Bring SPIKE! to your peer support group.We offer chronic illness patients a fresh approach to peer support.
SPIKE! is a free storytelling card game for chronic illness peer support groups. We facilitate the session for you, or co-lead it with your group leader or patient advocate. Using a science-based storytelling method, players open up about hard topics with peers who understand. The game and facilitation is FREE until January 27. We only ask that the group fills out a short confidential survey on their experience afterward.
Played by the Mass General Brigham's Long COVID Recovery Support Group and Mount Sinai's Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness. SPIKE was researched and designed by Denise Brodey, M.S. in Media, Medicine and Health from Harvard Medical School, who lives with Long COVID. Learn more about the science of storytelling and play, and why they help patients.
SPIKE! has helped to make talking about hard things easier for people living with chronic illnesses, including Long COVID, IBS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, ME/CFS, diabetes and depression. Your peer group can be next.
How We Chose the Unique SPIKE! Playing Card Images
Patients helped choose the images on each SPIKE! chronic illness playing card. We drew inspiration from our own lives, illness memoirs, studies, impact reports, and academic texts about living with everything from Long COVID to Lyme and fibromyalgia. Below, you can read about how the game is played and download the cards, but we highly recommend that you book an online session with us to experience the game in full, include a detailed a full deck of cards and facilitation guide.
Rules of the Game + Psychological Safety
The Rules of the Game
While we emphasize play, we also make this space feel safe and supportive. Group conversations are confidential, and facilitators remind players that they can stop sharing at any time.
Players can answer as many or as few of the questions as they prefer. Move on to another player until you run out of time or energy. Thank everyone for their input. Remind the group: stories are confidential.
1. Look through the deck and select three image cards that resonate with you.
2. Take a STOP card (a hand symbol for pausing) and a PLUS card (to add anything new). This is for psychological safety. Scroll to the bottom of the page for details on this important topic.
3. One card at a time, share what comes up — any memories, emotions, or associations connected to the image. A useful framework is to choose a card that represents the ‘before’ times (pre-COVID), a card for where you are now (mentally and physically), and a card that represents the future.
4. A player can use the HAND card to pause the game or the STOP card to discontinue their turn. The game moves at each player’s pace.
5. When players talk through their cards, hold them up for others to see, either on screen or in person; the facilitator can summarize what they heard.
6. Close out each turn with three final questions: Why this card? Did what you said surprise you? Does this card point to something you wish others (like your doctor or caregiver) understood? This offers closure and insight.
** This is not a medical test or advice. It is not therapy. It is a game being beta-tested by and for people with chronic illness and support group leaders. Game testers play out of a sense of community, not for payment.**
Thank You for Playing!
Dozens of patients spent time and precious energy developing SPIKE! the game for chronic illness peer support groups, including students, peer leaders and faculty at Harvard Medical School and MIT Games Lab in Boston.We have also received calls from therapists and patients as far away as the U.K . and the Netherlands! Thank you. We'll be working with a new cohort soon. You can stay updated by following us on our socials, links below.
