In this short video, I explain why gambling is rarely about money in the end, and what we look at first when you meet me by video.
You can also send me an email
Online gambling addiction therapy helps you understand and change a pull towards betting that you can no longer hold back, whether that is sports apps, online casinos, poker, scratch cards or high-risk trading. We meet one to one by video, in English, in 1-hour sessions holding 50 minutes of therapy, at a time that suits your time zone.
I do not lecture and I do not judge. I help you see what the bet does for you, where that need began and what keeps the chase going, so you can make choices that are yours again. This sits under online addiction therapy, part of my wider online psychotherapy. If lying about the betting has become a habit in itself, online compulsive lying therapy looks at that directly.
When it feels right, arrange a free 30-minute call, reserve a session, see my client policy or send me a message.
Online gambling addiction therapy is for English-speaking adults, anywhere in the world, whose betting has slipped beyond their control. You may hide it well, earn good money and still lose sleep, savings and trust to the next stake. You want to understand why you keep going back, and to stop without being shamed.
Gambling often travels with other struggles, and some of them need a different starting point. If one of these sounds more like you, its page is the place to begin.
You can also send me an email
These reviews describe clients’ experiences of working with me. They come from my wider practice and do not all relate to online sessions. Each person’s experience is their own, and a review does not promise a particular outcome.
“Many of the people I meet by video tell me gambling is about the money, and I think that is almost never true. What they are chasing is a few seconds in which the world goes quiet and everything feels possible. The money is simply the ticket. Underneath the next bet I often hear ‘If I win this back, will they still love me?’, which is a fear of being found out and left. Beside it sits a harder voice: ‘Nobody needs to know. I will fix it myself before anyone sees.’ That second voice keeps people gambling alone for years. The work starts when you let someone see the numbers and the feelings, and discover you are still worth something to them.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA. I have practised since 2004 and offer online psychotherapy and couples therapy in English.
My training brings together your emotions, your thoughts and your relationships. My deep passion is the moment when what happens between you finally makes sense, to each of you and to each other. I have lived and worked in nine countries, so I know something of life across languages, cultures and borders.
Read about my background, or explore online psychotherapy and online couples therapy.
I meet regularly with experienced psychotherapists to reflect on my work, question my understanding and develop my skills. Supervision is part of the professional care I bring to individual and couples work, including online sessions.
My focus is thoughtful practice, integrity and responsibility.
You are welcome to ask about the kind of support you need.
Tell me where you are based and your time zone. We can then consider whether online sessions together are suitable.
Hugo is 33, a software developer from Lyon now working in Melbourne. It started with a free bet on a football app and a lucky week. Now he bets on European matches that kick off at 4 in the morning his time, and he has quietly moved most of his savings into 3 betting accounts. His girlfriend thinks he has insomnia. Last week he lost a month’s salary in one night and felt, for a few minutes, strangely peaceful.
I would not begin with the losses. I would ask about the peace, because it tells us what the gambling is really giving him. In a first video session Hugo would probably notice that the urge peaks after calls with his family in France, and that he has never told anyone how lonely he feels.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
You have set limits, deleted apps and promised to stop, and still the next bet arrives before you have properly decided.
There is no right moment and no qualifying amount to lose before you seek help. A sense that betting now decides more of your mood, money and evenings than you do is reason enough. You do not need a diagnosis, a total collapse or a debt you cannot hide. In 22 years of practice I have seen how quickly a pastime can become a pattern, and I know when it needs more than willpower.
I will help you see what is driving the betting, what keeps it going and what must change for you to stop. Read the 6 questions below and see how many of them fit.
If so, that is a clear sign. You plan stakes in meetings, refresh scores during dinner and feel restless until the next game starts. Sleep slips, work becomes something to get through, and money turns into units of play rather than rent, holidays or savings.
I would look at when betting began to fill this much space and what it does for your mood. That tells us whether it is a phase or a pattern that runs on its own fuel. If this is you, book a session with me and we can look at it honestly.
Both can be true, because they serve different needs. One part of you is frightened by the losses and the secrecy. Another part feels sharp, alive and hopeful only when a stake is riding on something. Each time you try to quit, that second part quietly negotiates its way back.
I do not treat either part as the villain. We listen to each one for what it needs, as I learned to do in psychosynthesis. Often the gambling part is carrying excitement, hope or relief that has nowhere else to go. Once we know that, you can find other ways to meet those needs.
For many people it does. A loss can feel like a verdict on you, not just on a bet, and the thought of disappointing your partner or parents becomes unbearable. You check balances again and again, imagine the conversation if they find out, and feel you must win it back before anyone notices.
Wanting to be valued and not left is a legitimate need, and I will not make you feel foolish for it. I help you calm the alarm that turns a loss into a catastrophe, and practise telling someone the truth before fear makes the next decision for you.
This swing is common. One night you nearly tell your partner or a friend, and you feel close and relieved. The next day the shame returns, you play down what you said and open a new account in secret. Honesty feels like a lifeline and a trap at the same time.
