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CONCEPT AND APPLICATION SHEET

Board game "My Inner Team"

A visualizing board game for resource activation, conflict resolution and promoting emotional self-regulation

1. Educational Concept

Making inner processes visible – playfully understanding personality aspects "My Inner Team" is a deeply effective reflection game that helps educational professionals engage children, adolescents, and adults in conversations about inner conflicts, strengths, and blockages. Players choose traits as team members, set up opponents, and reflect on their inner dynamics in a systemic, solution-oriented manner.

The football field aesthetic of the game board provides an accessible metaphor: life as a game – with a lineup, strategy, captain, opposing team, and training plan. The game approach creates emotional distance with high self-commitment simultaneously – ideal for people with low frustration tolerance, communication inhibitions, or complex inner conflicts.

The game is not rigid – it can be changed as it progresses, just as (self-)perception changes and development happens.

2. Why the game works in an educational context

🧠 promotes reflection – structures inner parts and facilitates self-understanding🎯 solution-oriented – promotes resource activation instead of problem focus🧩 systemically adaptable – supports counseling, promotion & goal setting🎲 playful and low-threshold – particularly helpful in residential, school, and counseling contexts

The difference to classic tools like cards or scales: While reflection cards often provide visual impulses, the board game creates a haptic, interactive, and dynamic process. It's not just about selection, but about positioning, role distribution, and strategies – using terms from team sports: captain, substitutes' bench, lineup, training.

3. Game content at a glance

• 1 high-quality wooden game board in a football field design
  
• 52 coins with terms:
  
• Strengths & Competencies: Courage, Creativity, Humor, Self-confidence, Discipline, Patience, Athleticism, Independence, Self-efficacy, Tolerance, Empathy, Clarity, Intuition, Determination, Team spirit, Willpower, Perseverance, Responsibility, Empathy, Charisma, Intelligence, Trust, Structure, Agency, Balance, Explosive power
  
• Blockages & Challenges: Perfectionism, Defiance/Stubbornness, Fear, Sadness, Anger, Fear of Failure, Pessimism, Shame, Dependence, Egoism, Mistrust
  
• 6 game cards with targeted reflection questions:
  
• Who is the strongest player on the opposing team? Which of your players could neutralize him?
  
• Which of your competencies/strengths form your strongest team?
  
• Who is your team captain and thus the most important key player?
  
• Which dream team would I create in the future to face my future with?
  
• Who is on your opposing team? Who do you have to compete against?
  
• Which team/players would I need to overcome a current problem?
  

Areas of application

• Youth welfare & residential groups
  
• School social work
  
• Coaching & Career Guidance
  
• Psychotherapy & Trauma Pedagogy
  
• Family & Couples Counseling
  
• Disability Support, Elderly Care, Biographical Work
  

4. Application Recommendation (Short Version)

Quick start for professionals – as in a real game:

• Warm-up: Prepare board and coins – introduction to the setting
  
• Line-up: Participant chooses 6–8 coins for their own team (strengths)
  
• Opponent analysis: Then 3–6 coins for the opposing team (blockages)
  
• Name the captain: Who is currently calling the shots? Who should lead?
  
• Game analysis: Use reflection cards – connect players, find counter-strategies
  
• Create a training plan: What needs to be strengthened, what needs to be substituted?
  
• Evaluation: Visualize insights – e.g., draw, write, speak
  

Further application ideas (bullet points):

• 1. Strengthening and visualizing one's own abilities & resources
  
• 2. Reflection on weaknesses, hurdles, worries & fears
  
• 3. Problem analysis: Who or what is disruptive, hindering, blocking?
  
• 4. Pro & Con setup: Positive vs. burdensome aspects
  
• 5. Goal setting & dream team: Which players do I need to achieve my goal?
  
• 6. Team analysis & group dynamics: How do I see myself – how do others see me?
  

6. Case studies from practice

Case Study 1: Youth Welfare – Working with a 12-year-old boyA boy from a residential facility often appears tense, withdraws, and resists group activities. In a supervised setting using "My Inner Team", he assembles his team from the coins Courage, Perseverance, Creativity, Self-confidence, Humor, Agency, Team Spirit, and Intuition. He chooses Courage as his captain. His opposing team consists of Fear of Failure, Anxiety, Dependence, Shame, Distrust. The choice of captain helps him to talk about his fears. He recognizes: "My Courage player sometimes helps me to participate anyway, even if I'm afraid." The professional uses this image for goal setting: When does Team Courage need support? Who on the bench could be substituted in?

