Gambler's Help Counselling - What's involved?

Jake: Talking to a counsellor provides someone with the opportunity to share their story, to speak about things that they might not necessarily feel comfortable or safe to do so in other parts of their life.

My name's Jake and I'm a therapeutic counsellor at Gambler's Help Southern.

In the first session, we're really trying to just gather a little bit of information about you.

We don't practise in a kind of uniform way.

Each client is bringing with them their own set of circumstances, their own life journey, and so it's really about finding out a little bit about who you are so we can tailor a specific, unique solution and approach to you in a supported way.

Another key part of the first session is working out what the client's goals are and developing those in a collaborative way.

Talking to a counsellor is a very foreign experience for a lot of people.

A lot of people that we see have never spoken to a counsellor before and what it does is it provides someone with the opportunity to share their story, to speak about things that they might not necessarily feel comfortable or safe to do so in other parts of their life.

I think people fear the feeling of being exposed and while that's totally normal and makes a lot of sense, at the same time it can be quite liberating to actually explore some of these things and it can be really life-changing.

The best sign that counselling is working is when you feel like you're being heard and you feel like you're actually working towards a goal that you've set out for yourself.

For a lot of people it requires so much energy in order to keep up the stories that they're maintaining with the people around them, and for people to be able to share what's actually going on for them can feel like such a relief.

Often people will wait until they've hit rock bottom or until they feel like they have no choice but to come and see a counsellor.

The earlier you can come and see us the better.

A common misconception about Gambler's Help counselling is that we as counsellors are going to tell you what to do or tell you what your goals should be, we're going to tell you to stop gambling.

And really we work with you whatever your goals are, whether that's wanting to stop gambling, whether that's wanting to reduce your gambling or control your gambling, or whether it's just wanting to have a chat with us about where you're at and feeling like you can have a place to discuss what's going on for you in regards to your gambling.

Whatever your goals are, we can meet you there.