Social Skills Groups | Catherine Lazen

Play-based Group Social/Emotional Skills Training and Support

for neuro-typical, neuro-atypical, gifted and 2e children, teens and young adults

Social Skills educator Evelyn Lazen is offering a "Dungeons and Dragons" type roleplaying game that supports friendship and social/emotional learning. She uses and customizes an evidence-based curriculum to provide just the right balance of safety, structure and fun. With Evelyn and this amazing role-playing game format, learning happens through play and real-time experience. Parents, educators and mental health providers are encouraged to help assemble groups of 3 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) players who are similar in age, interest and level of social/emotional skill.

Emotional/Behavioral regulation
Reciprocal Conversation, Listening
Collaboration, Negotiation
Creativity
Future planning, Strategy
Empathy, Listening, Emotional Attunement
Compromise, Conflict Resolution
Restorative Practice

Campaigns are customized to meet individual group needs and

interests and are played in 6 to 8 weekly 90-minute sessions.

$45 per person per session.

Portland-based

Evelyn Lazen has a degree in neuroscience and experience teaching social/emotional skills as a key part of her circus arts, dance, ceramics and table top/role playing game programs. Her playful, non-clinical, activity-based approach to social skills development is a refreshing and effective alternative to behavioral therapy.

Online and Spain-based

Ernesto Osuna--Ardoy is a game designer from Spain who believes that social/emotional growth is fostered through play in supportive, fun, and kind environments. Through role playing games, he ignites kids’ curiosity in one another, and helps them build lasting friendships

Join our waitlist!

Social Skills-based Role Playing Games

The program is for players who are:

new to/curious about D&D type role-playing games and need a supported introduction
experienced with role-playing games but need shorter, limited game sessions (rather than the several-hour game sessions common in D&D).
open to the traditional "dungeon" or "dragon" aesthetic or have other ideas for characters themes or aesthetics.
looking for safe (background-checked) adult facilitators with experience working with both neurotypical and neurodivergent kids.
looking for a safe/secure place to play (NE Portland psychotherapy office, online or library setting).
not interested in a therapeutic environment or program (like group behavioral therapy)
seeking an evidenced-based social skills program that is doesn't feel like a "skills program" and is actually fun.

What does social/emotional growth look like?

Regulation: Remaining calm, alert, and available through excitement and frustration, inhibiting responses while waiting, and expressing emotional affect without becoming dysregulated.

Collaboration: Asking questions, listening, letting go of ideas, and/or allowing others to build on or change them, sustaining back-and-forth communication by picking up on cues and adjusting your own approach to support continued communication.

Planning: Identifying when two or more events need to take place in order to achieve a goal, determining more than one influence on an event, making decisive choices, sticking to a previously-made plan, and adapting when things don’t go as planned.

Perspective: Identifying and demonstrating consideration of the thoughts, beliefs, values, wants, needs, and emotional states of others, appropriately adjusting behaviors in response, recognizing that these character traits are a product of their unique context, recognizing when these beliefs are mistaken or when these characters hold conflicted internal states.

Confidence: Taking up space, speaking up, participating!

FAQs:

What is the evidence based curriculum? Critical Core was developed under the guidance of people with autism, therapists, educators, and psychologists. It combines social and emotional learning strategies (SEL) with the mechanics of TTRPGs. It has been featured in WIRED, CNET, and Forbes.
When do games take place? Monday through Friday afternoon/evenings and some weekend days.
How are groups assembled? Parents and school officials work together to recruit players that are a good fit according to similar age, interest and social skill level.
Where do the games take place? NE Portland home-based psychotherapy office of Catherine Lazen. Snacks included.
Do I tell my kids it is a social skills class?

It's up to you! Some kids who have gone through the clinical track end up feeling like people are trying to "fix them". This of course is not our goal. We can be open about the goals of the group if they ask, but we are not clinical in language or demeanor because the magic of the game is in the cultivation of relationships through play.

Is it clinical? Can I bill insurance?

This is a non-clinical therapeutic intervention. There are social and therapeutic benefits, but we are not clinicians, so we can not bill insurance.

If my child likes it can they continue past the first 6-8 sessions?

Yes! There are optional level 2 and level 3 campaigns in each of the adventure themes we have prepared. These extensions provide further challenges and characters that build upon the skills acquired on the first adventure. In addition to this, players' characters "level up" acquiring new powers and skills that enrich the game further.

What happens if I miss a session?

In the case of absences, we cannot refund missed sessions, but for one absence we can offer a free session in the next campaign if you choose to participate!

How do I sign up?

Join our waitlist by filling out the form below. We'll get back to you with a list of available times when we have a group that fits your needs and interests.

Social Skills-based Role Playing Games

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The program is for players who are:

Join our waitlist!