Case Study 2: Mother-Child Work – Stressed Mother Reflects on Family DynamicsA single mother feels overwhelmed by her 10-year-old son, who has many conflicts at school and home. In coaching, she builds an inner team of Patience, Clarity, Self-efficacy, Charisma, Intuition, Discipline, Empathy, and Responsibility. She chooses Responsibility as her captain. Her opposing team consists of Overwhelm, Self-doubt, Anger, Distrust, Perfectionism. In conversation, she realizes: "I try to do everything perfectly – that overwhelms me." Through visualization, she can let go, allow a change of perspective, and create a training plan for self-efficacy and patience to act with more confidence in everyday life.

5. Application Recommendation (Long Version)

Application variations at a glance – process-oriented & creatively deployable:

• 1. Strengthening & Visualizing Own Abilities & ResourcesPlayers set up their inner team, choosing 6–8 strengths and competencies. Goal: Promote self-awareness, recognize strengths, strengthen sense of self.
  
• 2. Developing & Reflecting on Weaknesses, Hurdles & WorriesDefine opponents: Which inner parts are blocking? What causes fear? Who is in the way? Goal: Engagement with burdensome aspects.
  
• 3. Problem Analysis with Current or Past ConflictPlayers describe a specific problem. Then it is visualized: Which coins are hindering? Who in the team can support? Which players are missing?
  
• 4. Pro and Con SetupDivision into strengthening and hindering aspects – strengths vs. blockades. An inner dialogue between both sides is visualized.
  
• 5. Goal and Wish SetupParticipants consider: Which dream team do I need to achieve my goal? Which players are still missing? Which ones should be trained?
  
• 6. Group & Team AnalysisMutual setup: How do others see me? Which players do they assign to me? What makes our team strong? What is missing in our group?
  

Note: Experienced professionals can introduce the game freely and allow the process to unfold. With confident handling, the game can also start without instructions – what develops from it arises in the moment.

When?

• In individual counseling, group sessions, support settings
  
• In social skills training, conflict resolution, coaching
  
• During transitions, decision-making processes, goal definitions
  

How?

• Introduction: Invitation to "Team Lineup" – Which players belong to your inner team?
  
• Select players: Define your own team members + opponents (strengths vs. blockages)
  
• Appoint captain: Who is currently leading? Who should lead?
  
• Use reflection cards: Develop solution ideas, target vision, counter-strategies
  
• Training plan: Which players need more playing time? Who goes to the bench? Which strengths need training?
  
• Ask transfer questions: What will you take away? What can you concretely use tomorrow?
  
• Create visibility: Draw players, document in portfolio, reflect
  

In-depth game application – attitude, conversation skills & transfer work

The game fully unfolds its effect when it is understood not as a "tool" but as an invitation to self-knowledge. An accompanying attitude of genuine curiosity, openness, and trust in the child's or adolescent's ability to process is important.

Utilizing player roles specifically – pedagogical meanings:

• Striker: The striker represents active solution strategies, courage, and goal orientation. They symbolize aspects that push forward, want to achieve goals, and bring energy to implementation. Question: "Which of your players goes on the offensive?"
  
• Goalkeeper: The goalkeeper protects one's inner self. They stand for emotional stability, boundaries, and protection. Often, they symbolize self-care, demarcation, or resilience. Question: "What helps you protect yourself or ward off things?"
  
• Defender: These roles keep opponents at bay. They stand for inner protective mechanisms, structure, vigilance, or problem-solving strategies. Question: "Who defends your team against blockages?"
  
• Team Captain: Mirror of current life reality – who (consciously or unconsciously) is currently leading internally?
  
• Bench: Represents uncertainties, ambivalences, and development potentials – what might soon come into play?
  
• Training plan: Symbolizes areas of growth – what needs strengthening? Which competencies need to work better together?
  
• Professionals should not interpret too quickly, but rather ask questions first: "What does this characteristic do to you?", "Why is this player important?"
  

Especially with adolescents facing multiple challenges, working with the game can build trust over several sessions and lead to long-term change.