Counselling for problem gambling: person-centred dialogues

187 Pages·2016·1.44 MB·English

by  Richard, Bryant-Jefferies

LIVING THERAPY SERIES
Counselling for Problem
Gambling
Person-Centred Dialogues
Richard Bryant-Jefferies
Radcliffe Publishing
Oxford Seattle
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2005 by Richard Bryant-Jefferies
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Version Date: 20160525

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Contents
Forewords v
Preface ix
About the author xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Gambling and betting 1
When gambling and betting become a problem 3
How great is the gambling problem? 4
The person-centred approach 8
Supervision 17
Part 1: The gambling habit 21
Chapter 1 23
Counselling session 1: the client introduces his gambling 23
Chapter 2 33
Counselling session 2: the client tries to change his gambling pattern 33
Supervision session: supervisee learns from his own slot-machine experience 39
Chapter 3 47
Counselling session 3: the gambling experience today, and in the past 47
Chapter 4 59
An update 59
Counselling session 7: the gambler within and the not-for-gambling sense of self 60
Counselling session 8: gambling satisfaction ^ more than just winning 69
iii
iv Contents
Chapter 5 79
Progress so far . . . 79
Counselling session 12: exploring experiences associated with gambling 80
Re£ections 88
Part 2: The betting habit 91
Chapter 6 93
Setting the scene 93
Counselling session 1: do I want help? Forming a relationship 93
Chapter 7 105
Counselling session 2: a few wins, ‘it’s not a problem’, and a con¢dentiality issue 105
Supervision: supervisee questions his congruence 110
Chapter 8 119
Counselling session 3: the client’s wife attends 119
Chapter 9 131
Counselling session 4: struggling to accept the need to stop betting 131
Chapter 10 139
An update on progress 139
Counselling session 8: the client is calmer, more re£ective 140
Chapter 11 151
Pat re£ects on his work with Rob 151
Rob re£ects on his counselling experience 152
Author’s epilogue 155
Appendix 159
‘Cycle of change’ model 159
References 165
Useful contacts 169
Foreword
In 1987 when I began my PhD on slot machine gambling, little did I know that
almost two decades later I would still ¢nd myself irresistibly hooked into research-
ing a fascinating and interesting area of human behaviour. The academic
study ^ and to some extent treatment ^ of gambling has come a long way in 20
years. Given the paucity of data in the area, I managed to create a productive
niche for myself and have spent much of my time trying to bring in and facilitate
other researchers and practitioners to the area.
Since the introduction of the National Lottery in 1994, gambling in the UK has
become more destigmatised and more demasculinised. People’s attitudes towards
gambling have softened and gambling is now seen as a socially acceptable leisure
activity rather than a sin or a vice. The new Gambling Bill that was passed by Par-
liament in April 2005 will almost certainly lead to more opportunities and access
to gambling in the UK thanwe have ever seen before. If we are not already a nation
of gamblers thenwe soonwill be! The downside of deregulation is thatmore people
will gamble. As a consequence, there will be a growing number of gambling
‘casualties’, some of whomwill want professional intervention and treatment.
Over the last decade, I have been relentless in trying to get gambling addiction
on the mental health agenda and have argued that gambling in its most excessive
forms can be just as destructive as any other form of addictive behaviour for the
individual. In the UK, there are so few practitioners who are aware that gambling
can be a problem. There are only a handful of people who even specialise in the
treatment of gambling problems.
I was therefore delighted to be asked to write a foreword to Richard Bryant-Je¡-
eries’ book. Books on the treatment of problem gamblers have been few and far
between especially when compared to other more traditional addictions. What’s
more, of the few that have been written, many are either too dry and academic, or
too therapeutically lightweight to be of real use to counsellors, therapists and other
practitioners. That is why I am delighted that Richard has written this book.
Richard has an engaging writing style and this book is written in such a way
that most readers will be able to follow his very accessible style of writing.
Whether you are a treatment practitioner, a researcher, scholar, or someone
with a passing interest in the study of gambling, there is something for everyone
in this book. Although I am a psychologist, I am not a practitioner ^ yet Richard’s
vibrant text is a good advert for taking up the role of therapist and helper. The
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vi Foreword
book aims to bring the therapeutic process alive and this is something that
Richard has achieved.
One of the unique aspects of this book is the format. Richard helps bring to life
the gamblers in treatment through the innovative use of two very detailed (¢c-
tional) case studies. As Richard points out, he doesn’t provide all the answers,
but he does highlight the mind set of a typical problem gambler. Any of us who
have worked with problem gamblers over the years will recognise both ‘Max’ and
‘Rob’. I have never read a book (or journal paper) in this area that is so detailed
and re£ective as the one you are reading now.
I wish Richard every success with the book and hope that readers will ¢nd it as
stimulating and ‘experiential’ a read as I did.
Professor Mark Gri⁄ths
Professor of Gambling Studies
Division of Psychology
Nottingham Trent University
May 2005
Foreword
As a former, and sometimes lapsed, slot-machine addict, I am delighted to be writ-
ing a foreword to Richard Bryant-Je¡eries’ latest addition to the Living Therapy
series. It may seem strange to say, but during my teens and early twenties, some
of the most pleasurable moments in my life involved standing in front of a slot-
machine, cigarette in one hand and pint of beer (ideally) in the other, listening
