10 Fun Emotion Games Made Just for Therapy & Mental Health
- Jennie Lannette Bedsworth, MSW, LCSW
- Oct 7, 2022
- 9 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
These fun therapeutic feelings games for kids, teens, and adults focus on teaching, understanding, emotional health, and emotional expression.
Emotion Games
Ready to roll the therapy dice? How about name that feeling? If these fun and therapeutic games don’t have you laughing they might bring you to tears.
Feelings games are a great way to teach emotions in an interactive and fun way. They work with individual therapy, in groups and classrooms, and with home-schooling. Below are 10 games designed specifically with therapy, counseling, and social-emotional learning in mind.
Before we go into details, let's briefly examine the theory involved. Here's a quick overview of why therapeutic games may work best for your students or clients.
Benefits of Emotion-Based Games
Therapy-based games are a perfect tool for building awareness, skills, and knowledge. These specialized activities make great emotion games for adults, teens, or kids. Here are some reasons why.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (or EI) is a vital skill that enables individuals to recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions and those of others. It plays a crucial role in personal and professional relationships, decision-making, and overall well-being. Building and developing emotional intelligence often requires a combination of self-awareness, social skills, and effective communication. Therapeutic games are a gentle way to teach and enhance EI.
Social Skills Development
Effective social skills involve interacting well with others, expressing oneself clearly, and understanding social cues. Developing social skills can be achieved through practice, feedback, and self-reflection. Games in general are a great aid for this goal (O'Neill & Holmes, 2022) and their therapeutic versions are even better. As a therapist, you can provide coaching in this area, and the game itself allows for improvement of social skills.
Emotional Regulation Strategies
Many children, teens, and adults struggle with emotional dysregulation. When created specifically for therapy, fun activities can help teach skills related to emotional regulation. Activities like mindfulness, grounding, and self-soothing can be taught and reviewed through lessons baked right into the games.
Games Made for Therapy
The most important thing with emotion games is to be flexible. Let your group set the tone. Feel free to change up the rules, or allow group members to play by their own guidelines. The same goes for individual clients. Don't necessarily worry about following the rules. It's more about the experience.
The following games have been created specifically for therapy in mind. They either include goals like validating emotions (as in FEELOPOLY) or learning new DBT skills (like this DBT board game). Many have familiar concepts you and your clients know and love, making the learning curve of the game low and the benefits of the content much higher. Here are some games to get you started!
1. FEELOPOLY
Best for: Kids, Teens Works with: Individual therapy, groups, telehealth with adaptation
FEELOPOLY is a Monopoly-inspired feeling game that brings the emotions wheel to life. It focuses on core feeling skills including:
Naming emotions
Recognizing physical sensations
Validating and accepting emotions in yourself
Validating and accepting emotions in others
Use of coping skills
How it works
Unlike traditional Monopoly, FEELOPOLY is a cooperative game. It works best for groups of 2 (which can include a therapist) to around 6. The game includes the various emotions and feelings on the board, along with prompt cards.
The goal is to validate (complete) each emotion on the board, as a group. Players take turns, either landing on a feeling or a prompt card. They then complete the next corresponding emotion, skill or discussion prompt.
Sample Prompts
The game progresses until all feelings are “validated,” or time runs out. Example prompts include:
What’s something that might make someone really anxious?
Name a feeling you’ve had recently. What was going on?
Do you think it’s okay to cry? Why or why not?
The game also includes emojis on the board, with prompts of their own. When players land on an emoji they assign it a feeling word (ie, happy) and choose from a prompt option, such as “What does this emotion feel like in your body?” FEELOPOLY is a 76tr5simple and effective way to incorporate naming emotions, self-validation, and empathy.
2. Feel, Act, & Draw
Works with: Kids, Teens, Families, Young Adults, College Students, Energetic Adults
Best for: In-person, telehealth with adaptation
Looking for a fun and energetic feelings game for tweens, teens, or college students? Give Feel, Act, & Draw a try. It combines discussion prompts, Pictionary-type clues, and charades into one active feelings game.
Players round the game board, seeing how many prompts they can compete and continue playing as a team or group. The game can be played one-on-one in therapy, in a small group, or in a large group or classroom. It also has cooperative or competitive options.
Sample Prompts
Players act or draw out feelings words or scenarios, such as:
Frustrated
Crying at a sad movie
Feeling love for my pet
The discussion questions mixed into the game include questions such as:
Do you think having people to talk to makes someone feel better? Why or why not?
Have you ever been mad at someone and then found out you misunderstood? What was that like?
Is it possible to have more than one feeling at once? If you think it is, give an example.
Ready to add some creativity to the concept of strong emotions? Just Feel, Act, & Draw!
3. Feelings Tumbling Tower Game
Best for: Kids, Teens, Families, Young Adults Works with: In-person, individual sessions, groups
Feelings Tumbling Blocks (like well-known tumbling tower games) is perhaps one of the most popular games for teaching feelings to kids, teens, and families. Pull a block from the tower, answer the corresponding prompt, and place it on top. As long as you don't knock down the tower you're still winning!
You can create your own tumbling prompts, or purchase pre-made prompts or stickers to write on or stick to the blocks. This particular block sticker set, which you can download and print, is focused specifically on emotions. It includes feeling words, as well as prompts that encourage talking about emotions.
Sample Prompts
Examples prompts include:
What if someone had hurt feelings after something you said. What would you do?
What is a feeling you don’t like having? Explain why.
What happens when you get really scared? Do you run, freeze, want to fight, or something else?
Angry (Describe a time you felt this way)
Ready to get started with some ready-made tumbling blocks/tower stickers? Print them here.
