Therapeutic serious game treats mental health problems such as depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and behavioral disorder by allowing clients to manage and express feelings. These games are developed according to a primary principle of the cognitive behavior therapy that the mental health can be improved by training cognition and behavior with proper stimulation. For those who have difficulties in expressing emotions, stepwise treatment is offered to create a safe emotional environment which induces them to express themselves. The game environment provides affective feelings that encompass physical experiences. In addition, emotional distance is formed between the user and the game environment, and thus even those who have high psychological barriers feel free to express and release their feelings. Game users can experience self-exposure and awareness and gradually construct their self-images, expressing themselves in the virtual world in a continuous and repetitive fashion.

The present paper explores how “written emotional disclosure”, in particular writing about personal feelings and thoughts concerning discriminatory events, can represent an important opportunity for children to engage in the transformation of categorical boundaries through complex cognitive and emotional processes. In particular, the paper explores from a comparative perspective: 1) how minority and migrant children express their opinions about personal and vicarious experiences of discrimination in different cultural and social contexts; 2) how, through these writings, children develop some cognitive and emotional coping strategies to handle external categorization. At the educational level, children’s expressive writings can represent relevant material for educators in order to understand meanings that pupils bring with them into their classroom, as well as educational tools for children in multicultural contexts. I draw on some extracts from open-ended essays written by minority and migrant children aged 9-10 attending elementary schools in Japan and in Italy.