Counselling Session with Cyclic Intervention

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

The counselling session described here illustrates how I used a cyclic intervention with a client, i.e., we worked together to identify key issues in his life and a vicious cycle that was driving his presenting difficulties. The session shows how this occurred and how it helped the client.

This method often 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 this type of 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, let’s start with the intervention.

During the fictional counselling session with my client Zed, I identified a self-reinforcing feedback cycle.

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: (1) the more you gamble to feel respected, while on winning streaks, (2) the more money you lose and the less respect you get at home and at work, so (3) the more you need respect, and (4) this throws you back to gamble more. This vicious cycle is making your life very difficult.

On this page:

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 29 years old and living with his mother. He bet on horses at the racetrack, lost heavily, stole money from his workplace, lost his 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 had told the intake worker that he didn’t remember things, so I planned to keep this counselling session simple. I often used a whiteboard in sessions and certainly intended to do so with Zed – to keep a running summary of the session in front of him. As we talked, I added keywords to a cobweb diagram on the whiteboard, organised as follows.

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) Zed’s story as he told it, arranged chronologically for clarity, and (3) the resulting counselling intervention.

Zed’s cobweb diagram

Here is the final cobweb diagram as it appeared at the end of the session. The vicious cycle is highlighted in red.

A cobweb diagram of a counselling session and a cyclic intervention

I constructed the cobweb diagram as Zed and spoke, inserting the words Zed used. This final diagram mapped the key elements of the entire session.

Zed’s story

School and work

Zed left school at sixteen. He had been bullied and came to hate going to school each day. By year 11, he’d had enough and left to work in a supermarket. From there, he tried some labouring jobs on building sites before eventually settling into steady work at a hotel. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was reliable.

A relationship and a breakup

At twenty-three, he was renting a small bungalow tucked behind a larger house. Around that time, he met a woman he liked lots. She moved in with him, and for nearly a year, he felt he was building something. But she was fond of the pokies. The relationship ended abruptly when he discovered she had been withdrawing money from his bank account without his knowledge. He was devastated. He had trusted her and felt betrayed.

Football mates

Football helped him out of that dark period. At twenty-four, he earned a place on a local team. Making up for his light frame, he was fast and never gave up. He wanted to play in the finals and trained hard. After training, he would go to the pub with other players and enjoyed being with mates.

Car accident

At twenty-seven, everything shifted. He was hospitalised after a car accident. When the doctors discharged him, they said he might be off work for two months. Unable to see how he could keep paying rent, he gave up his bungalow and moved into his mother’s rented house.

When he returned to football training, hoping to reclaim his place, he struggled to regain form. Frustration simmered. His temper flared, and arguments followed. When they didn’t select him to play, he stormed out and did not return. Another source of identity and pride was gone.

Gambling

He had always enjoyed going to the horse races and placing the occasional bet, but now gambling took on a new intensity. Still twenty-seven and living with his mother, he became absorbed in racing. Losses mounted. He frequently gambled away money he had said he would contribute to rent and food. He said his mother called him “crazy” – and he half accepted the label, saying, “I suppose I am a bit crazy. I can’t stay away from the horses.”

She was also pushing him to see a doctor about his memory. He spoke about this with irritation. He was not going to any doctor.

As his losses continued, he often found himself broke and stuck at home, watching television. The atmosphere in the house was tense.

On television, he really liked watching the professional football team he followed, Footscray. He said their captain was so brave, and everyone looked up to him.

The attractions of gambling

Whenever Zed spoke about racing, his voice lifted, and his face brightened. Some days at the track, he could do no wrong. His horses pulled ahead. People congratulated him, asked for tips, and bought him drinks. Strangers became companions; women noticed him. For a few hours, he was no longer a hotel worker living with his mother. He felt like a professional gambler — admired, competent, alive.

His hopes were about gambling, and he lost pride in his hotel job. Shockingly, he described his co-workers as losers in boring work.

Stealing and the court

When he ran up debts, he became desperate and began stealing from work. His bosses found out, he lost his long-standing job, and they reported him to the police. Now he faced a court appearance, and the thought of his name appearing in the newspaper haunted him.

Zed’s difficulties

Zed faced so many difficulties. His gambling, stealing, and facing court. His “not remembering things” and his short temper. Perhaps he had suffered a brain injury in the car crash. How could he again find work, given that he had little education, no liking for any work he had done previously, no reference from a previous employer, and possibly a criminal record? At 29 years old, life had left him scarred and weighed down by a string of defeats.

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, repairing his relationship with his mother, and establishing a social life that would satisfy him.

The cyclic intervention

It occurred to me that he longed 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. As I spoke, I pointed to the relevant parts of the cobweb diagram. I also added arrows and text to the diagram, which are now shown in red. 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 Footscray football captain and the respect you felt from other players on your team. 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 by others, like when people ask you for tips.
However, you’ve often lost money and then lost respect at home, and now at work as well.
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.

Here again is that vicious cycle.

During the fictional counselling session with my client Zed, I identified a self-reinforcing feedback cycle.

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

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 wide 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.

This 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 and was essential for helping clients understand this sort of intervention.

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.

Alternative interventions

Here are some other directions I could have taken during the session.

(1) Zed could have feared that there was something wrong with his head, and this could have been part of another vicious cycle driving his gambling. I discuss this on the psychodynamics page.

Defence: Zed gambles more for the wins, to feel like a smart professional gambler.		More Damage: Zed knows he’s losing money and feels crazy.

		More Dread: Something is wrong with my head.

(2) I could have identified Zed’s gambling as a distraction from stress in his life, and presented this as part of a vicious cycle driving his gambling. I discuss this on the psychodynamics page.

Defence: More gambling to distract from stress.		More Damage: lose more money.

		Greater Dread / Stress.

(3) I could have taken more time delving into the cobweb diagram, asking questions like, “Now, you might like to keep this to yourself, but are there any other stresses you would add to this diagram?”

A Landscape of Paradox.

Zed’s gambling brought paradoxes into his life. His gambling to chase respect lost him respect, and gambling to chase money lost him money. It’s also possible that his use of gambling to convince himself and others that he was smart and his accident had not damaged his brain raised questions about his smarts. Also, his gambling to meet women pretty much kept him safe from forming another relationship and perhaps more betrayal. Problem gambling is a landscape of paradox, and cyclic diagrams can make these paradoxes clear. I explore paradoxes on the linked page.

Amplifying feedback cycles

I suggest you read my page on amplifying feedback cycles to understand how these dynamics function, particularly the factors that limit vicious cycles.

The introduction to my counselling pages includes:

Links to the other counselling pages, including those describing how this approach relates to other counselling practices and theories, see the top of the introduction page
References for all the counselling pages, at the end of the introduction page.

These 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 16 Feb 2026.