Our approach
We practise five approaches properly rather than twenty badly. Each one is here because it does a specific job that the others cannot.
CBT
The most extensively evidenced psychological treatment for gambling disorder.
Gambling is sustained by a small set of remarkably consistent thinking errors: the belief that a loss run is “due” to end, that a near miss is progress, that a system exists and you are close to finding it. CBT makes those thoughts visible, tests them against what actually happened, and replaces the behaviour that follows them.
Used Core of the one-to-one programme, weeks 3–8.
MI
Designed for ambivalence — the state most people arrive in.
Almost nobody walks in fully certain they want to stop. MI does not argue with that. It works with the ambivalence directly, drawing out a person’s own reasons for change rather than supplying reasons from outside, which is why it holds up so well when someone has been sent by a partner rather than choosing to come.
Used Assessment and the first two sessions of every programme.
Systemic
Treats the household, not only the individual.
Money, secrecy and trust are shared conditions. Systemic work looks at the patterns a household has developed to cope — the checking, the covering, the silences — and renegotiates them openly, so that recovery does not depend on one person being permanently policed by another.
Used Family & partner programme; optional sessions within one-to-one work.
MBRP
Targets the urge itself rather than the story around it.
An urge is a physical event with a beginning, a peak and an end. MBRP teaches people to stay present through that arc without acting on it — usually a matter of twenty to thirty minutes — instead of treating the urge as a command that must be either obeyed or fought.
Used Woven through group work and aftercare.
Financial
Not therapy, but recovery rarely holds without it.
We are not debt advisers and we never give regulated financial advice. What we do is make sure the practical work happens alongside the clinical work: blocking software installed, GamStop registered, gambling blocks switched on with your bank, and a referral to a free, FCA-regulated debt charity rather than a fee-charging firm.
Used Sessions 1–2 of every programme, reviewed quarterly in aftercare.
Principles
For most people with significant harm, abstinence is what holds. We will tell you that plainly. We will not, however, discharge you for disagreeing with us in week two.
Barriers and a referral to free debt advice go in during the first fortnight. Insight without a blocked account is an expensive kind of insight.
You will not be penalised, discharged or lectured for lapsing. You will be asked what happened in the hour before, because that is where the useful material is.
A partner or parent can hold their own therapy here with their own goals, whether or not the person gambling ever engages.
Where gambling sits alongside psychosis, bipolar disorder, active substance dependence or acute risk, we refer into NHS specialist care and say so in the first call.
No sponsorship, no research funding, no advertising, no affiliate revenue, no referral fees. Our income is therapy fees paid by clients and nothing else.
The first thirty days
Day 0
Twenty minutes with a clinician. What has been happening, what you have already tried, who knows. We tell you whether we are right for you, or where to go instead.
Week 1
Self-exclusion registered, bank blocks switched on, blocking software installed, dormant accounts closed. We do this inside the session rather than sending you away with a list.
Week 2
If disclosure is needed, we plan it: who, when, how much, and what support is in the room. Disclosure in instalments is what does the lasting damage.
Weeks 3–4
The chasing logic, the near-miss reasoning, the system you were close to finding. Written down, tested against what actually happened, and replaced.
Ongoing
Triggers named, a first-hour response agreed, two people you will contact. Then aftercare, with a same-week appointment available if something slips.
Where most people begin
We will ask what has been happening and tell you honestly whether we are the right service for you. If we are not, we will tell you exactly where to go instead — We reply to every enquiry within one working day.
Prefer to stay anonymous? The National Gambling Helpline is free on 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day.