About Us

Facilitating Restorative Communication Games & Products

Our goal is to heal, restore, and transform lives & relationships.

Through thoughtfully designed and tested questions and interactions, these first-to-market physical games of “Human Sense” provide a safe structured space for people to explore, reflect on, share and process who they really are; their struggles, dreams, memories, values, feelings, lives, humanity and experiences with one another, while they bridge and connect people across all divides and barriers.

Our intimate, face-to-face communication games have proven to fill an extensive void in our fast-paced, increasingly disconnected technological world.

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Facing Down the Challenge of Mental Health

Hundreds of millions of people have no one to share their struggles, lives, experiences, even their dreams with, and do not have access to, or resources for therapy, or due to stigma will not go to a counselor or therapist. Sustaining mental health and resilience have become enormous challenges in the United States, as well as globally.

Trance4mation Games has met and continues to meet this challenge by developing and launching restorative communication “games” which provide for a human infrastructure of compassion and healing. Trance4mation Games' products make difficult discussions and fierce, transformative, life-saving, and life-changing conversations enjoyable and accessible, and have impacted over one hundred thousand lives to date.

To date, Trance4mation Games has targeted and is presently impacting four of American Society's most pressing issues; those of Diversity & Inclusion, Veteran Reintegration, Prisoner Reentry and Recidivism, and Policing. Soon to launch is The Streets Is Talking, a gang prevention game, and Awaken, a substance-abuse prevention & recovery game.

Meet the Founder

Leslie, Creator & Founder

Throughout my life, I have always been highly sensitive to people’s emotional pain. My mother had significant mental health issues, and I helplessly watched her cycle in and out of severe mood swings. This left me without anyone to share my inner life with, or to have the opportunity to develop my own identity. Through years of my own significant emotional struggles, and decades of work in underserved and marginalized communities, as a social worker, therapist, facilitator, workshop leader and presenter, I have dedicated my life to helping people to explore their feelings, experiences, realities, and lives, and to provide ways for them to experience their humanity and value through authentic connection with others.

I have worked tirelessly to develop and launch my communication games – designed to provide safe spaces for people to explore the darkness and the light within, from our demons to our dreams, with those who want to understand. Until now, there have been no “tools” or processes to accomplish this. I wish I could have had a tool to connect on much deeper levels with people in my life who I have lost to suicide. People playing these games often state that they know the people they have played for one hour with better than they know most of the people in their lives who they have known for years. These first and only of their kind “games” are meeting an urgent void and need.

Leslie R. Robinson is a psychotherapist and the inventor of the games the Keep It Real game and Keep It Real Diverse (Diversity) game. Spawned from her many years of work with adolescents, young adults, adults, and families, Keep It Real was created as a forum to provide profound dialogue, trust, connection and transformation.

It is an interactive communication board game that provides a safe space for people to explore and share their beliefs, feelings, memories, reflections, struggles and dreams out loud. Presently, the Keep It Real Diverse game is being utilized to build bridges and connections across differences by approximately 1,000 colleges and universities, 200 Boys & Girls Clubs and youth programs, numerous organizations.

Leslie has been a Program Director for at-risk youth in the South Bronx. For six years, she created, implemented and supervised long-term intensive arts and after-school programs in inner-city schools for at-risk youth, and for two years pioneered a poetry project at Rikers Island Correctional Facilities for Men and Women. She was a Consultant for the foster care system for 20 years, supervised residences for homeless young adults, worked with the schizophrenic population in homeless shelters, and worked in an emergency shelter for runaway youth. A former adjunct professor in literature and writing at the College of New Rochelle, Leslie graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Masters Degree in Creative Writing.

In 2009, Leslie founded Trance4mation Games, a company formed as the overall company for her Keep It Real brand, Warrior Spirit Mission Homefront and RECHARGE Beyond the Bars Re-Entry games. Leslie’s Warrior Spirit Mission Homefront is an evidence-based reintegration communication game designed for soldiers and other military personnel and their families and friends. It has been heralded by hundreds of veterans across all branches of the military as a valuable and indispensable forum that allows for open communication and reintegration, specifically when soldiers return home after tours of duty away from their families.

RECHARGE Beyond the Bars Re-Entry Game was created in 2013, to help formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into their families and communities, as well as to process their incarceration experience. This game is presently being utilized in re-entry programs in and outside of prisons, mentoring programs, work release programs, by cognitive-behavioral therapists, in prison literacy programs, life skills programs, by families, in prison visits, by church and faith-based organizations, in classrooms, by Social Workers, and many more. In partnership with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, prisoner-led Recharge Reentry programs launched in 12 prisons throughout Ohio.

For two years, Leslie was a Department of Defense Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Speaker, presenting to Service Members and their families nationwide. She was honored for her work by the President of Nasdaq, by ringing the closing bell at Nasdaq Marketsite on December 30, 2014. Leslie has developed and facilitated workshops on leadership development, diversity and inclusion, professional development, veteran reintegration and service learning on college campuses nationwide. Her areas of expertise are: Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership Development, Team Building, Veteran Reintegration, Empowerment, Professional Development, Resiliency and Mental Health. She hosted a national Diversity Webinar attended by over 300 colleges in November 2013, and a Keep It Real Webinar attended by over 200 participants in July 2014. She has appeared on Al Jazeera America, on the Security Brief on Reelz T.V (and on numerous national radio broadcasts.

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Our Creative Team

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John Molina

Community Engagement and Development Director
Juan or John Molina, MPA, HPAM Is an Afro-Latino who was directly impacted by the societal and systemic pressures which feed the criminal legal system. John’s extensive work experience is buttressed by a formal education. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Services Administration (BS, HSA) at Lehman College, and went onto NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service where he earned a Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) with a specialization in policy and management (HPAM). John has developed curriculum for peer-mentor training for the John Jay Institute for Justice and Opportunity. He has extensive experience in budgeting, managing grants, community stakeholder engagement, management of programs and program assessment. John is also adept at leveraging political and social capital to secure discretionary funding grants and has authored many winning grant proposals. For over a decade, John’s tightly held beliefs in redemption and access to education have kept him tethered to the reentry community. In addition, in the social justice arena, John’s executive level expertise includes creating strategic 5-year plans for growth, organizational and program evaluation, SWOT analysis’, facilitating board meetings, and conceptualizing organizational strategies to build multiple streams of income. John is a founding member of the Social Justice Network (SJN), and an active member of ALPFA, the Association of Latino Professionals for America.

"Keep It Real is a game to be played by anyone, anywhere, any place, any time; it is a game that everyone needs."

Sherene Davis, Mother of two

A Unique Chance to Grow & Evolve

Start the dialogue that builds trust and mends bridges.

Experience the Keep It Real Game

Facilitate your own Keep It Real workshop on your campus, in your organization, or for your community: