The Trail of Fears Counseling Game

Tasha Milligan
Jul 25, 2018
1 min read

Updated: Nov 20, 2024

The Trail of Fears, a CBT game for anxiety

The Trail of Fears is a cognitive behavioral counseling game to confront fears, phobias, and general anxiety. The cards discuss visualization, thought-stopping and replacement techniques, rumination, and worry. Coping skills like progressive relaxation, grounding techniques, breathing exercises, and several other skills are provided to help children learn to self-regulate.

a game for kids to process fears, anxiety, and phobias

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been researched extensively and has been found to be quite effective in the treatment of anxiety. Teaching children, especially young children, can be challenging. Children are naturally drawn towards play and will engage in a game much easier than attempting a conversation-based method. It is exciting to see the dramatic changes in behavior and confidence in children as they learn these concepts and confront their fears. I have been using this game for several years and have seen many children blossom as they are able to overcome their anxiety.

When working with children who have anxiety, one of my first goals is to help them understand the fight/fight/freeze response. As they learn about their body and how it responds to anxiety, they are able to use coping skills early on to avoid a panic attack. They discover they can turn off this response by implementing their coping skills. Through body awareness, controlling their thoughts, and having a plan to cope with challenging situations, children are able to feel in control over their situation.