I help you slow that cycle down and find what tips you from openness back into hiding. Often it is the moment someone reacts with worry or anger. I understand why you protect yourself, and I will also ask you to own the damage the hiding does to people who trust you.
For some people gambling is a private room. When a partner wants a serious talk, a child needs attention or work piles up, you go practical, then quiet, then into the app. Nobody can reach you there, and for a while nothing is asked of you.
Needing time alone is not a fault, and I will not ask you to give up your independence. I help you see what the retreat protects you from, so you can stay in difficult moments a little longer. You learn to ask for space clearly before the betting takes it for you.
After months or years of chasing, hiding and starting again, many people forget what they enjoyed before. You may see yourself as reckless, untrustworthy or simply as someone who loses. That is a picture shaped by a long, lonely struggle, not the truth about who you are.
I help you separate yourself from the pattern, including family beliefs about money, risk and luck that you may have absorbed. I will challenge you when you write yourself off, but I will not hand you a new identity. The aim is to know what you value again, and to live by it.
If the betting showed up in these questions, a free call is a quiet way to talk, and booking a session is the quicker way to start.
You can also send me an email
Tell me briefly what kind of support you are looking for.
Include your country and time zone so we can discuss whether online work together is possible and find a suitable time.
You do not need to explain your whole story in your first message.
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Understanding why you bet matters, but the work also has to change what happens when the app lights up on your phone.
Working on gambling with me will help you see what is happening in the moments before a bet, recognise the patterns that keep the chase alive and make changes you can feel in your bank balance and your evenings. Insight alone does not survive a big match, so we always link it to action.
In 22 years of practice I have learned that people move when I am active in the room. I will support you, say what I notice and challenge excuses that keep you betting. The 6 questions below set out what we aim for.
Related reading: I know exactly why I do it. Why can’t I stop?.
I help you separate the heart of the problem from its fallout. The debts, the lies and the sleepless nights matter, but they are usually results. Beneath them often sit boredom, loneliness, a need to feel special, or an old belief that one big win could put everything right.
I offer you my honest reading of what is driving the bets and challenge stories that keep you hooked, such as being due a win. When you are ready, book a session with me and we start tracing the pattern to its roots.
You can learn its early signals. There is usually a chain: a dull afternoon, a notification, a thought such as ‘just a small one’, a quickening in the chest. Once you see the first link, there is a moment in which you can still choose.
Together we slow that chain down and look at what sets it off and what it soothes. Recognising it is only half the job. We practise a different response until you can use it when a match is on and nobody is watching.
Staying steady does not mean feeling nothing. It means being present enough to notice the surge of a win or the panic of a loss and still choose what you do next. Both extremes push you back to the screen.
I help you recognise those surges earlier and understand what your body is reacting to. We build short, practical ways to come down from the high or the low, and I will ask you to use them between sessions, especially on the days you usually bet.
Honest talk starts with knowing what you feel and what is yours to own. After months of secrecy, fear and shame make it tempting to minimise, rush the confession or get defensive at the first question.
I help you prepare words that are truthful, specific and proportionate. I will challenge both silence and the wish for someone else to take charge of your money and your guilt. We often rehearse the conversation, so you can say what has happened and what you are doing about it.
Clearer decisions come when you separate fear, shame and other people’s reactions from what you actually know and want. Gambling thrives on deals: only on weekends, only with winnings, only until the debt is cleared.
I help you weigh your options honestly, including blocking tools, handing over control of money for a while or getting debt advice, and what each will ask of you. I will give you my view and name it when you avoid, but the decision is yours.
Lasting change reaches beyond our sessions into match nights, paydays, holidays and lonely evenings. You may need new routines, people you can be honest with, different ways to feel excitement and a clearer relationship with money.
I help you work out what must change and what can stay. Your love of risk, competition or sport is not the enemy. The aim is a life in which your choices follow your values rather than the next set of odds.
You can also send me an email
You do not need to have stopped, cleared your debts or worked out what to say. We begin with where things stand today.
When you begin, I listen closely, help you name what is happening and give the work a clear direction from the first session. You do not have to show me every statement or tell your whole story at once.
Gambling therapy is one focused strand of my online psychotherapy, individual work on what drives you and how you relate to others. If the betting has damaged trust with a partner who wants to repair it, online couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. When you want a steady run of sessions, a therapy bundle gives you savings and the safety of an agreed plan.
In our first session I ask what brought you now, how and when you bet, what you have already tried and what you most want to change. We also look briefly at any urgent money pressure, so it does not hang over the work.
At the end I share my first understanding and suggest a direction, and you decide whether it feels useful. If you want to sound me out before booking, try a free 30-minute call.
Individual work fits when the betting lives mainly in you: your urges, your history, your shame and your way of handling stress. We can explore how it affects your relationships without anyone else joining the call.
I give you continuity and honest challenge week by week. If you suspect gambling is one part of a wider pattern, online addiction therapy and my broader online psychotherapy show how the structured individual work fits together.
