Counselling Session with Cyclic Intervention

Diagram: the vicious cycle driving a client’s problem gambling.

The counselling session detailed below illustrates how I used a cyclic intervention with a client and how this intervention emerged during the session.

This method proved effective in ways that often surprised me, and other counsellors might benefit from using similar interventions.

On other pages of this website, I describe how the intervention is consistent with key counselling theories, including psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural therapies. See “The counselling pages on this website”.

I have called the client Zed. He is a fictional character based on the many clients I saw during my ten years working as a problem gambling counsellor.

The identified cyclic dynamic

The method for generating and using the cyclic intervention is critical; however, to give you an idea of where we are going …

Here is a brief overview of the self-reinforcing feedback cycle that emerged during my example counselling session with client Zed.

This diagram shows the dynamic driving this client’s problem gambling.

Towards the end of the session, I summed it up, saying to him:

  • There is a cycle here.
  • The more you gamble to feel respected while you’re winning,
  • the more money you lose and the less respect you get at home and at work, so
  • the more you need respect, and
  • this throws you back to gamble more.
  • This vicious cycle is making life difficult for you.

The intake phone call

Zed’s first contact with our problem gambling counselling service was when he rang our intake counsellor and made an appointment to see a face-to-face counsellor.

The intake worker reported that Zed rang because his lawyer had told him that attending counselling might help him in court. He was forty years old and still living at home with his mother. He bet on horses at the racetrack, lost heavily, stole money while at work, lost his office cleaning job, and was facing court. When offered our usual information sheets, he said, “No. Don’t bother. I don’t remember things.”

Session structure

Zed’s first words to me were, ‘How’s this going to help me?’ He was here, following his lawyer’s advice, and seemed doubtful about it.

He had told the intake worker that he didn’t remember things, so I planned to keep this counselling session simple. For example, I used a whiteboard so Zed would have a running summary of our session in front of him. As we talked, I added keywords to a cobweb diagram on the whiteboard, organised like this.

The things he liked about gambling.   The things he disliked about gambling.
 Other important things that he mentioned.   

The counselling session meandered, but here I present separately: (1) the final cobweb diagram, (2) the things he liked about his gambling, and (3) the things he disliked about his gambling, interwoven with other issues that he raised.

Zed’s cobweb diagram

Here is the final cobweb diagram, which shows the main points we discussed and includes the vicious cycle.

A cobweb diagram of a counselling session and a cyclic intervention

What Zed liked about his gambling

When Zed talked about racing, his voice would lift, and his face would light up. It happened several times. He loved gambling. At the track, on his good days, he could do nothing wrong. He was a winner. People noticed him, congratulated him, and even asked for tips. Strangers became drinking partners, he met women, and for a few hours, he wasn’t a cleaner living with his mother. He felt like a professional gambler.

As he spoke, I added words to the cobweb diagram on the whiteboard.

What Zed disliked about his gambling

Here are the main things that Zed disliked about his gambling, along with other aspects of his story.

Losses and arrest

Despite his winning streaks, his losses continued to mount. He stole to keep going; his bosses found out and reported it to the police. Now he had to appear in court. This loomed over him, and the thought of his name in the papers filled him with horror.

At home, he often could not contribute to their rent and food. His mother lashed out, calling him crazy and saying he was a moron. He half believed her, saying, “I suppose I am a bit crazy. I can’t stay away from the horses.”

He said she nagged him about going to the doctor about his memory and the car crash years back. He spoke with annoyance. He was not going to the doctor.

Loss of Football

Years back, he played football. Although light-framed, he was fast and never gave up; that earned him a place on his local team. It gave him status, friends, and an incentive to train. He had been eager for his team to play in the finals.

Then came the car accident. When he tried to return to football, his temper flared at training, and he quit. That’s when he started gambling.

Often, he was stuck at home watching television, in the house with his frequently angry mother. Now that he had lost his job, he was home far more.

The best thing was watching his AFL team. He watched all their games on television. He said their captain was so brave, and everyone looked up to him.

Old Wounds

At school, he suffered bullying and hated going. He left school in the middle of year 11 to work in a supermarket.