The following three activities are game variations you can use with the Kids Magical Emotions Cards, which you'll find in this bundle. The cards included can be used as flashcards for general discussion, or you can play any of the following games.
4. Happy Dragon
Best for: Kids
Works with: In-person, individuals, groups
Happy Dragon is based on the mechanics of the game "Old-Maid," except you want to be the one holding the wild card (Happy Dragon) at the end.
5. Emotions Match
Best for: Kids
Works with: In-person, individuals, groups
The Emotions Match game is based on the traditional Match Game. However, instead of matching up the same images, you match up the feeling faces/body language with different emotions and the words that go with them. So the happy face goes with the happy card, angry image with the angry card, and so on.
The game is a fun way for kids to learn feelings and develop empathy. You can encourage players to discuss the difference between nuanced emotions while having fun with the cute dragon and unicorn art.
6. Go Feel!
Best for: Kids
Works with: In-person, individuals, groups
Go Feel! is the third game that comes with the Magical Emotions cards. It's inspired by Go Fish and works with the same basic mechanics.
However, you can ask players to stop and discuss each emotion as it's played. Or, you can require a certain prompt, such as "Give an example of something that makes you happy," when a pair is played.
You can get Go Feel as part of the package with the other emotions card games. Visit here to learn more.
7. CBT Island Quest
Best for: Kids, Teens, College Students and Some Adult Groups
Works with: In-person, telehealth with adaptation, groups
CBT Island Quest is created from a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) perspective, so it covers topics including feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. It follows an island theme, with different areas of the board representing skills commonly used in CBT therapy.
It can be used to teach basic CBT skills and works even better for groups that already have a basic understanding of CBT. However, if you slow the game down you can use the prompts as a way to teach the skills.
The CBT board game progresses around the island (game board) with color-coded stepping stones that correspond with prompt cards. The cards cover mindfulness and CBT categories.
Prompt Examples
Prompts vary from the basic to more advanced, such as:
What are the three corners of the CBT/cognitive triangle?
What’s the difference between a thought and a feeling?
Explain how changing a thought can change a feeling
Explore CBT Island Quest to see if it's a good fit for you.
8. The Greatest DBT Board Game on Earth
Best for: Any DBT group including teens and adults Works with: In-person, telehealth with adaptation, groups
The Greatest DBT Board Game uses a carnival theme, with different areas of the carnival corresponding to DBT skills. The fun game board includes the emotional roller coaster, Ferris wheel of distress, and the mindfulness tent.
It covers the basic DBT categories, including emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal skills.
Prompt Examples
The game provides a fun structure for learning and reviewing DBT skills, and is appropriate for any DBT group. The prompts range from the basic to the more in-depth. Sample questions include:
Give an example of using the opposite action skill to cope with an emotion.
Describe emotional overload, or give an example of when you’ve experienced it.
Name one of the five senses and give an example of using it to self-soothe.
Ready to give it a try? Step right up to the Greatest DBT Board Game on Earth!
9. CBT Lingo
Best for: Kids, Teens, Families, Young Adults, Colleges and Classrooms, Any Group Works with: In-person, telehealth
CBT Lingo, a CBT Bingo-type game, is set up like traditional Feelings Bingo but with CBT prompts. It’s a bit more in-depth than novelty bingo cards that are the same. Instead, there are 10 unique playing cards so that players can have a real competitive game.
However, to earn a square on the board, someone must answer the prompt for that space.
Like in traditional Bingo, are 75 CBT-related prompts included, which are mixed up on the Bingo cards (like the numbers in real Bingo). You can play the game with the calling numbers from a real game, or print out ones from the game.
The game includes mindfulness, thought-related, emotional vocabulary and feelings Bingo-type prompts. Questions include emotions-related questions, such as changing or coping with difficult experiences.
Example Prompts
Example discussion prompts in CBT Lingo include:
What’s one coping skill you use
What’s emotional reasoning?
What is the mind-reading distortion?
10. Printable Therapy Dice
Best for: Kids, Teens, Families, Some Adult Groups Works with: In-person, groups
Therapy Dice is another printable game with prompts that are easy to use. There are multiple variations. It includes general emotions-related questions, along with specific approaches such as CBT, DBT, and ACT therapy.
If you’d rather not print the dice, you can also use traditional dice and the corresponding prompts that use corresponding numbers. This is a fun and active game for groups that may need to move around more.
Example Prompts
Here are some sample prompts you can epect:
Describe or make up a way that you can use your senses as a grounding activity.
Describe the wise mind skill
Lead a grounding activity
There are also basic feelings dice with feeling words listed on each side. This allows for flexible use of the dice. For example, someone might give an example of when they’ve had that feeling. Or they might describe what the feeling is like in the body.
Want to give it a try? Visit here to roll the dice.
Therapy games can help develop emotional awareness, empathy, and effective communication skills. They can be played individually or in a group setting, allowing participants to share their thoughts and emotions effectively. And best of all, they can create a lasting, meaningful experience that will help carry through stressful situations in the future, allowing individuals to recall and incorporate new therapeutic skills.
To find more games, activities, and worksheets for feelings, emotional regulation, and coping skills, check out the Giant Therapy Bundle!
Sources
O'Neill, D. K., & Holmes, P. E. (2022). The power of board games for multidomain learning in young children. American Journal of Play, 14(1), 58–98.
About the Author
Jennie Lannette Bedsworth is a licensed therapist and the creator of The Counseling Palette, a trusted source for therapy games, group therapy activities, and printables. With two decades of experience in the mental health field, Jennie designs resources that make therapy engaging, effective, and accessible for all ages. Ready to transform your sessions? Explore our collection of therapy tools at The Counseling Palette.
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