Couples therapy helps more when the relationship itself needs repair: hidden debts have been found, trust has collapsed, or every disagreement now turns into a fight about money and honesty.
In couples work I help you both see the cycle between you, own your part and rebuild safer ways of relating. Online couples therapy is long-term relational development and healing. Many people steady the gambling in individual sessions first and invite their partner later.
The right pace depends on how strong the urge is, how much is at stake financially and how much support you need during big sporting events or paydays.
I usually recommend weekly sessions at first, because the early weeks are where relapse is most likely. I will tell you when the gaps are too long and when it is safe to meet less often. Some people add a few back-to-back sessions around a known risky period.
A bundle makes sense when you know you need several sessions and want commitment rather than a fresh decision every week. Gambling loves an exit, and a planned course takes one away.
It lowers the cost of each session and gives you the security of a plan set in advance. I can help you judge whether it fits. See therapy discounts and bundles and the cards further down.
The work has done its job when you feel more in charge of your choices, money and time, and the pull to bet has eased enough for you to manage without the same support. A flicker of temptation may still come, but it no longer runs the show.
I review progress with you openly and do not keep you in therapy for its own sake. Sessions can space out, pause or end. Coming back after a slip or a new pressure does not cancel what you achieved.
Not sure where to start? Here is how online gambling addiction therapy compares with the options people with a betting problem often consider.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Online gambling addiction therapy (this page) | Betting, casino play or trading has slipped beyond your control. | Weekly 1-hour video sessions at first |
| Online addiction therapy | Another habit, such as drink or porn, is the main pull. | Weekly video sessions |
| Online compulsive lying therapy | Covering your tracks has turned into lying you cannot stop. | Weekly 1-hour video sessions |
| Acute online psychotherapy | The debts have just come out and you need help this week. | Video sessions close together at first |
Online gambling addiction therapy with me is individual psychotherapy by video, in English, for adults whose betting has slipped out of their control. It helps you understand what gambling does for you emotionally, where that need began and what keeps the chase going.
I do not moralise, and I work with the whole person: your feelings, history, relationships and family beliefs about money and risk. It is part of my online addiction therapy.
Come when betting costs you more than you can afford, when you hide it, chase losses or keep breaking your own limits. If you are worried enough to read this page, that worry counts.
I look at how often you bet, what you hide, what you have borrowed and how it affects your mood. A pattern that returns however firmly you decide to stop deserves proper attention.
Therapy can help you understand and change what drives your gambling, and many people find the urge loses its grip. I cannot promise how things will turn out, and there are no shortcuts.
In my clinical experience, people stop more lastingly when they understand what the bet was doing for them, such as easing loneliness or bringing excitement into a flat life. We work on that need, as well as on practical limits.
You do not have to clear them first. Debt and gambling often feed each other, and trying to sort one without the other rarely works.
I am not a financial adviser, but I will help you face the numbers, think about who can help with them and stop the debt from becoming a reason to bet again. We look at money and the emotional pull together.
Chasing losses is an attempt to undo pain quickly. It promises to erase shame, fix the problem before anyone knows and restore a sense of control. That is a human reaction, not proof that you are reckless or bad.
I help you notice the moment a loss turns into an urgent need to recover it, and what feelings sit underneath. Then we practise staying with the loss long enough to make a different choice.
We start with what is happening now. I ask what you bet on, how often, how you feel before and after, and what you want to change. By the end you will have my first view and a suggested direction.
You do not need to bring statements or rehearse what to say. Many people feel tense about admitting the amounts, and we can start with that. You can book a time or begin with a free call.
Think in terms of several months of regular sessions rather than a few talks. The first weeks deal with the strongest urges, and the later work focuses on what the gambling was standing in for.
From 22 years of practice, I recommend a clear first stretch and honest reviews along the way. At each review we agree whether to continue, slow down or stop.
Yes. You can talk from home without anyone seeing you arrive anywhere, which many people prefer when the gambling is still secret. Video also keeps the work steady if you travel or live far from family.
You need a private space, headphones, a stable internet connection and a laptop or tablet. If home is not private, a parked car or a quiet office can work. We can check any practical questions on a free call.
Individual psychotherapy is booked as 1-hour video sessions, each with 50 minutes of therapy. Today’s fees, listed in US dollars, are on my prices page.
If you know you need a longer course, a therapy bundle saves you 10 per cent and gives you a structured plan. The options are on therapy discounts and bundles.
Book a session when you are ready, or ask for a free 30-minute call if you want to talk first. The calendar shows each time in your local time zone.
If you cannot find a time that works, or the situation feels urgent, write to me. I keep some room for acute cases, usually within days, and acute online psychotherapy explains that help. Take the first step now.
You can also send me an email
I want therapy to help you understand your experience and make choices you can use in everyday life. We pay attention to feelings, needs and the responses that happen before you have time to think.
Our online room should offer enough trust and honesty to explore what is difficult. I bring attention and professional judgement. You bring your experience, questions and the right to say when something does not fit.
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P.S. I’ll call you in a bit!
