Now accepting · Telehealth across California

The kid who won't talk in therapy
talks in Minecraft.
And that's where we begin.

Growing Home Counseling offers structured, clinician-led therapy delivered inside Minecraft Education Edition — for kids, teens, and young adults across California, including the parents who've already tried everything else.

Book a free consultation → How this works ↓
Andrew Walker Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor
APCC #21977
Supervised by Daniela Di Piero, LMFT #88547
Growing Home Counseling · Nevada City, CA
01 — The approach

It is, in every clinical sense, real therapy — only the room is different.

Therapy using Minecraft is structured psychotherapy that happens inside Minecraft Education Edition. The therapist is in the world with the client. The session has a clinical arc. The medium is the only thing that's unusual.

/01

The therapist is always present

Andrew is in the world for every session — observing, engaging, guiding. There is no time spent unsupervised. The game is the surface; the work is everything happening around it.

/02

The medium is nearly a century old

Play therapy. Sand tray. Expressive arts. Therapists have used externalized, low-pressure media to reach children since the 1930s. The block is the new sand grain.

/03

Every world is private

Education Edition runs in a closed, school-grade environment. Each client has their own world. Only Andrew has the link. Nothing is shared, recorded, or broadcast.

/04

No cost for the game

The licensing is handled by the practice. Clients need a device and an internet connection. That is the entire technical lift.

/05

Insurance covers it

Partnership Health Plan of California and Anthem Medi-Cal are billed as standard outpatient psychotherapy. Many clients pay $0 out of pocket.

See it from a clinician's perspective
02 — Sessions

A session, end to end.

Each appointment is 50 minutes. The world is loaded; the work is structured. Scroll to walk through what happens.

01

Connect

Client launches Minecraft Education Edition from their own device. Andrew is already in the world. The first few minutes are spent re-entering the shared space.

~ 5 min · Re-entry
02

Check-in

A brief conversation about the week. For clients who freeze under direct questioning, the in-world environment lowers the affective stakes enough for the check-in to actually happen.

~ 10 min · Verbal & non-verbal
03

The work

The bulk of the session. A structured build, a collaborative puzzle, a guided narrative. Each chosen for the clinical goal the session is targeting — frustration tolerance, social negotiation, emotional vocabulary, identity exploration.

~ 30 min · Structured intervention
04

Process & close

Stepping back from the game to name what surfaced and connect it to real life. The session ends together, with intention.

~ 5 min · Integration

"Is this just playing video games?"

It's a fair question. The honest answer is no. The therapist is present in every session, actively tracking what's happening and guiding it with clinical intention. Clients may explore and build freely in some moments, but the therapist is always observing themes, tracking emotional responses, and steering toward the client's goals. The game is the medium. The therapy is real.

03 — Who this is for

No referral required. A good fit matters more than a label.

You don't need a prior diagnosis to reach out or start the intake process. If sessions are billed through insurance, a clinical diagnosis will be established as part of intake. Many clients come with no prior evaluation at all — that's a normal part of how we begin.

/01

Kids who shut down in talk therapy

Direct questioning produces shrugs. In-world, the same conversation often opens within fifteen minutes.

/02

Neurodivergent youth

ADHD, autism spectrum, sensory differences. The medium aligns with how many neurodivergent kids actually communicate.

/03

Pre-adolescent boys

The single most under-engaged group in conventional therapy. Engagement here is not a problem.

/04

Anxious teens

Social anxiety, generalized worry, perfectionism. The block-by-block pacing builds tolerance for uncertainty.

/05

Young adults in transition

Identity, executive function, leaving home. The world becomes a sandbox for rehearsing the actual one.

/06

Families re-trying therapy

If the first, second, or third attempt didn't take — this is often the difference. Worth a free consultation.

/07

Anxiety & social difficulties

Having a screen and an avatar lowers the social threat enough that real connection — and real therapeutic work — becomes possible.

/08

Minecraft fans

Sometimes the best reason is the simplest: a client who loves the game and might open up through it in ways they never expected.

04 — The evidence

A growing body of peer-reviewed work.

The clinical literature is still maturing. What exists is consistent and points in one direction: engagement, retention, and generalization to real life.

100%

Group retention at session five

Of pilot Minecraft-based therapy groups studied, 100% met consistently through five or more sessions — compared to just 45% of traditional youth groups.

WellPower. (2020). Minecraft therapy group program outcomes. WellPower Behavioral Health.
10+

Clinicians now running programs

WellPower's pilot grew from one group to 10+ clinicians — with pre-adolescent boys, the hardest-to-engage population, becoming among the most enthusiastic participants.

WellPower. (2020). Minecraft therapy group program outcomes. WellPower Behavioral Health.
Peer-reviewed

Social gains confirmed in independent studies

Gains in social engagement, confidence, and collaborative problem-solving for neurodivergent youth. Skills practiced in-world were reported by caregivers to generalize to everyday life.

Kilmer, G., Spangler, P., & Kilmer, R. (2023). Therapeutically applied Minecraft groups: Social-emotional outcomes for youth. F1000Research, 12.
The literature is encouraging but the field is young. Andrew is happy to walk caregivers through specific studies during the consultation — and is equally happy to say when something is still being learned.
Key studies

Peer-reviewed research finds that therapeutically applied Minecraft supports social engagement, confidence, and competence in youth — with particular benefits for neurodivergent clients. Multiple interaction modes give clients more communication autonomy than traditional talk therapy alone.

