Understanding problem gambling as a vicious cycle and using this as a counselling intervention helped me to provide counselling consistent with the principles of Rogerian counselling.

The counselling intervention example

During a counselling session with my client Zed, I identified a vicious cycle that was a revelation to him. (Zed is a fictional client.)

You gamble more to feel respected – that’s when you are winning.		Damage: You lose more money & respect
	You need more respect.

During the session, we built a diagram of key parts of his story. The vicious cycle emerged from this diagram, and 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.”

The method for generating and using the cyclic intervention is critical: the page describing the example counselling session details this.

Being genuine

Rogerian client-centred therapy proposes that the therapist is genuine and open with clients.

When I first worked with problem gamblers, their gambling did seem crazy to me, and I did not tell my clients this. An advantage of developing and using these cyclic interventions was that I came to view the clients as caught in these vicious cycles. So, when I made my intervention with client Zed, I was able to be more open and genuine with him about how I viewed him and his situation.

Unconditional positive regard

Rogerian person-centred therapy proposes that the counsellor offers the client unconditional positive regard by accepting and valuing the client without judgment or criticism.

Seeing problem gambling as a vicious cycle helped me put aside judgment about problem gamblers as crazy. I had a logical and constructive way of viewing problem gambling, and this helped move towards unconditional positive regard.

Providing empathy

Another central aspect of client-centred therapy is empathy.

The therapist understands the client’s thoughts and feelings as the client experiences them and conveys this understanding to the client.

The process I used and my understanding of problem gambling as a vicious cycle helped me understand Zed’s situation, identify that respect was so important to him, and provided a way to communicate this to him in a way he found helpful and accurate. It helped me offer him empathy.

Counselling Pages & References

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.

Person-centred approach to counselling: Counselling Tutor website

First Loaded: 19 Dec 2025: Updated 22 Dec 2025