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Digital Escape: Gaming, Emotional Distress, and Adolescent Development

Daniel Staples, LMHC
Vaneola Joseph MSW, RCSWI
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Information

Date & Time

Description

This presentation explores the psychological and relational factors that may contribute to excessive gaming, including avoidance, anxiety, depression, social needs, reward-seeking, and executive-functioning challenges. Participants will learn to look beyond screen time and better understand the needs gaming may be meeting. The presentation offers practical strategies for establishing healthier family limits, reducing conflict, and supporting more balanced and sustainable technology use.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is for participants to increase their understanding of the psychological and relational factors underlying excessive gaming and develop practical strategies to establish healthier technology boundaries and support balanced family functioning.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least three psychological or relational factors that may contribute to excessive gaming, including avoidance, anxiety, social needs, reward-seeking, or executive-functioning challenges.

  • Describe at least two strategies for establishing developmentally appropriate family gaming limits while reducing conflict and improving communication.

  • Apply at least two practical approaches to support balanced and sustainable technology use within a family setting.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Daniel Staples, LMHC
Daniel Staples, LMHC in Florida. He currently works as the clinical supervisor over the neurodivergent focused residential treatment program through Family First Adolescent Services (The NEST). Daniel graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic University with a Masters in Mental Health Counseling in 2019 and has worked primarily with adolescents during that time; he has focused on co-occurring disorders, mood disorders and issues related to complex trauma.
Vaneola Joseph MSW, RCSWI
Vaneola works with adolescents, adults, and families navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and difficult family dynamics. Her approach is warm, honest, direct, and deeply compassionate — blending CBT, DBT, Motivational Interviewing, attachment-focused interventions, and NARM-informed principles to help clients recognize the patterns beneath their symptoms and build new ways of responding. In her words: “Some days, you won't like me — and that's okay. Therapy isn't always about validation or hearing what feels comfortable. Sometimes, it means being lovingly challenged to look at the patterns that are keeping you stuck. I don't believe your past gets to define you. Once you can see the pattern, you have a choice. You have agency. You get to decide whether you continue playing the same role or start writing a different story.

Financially Sponsored By

  • BrentCare Behavioral Health