambition and equanimity, spontaneity and structure, generality and specificity, and here and now and there and then. As a novel therapeutic model, CRIT offers a rich landscape for future research and application, expanding the potential of TTRPGs as a transformative group therapy modality.