Kilmer, G., Spangler, P., & Kilmer, R. (2023). Therapeutically applied Minecraft groups: Social-emotional outcomes for youth. F1000Research, 12.

A systematic review found that combining evidence-based therapeutic techniques with game-based formats improves treatment adherence and engagement in children and adolescents — making skill-building feel less intrusive and more motivating.

Pallavicini, F., Ferrari, A., & Mantovani, F. (2020). Video games for well-being: A systematic review on the application of computer games for cognitive and emotional training. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11.
05 — The clinician

About Andrew Walker.

Andrew Walker, APCC — Growing Home Counseling, Nevada City CA
Andrew Walker, APCC #21977 Growing Home Counseling · Nevada City, CA

Andrew Walker

Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor · APCC #21977

I'm a trauma-informed, non-pathologizing therapist based in Nevada City. I work with kids, teens, and young adults navigating anxiety, depression, ADHD, and major life transitions — and I've found that the path through those struggles often looks very different than what people expect when they first walk in.

What drew me to game-based therapy was simple: I kept noticing that some of the most meaningful moments in sessions happened not during structured talk, but when clients had something to do with their hands — something to build, something to inhabit. Minecraft gives kids and teens a creative sandbox where they can show me things they'd struggle to put into words. A fortress with no doors. A house with every room labeled. A world they rebuild the same way every single time. That's rich material, and it's available to clients who might otherwise sit in silence.

My clinical training is rooted in play therapy and expressive arts therapy — two long-standing traditions that have always treated the medium as part of the medicine. I hold a Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) with a concentration in Psychology from the University of Kansas, and a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Saybrook University. I have been in practice since 2025.

My approach

Person-centered and strength-based — less interested in diagnosing what's wrong and more interested in understanding what's gotten in the way. I draw on solution-focused techniques, expressive arts, and sandplay alongside game-based work. I practice under the supervision of Daniela Di Piero, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #88547).

I offer telehealth sessions to anyone in California, and in-person sessions in Nevada City. The first conversation is always free — no commitment, no pressure.

APCC #21977 MA, Saybrook University BGS, University of Kansas Play Therapy Expressive Arts Neurodivergent-affirming Telehealth-credentialed
06 — Access

Partnership Health Plan accepted. Many clients pay $0.

If you are a Partnership Health Plan or Anthem Medi-Cal member, the standard fee is fully covered. For everyone else, a sliding scale is available.

Cost should not be the reason a kid doesn't get this room.

Partnership Health Plan
Medi-Cal · California
$0
Anthem Medi-Cal
California
$0
Private pay
Sliding scale available
$170
07 — Common questions

The questions parents actually ask.

"Minecraft therapy" is a widely used colloquial term for what is clinically called therapeutically applied Minecraft — structured, clinician-led psychotherapy conducted inside Minecraft Education Edition. Yes, that's what Growing Home Counseling offers. Because Minecraft is a trademarked product of Mojang, we describe this as game-based therapy or therapy using Minecraft Education Edition rather than "Minecraft therapy" as a brand — but if that's the term that brought you here, you've found the right place.
Real therapy. Every session has a clinical purpose. Andrew is a registered associate clinical counselor under supervision; the work is billed through insurance as standard outpatient psychotherapy. The medium is structured by the clinician — not the client, and not the game.
No, and many parents are surprised by the opposite outcome. Therapeutic Minecraft is a different experience from recreational play — clients commonly report that their non-session screen time decreases as the work proceeds.
No. Andrew has worked with clients ranging from never-played to expert builders. The first session includes whatever onboarding is needed.
Yes — Partnership Health Plan of California and Anthem Medi-Cal. Eligible clients are typically $0 out of pocket. Call (530) 264-0080 to verify your specific coverage before starting.
The standard private-pay rate is $170 per session. Clients with Partnership Health Plan of California or Anthem Medi-Cal are typically $0 out of pocket. A sliding scale is available for clients who don't qualify for Medi-Cal but need fee flexibility — reach out to discuss. See the Fees & Insurance page for full details.
Completely private. Sessions use Minecraft Education Edition — a version built specifically for schools and clinical settings, not the consumer game. Each client has a private world accessible only via a session-specific join code that changes every appointment. There are no public servers, no outside players, no strangers, and no public chat of any kind. Your child's world cannot be stumbled into.
Adults absolutely do this. Young adults navigating identity, transition, executive function challenges, or isolation are a strong fit. If you're an adult who's curious about whether this approach might work for you, the free consultation is the right first step.
In-person at 194 Gold Flat Road, Nevada City, CA. Telehealth is available to anyone in California — the game works the same way whether the client is local or anywhere in the state.
Yes. Growing Home Counseling is based in Nevada City, CA — serving Nevada City, Grass Valley, Penn Valley, Auburn, and the surrounding Sierra foothills in person. Telehealth is available statewide.
No. Growing Home Counseling is an independent therapy practice that uses Minecraft Education Edition as one of its clinical tools. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by Mojang Studios or Microsoft Corporation.
08 — Begin

Book a free consultation.

The first conversation is free and runs about 20 minutes. No diagnosis required, no commitment beyond the call. If we're not the right fit, Andrew will say so and help you think about what is.

Call · text (530) 264-0080 Email [email protected]
Visit 194 Gold Flat Road · Nevada City, CA
Hours Mon–Fri · 10a–6p PT