Supporting recovery
The counselling session with client Zed focuses on the client’s presenting problem. It’s problem-focused therapy. Clients often welcome the identification of the vicious gambling cycle, but the counsellor also needs to provide balance by focusing on client strengths and solutions. Narrative therapy is one way of doing this. Another dimension is focusing on the virtuous cycles apparent in the client’s past and as therapy sessions continue.
Recovery for Client Zed
For Client Zed, an element of recovery could have been going to Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meetings, offering grounded support to other participants based on his own experience, earning their respect, and so reducing his need to gain respect via gambling. Going to GA meetings would establish three recovery cycles that would counter the dominance of his gambling-amplifying cycle.
The reward of gaining respect
First is the cycle based on the rewards of gaining respect from other GA members.
In this feedback cycle:
- Zed’s increased assistance to others tends to
- Increase the respect he gains from those he helped, which tends to
- Increase his motivation to assist others, which tends to
- Increase his assistance to others, and then the cycle repeats.
After identifying a vicious gambling cycle, it is helpful to identify an activity that deals in some way with the dread that drives their problem and explain to the client how dealing with the dread can create a virtuous, self-reinforcing cycle of recovery.
See the Rewards page.
His attendance reinforces his motivations to attend
Second, his attendance at GA meetings directly reinforces each of his motivations to attend.
See my page on Weinberg’s Action Approach.
His rejection of gambling in favour of GA
Third, there is the cycle which decreases his motivation to go gambling due to his rejection of gambling in favour of attending GA.
Again, see my page on Weinberg’s Action Approach.
These virtuous amplifying feedback cycles could have supported Zed’s recovery.
Three types of recovery cycles
Similar cycles to those that organise problem development can also organise recovery from a problem behaviour:
- Cycles based on the rewards from recovery activities.
- Cycles amplifying the choice of recovery activities
- Cycles amplifying the rejection of the problematic behaviour in favour of recovery activities
Hope
Learning that a vicious problem cycle is dominating your life can be frightening. Understanding that you can strengthen virtuous recovery cycles can counter this fear by identifying achievement and generating hope that there is an escape route.
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