Online Gaming Is the New Therapist's Office

In the early weeks of the pandemic, Monet Goldman tried different strategies to cope with stress. "I was exercising, I was meditating, I was doing yoga," says Goldman, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Santa Clara, California. But he didn't start to feel better until he turned to a familiar pastime: video games. In the bright, immersive world of online gaming, Goldman found solace--and he started to have fun again. As he and his colleagues struggled to connect with clients virtually, he wondered if gaming could help his patients too.