to the clatter of coins coming out of the pay-out chute. I remember, one day,
thinking that this was what heaven must be like: pleasure, pleasure and more
pleasure . . . a wonderfully warm glow of relief, excitement and accomplishment
all wrapped up into one. Much more common, however, were the feelings of
shame, self-hatred and remorse that almost inevitably followed a bout of slot-
machine playing when, ten or more pounds worse o¡, I would slink away from
the arcade or pub feeling sick to my teeth.
It is probably not an understatement to say that, at times, I left the machines
feeling like I wanted to end it all. It was not just the burning sensations of self-
hatred and remorse, it was also the sense that, expelled from the world of £ashing
lights, ‘holds’ and ‘nudges’, nothing seemed to matter. Everything else was grey
and limp by comparison. Often, it would take me an hour or more to re-engage
with the world and others. I just didn’t care.
At those times, it never occurred to me to talk to anyone about my problems.
I desperately wanted to overcome my addiction, but felt far too ashamed to dis-
cuss it with family or friends. I assumed, probably rightly, that they would tell
me how stupid I was and how much money I was wasting, and there was already
enough of that criticism going on in my head. Besides which, I didn’t really
believe that they would be able to help me. It was just for me and my best friend,
then, who also moved in and out of gambling addictions, to try and ¢nd our own
solutions to our problems: most of which failed the moment we walked past an
‘amusement’ arcade with more than a ¢ver in our pockets.
Ironically, perhaps, I also did not discuss my slot-machine addiction with the
handful of therapists that I saw during that period in my life. Partly, no doubt, out
of sheer embarrassment over the sums of money I was squandering; but also, per-
haps, out of a sense that these very sensible, slightly reserved adults could never
really understand the excitement and ‘glamour’ that drew me towards the slot-
machines. In this sense, Richard Bryant-Je¡eries has done the counselling
and psychotherapy world a great service by producing a book that can sensitise
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viii Foreword
therapists to the sort of issues and dilemmas that problem gamblers face: helping
them to create the kind of facilitative environment that will maximise clients’ self-
explorations. In the ¢ctional examples of Max and Rob, we see two men who
experience both the highs and lows of gambling, and two therapists, ‘Clive’ and
‘Pat’, who are able to empathise with, and value, both aspects of their being. This
is the essence of a person-centred approach ^ the prizing of all of a client ^ and
Richard Bryant-Je¡eries shows us here how e¡ectively and sensitively it can be
done. As a young man, I would have loved to have had the chance to talk to
‘Clive’ or ‘Pat’ and I believe that many other problem gamblers would be helped
by such an experience. By bringing such a form of therapeutic relating to the
fore, Counselling for Problem Gamblers makes a valuable contribution to the psy-
chotherapy and counselling literature.
Mick Cooper PhD
Senior Lecturer in Counselling
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
May 2005
Preface
In the UK there has been much publicity regarding the idea of introducing super
casinos based on American organisations. It has raised questions as to whether
this is what people want, with discussions concerning the prevalence of criminal-
ity associated with this aspect of the leisure industry. It is also set against the
experience of the National Lottery which in 2004 saw its tenth year anniversary
and the increasing use of gambling sites on the Internet.
As with any addictive behaviour, the greater the availability, the greater the
risk of people becoming addicted to the degree that it has problematic e¡ects on
them, and on those closest to them. Many problem gamblers will seek help
through counselling and this book aims to demonstrate a person-centred way of
working with clients who are seeking to resolve gambling issues.
The success of the preceding books in the Living Therapy series, and the contin-
ued appreciative comments received from readers and by independent reviewers,
is encouragement enough to once again extend this style into exploring the appli-
cation of the person-centred approach to counselling and psychotherapy to
another key area of di⁄culty within the human experience. Again and again
people remark on how readable these books are, how much they bring the thera-
peutic process alive. In particular, students of counselling and psychotherapy
have remarked on how accessible the text is. Trainers and others who are experi-
enced in the ¢eld have indicated to me the timeliness of a series that focuses the
application of the person-centred approach to working therapeutically with cli-
ents having particular issues. This is both heartening and encouraging. I want
the style to draw people into the narrative and to make them feel engaged with
the characters and the therapeutic process. I want this series to be what I would
term ‘an experiential read’.
As with the other books in the Living Therapy series, Counselling for Problem
Gambling: person-centred dialogues is composed of ¢ctitious dialogues between ¢c-
titious clients and their counsellors, and between their counsellors and their
supervisors. Within the dialogues are woven the re£ective thoughts and feelings
of the clients, the counsellors and the supervisors, along with boxed comments on
the process and references to person-centred theory. I do not seek to provide all
the answers, or a technical manual expounding on the right way to work with
clients who are experiencing a gambling problem. Rather I want to convey some-
thing of the process of working with representative material that can arise so that
the reader may be stimulated into processing their own reactions, and re£ecting
on the relevance and e¡ectiveness of the therapeutic responses, to thereby gain
ix