A woman he used to live with ten years ago had played the pokies, stolen from him, and left him bitter.

Life had left him scarred and suspicious, weighed down by a string of defeats.

Zed’s difficulties

I saw Zed as facing so many difficulties on every side:

  • Stealing from work/arrest
    • Job loss
    • Court/Possible penalties/Publicity
    • Shame
  • Not remembering things
  • Car accident,
    • Short fuse & arguments at his football club
    • Worry: Did he have a brain injury
  • Loss of football
    • Loss of status in the team
    • Loss of his teammates
  • Living at home with his mother at 40 years old
  • Arguments with his mother
  • Bullied at school
  • Difficulty of getting a future job
    • Little education
    • No career path that he liked
    • No reference from his employer

As I spoke with him, I felt so daunted by the challenges he would face in breaking free from his passionate attachment to gambling, finding a new job, gaining independence from his mother, and establishing a social life that would satisfy him.

The cyclic intervention

It occurred to me that one thing he longed for was for others to respect him. I asked him whether respect was important to him, and he nodded.

I’d intended to keep the session simple. However, despite this, I talked him through a vicious cycle that was possibly dominating his life: (1) needing respect, (2) gambling to feel respected, and (3) losing respect through gambling losses. As I talked, I pointed to parts of the cobweb diagram that related to what I was saying, and I added the red arrows and text to the diagram. I said things like:

  • It seems to me that you’re in a tough spot now and could be longing for respect, like the respect you have for the Carlton football captain and the respect you felt from other players on your team when you played well. I added the “need respect” and the arrow between “Other” and “Likes” in the diagram.
  • You’ve said that when you are on a winning streak, you feel you can’t lose. And here in this room, when you talk about gambling, your face lights up. You are passionate about your gambling. It might be because during these winning streaks, you feel respected when people ask you for tips.
  • But often you lose, so you’ve stolen from work. You’ve lost respect at home and at work.
  • Then, just like on the football field, you don’t give up. You return to the horses, hanging out for your next winning streak and to feel respected once again.
  • .
  • There is a cycle here (and my finger traced the cycle on the whiteboard):
    • You want respect
    • You gamble to feel respected while you’re winning,
    • You lose more money and lose respect at home and work
    • You want respect even more.
  • This is a vicious cycle that keeps you in trouble.

Zed’s response

Zed responded, “That’s what’s on my belt.” He stood up and pointed to the playing card symbols, diamonds and clubs, embossed on his belt.

Zed: “A man made this belt for me with diamonds and clubs. I picked diamonds for gambling. The clubs are for respect: they’re strong. But you’re saying more, betting breaks respect, and, well, … I suppose that’s right. No one put it that way before.”

Zed had said he had difficulties at school and with memory, but he immediately understood this cyclic logic. Fortuitously, the critical elements of the cyclic intervention were on his belt, which could help him remember this new understanding of his gambling.

Later, he said, “Perhaps I’m not so crazy, like mum says.” The cyclic intervention provided him with a more productive way to understand his gambling, and he seemed relieved.

Zed had organised counselling at his lawyer’s urging, and was now involved in this session.

After this session

I was amazed by his response to this intervention.

The session, along with others, demonstrated to me that simply making a cobweb diagram of the pros and cons of gambling on a whiteboard, along with the underlying “other issues,” can help reveal a cyclical dynamic surrounding a key desire or dread for the client —a dynamic that the client can readily understand and appreciate.  

The cobweb diagram showed a vicious cycle, with each part supported by the words Zed used to tell his story. The diagram summarised much of the session, so I included it in my case notes.

This process enhanced reflective listening, as it served as a reflection of the entire session and assisted my analysis of the whole. The result surprised both Zed and me and had a constructive impact on Zed.

The cyclic intervention offered Zed an explanation for his difficulties that he understood. It also suggested a clear challenge: how to disrupt the amplifying feedback cycle. Zed gained confidence and engaged with the counselling process.

Well, that’s what happened in the session with Zed. Other web pages describe how this counselling fits with various counselling theories, and each offers a slightly different perspective on Zed.

Loaded 16 Nov 2025. Updated 22 Dec 2025