Support if someone you love is gambling
For partners, parents and adult children carrying the weight of someone else's gambling, whether or not they've stopped.
I'm Tracy Simpson, a Registered Member MBACP. As well as working directly with people who gamble, I offer support for partners, parents and adult children affected by someone else's gambling, in person in Barnsley and online across the UK. If you're here because of someone else's gambling, this page is for you, whether or not the person gambling has stopped, or is getting help.
What you might be carrying
- Finding out, recently or a while ago, and still making sense of it
- Checking bank statements or accounts, and what that's doing to you
- Wondering whether to stay or leave
- Carrying the practical and emotional weight of it on your own
- Feeling like you can't tell friends or family what's really going on
- Anger, exhaustion or numbness, sometimes all in the same day
You don't need to have decided anything, including whether to stay. Talking it through doesn't commit you to anything.
A way forward
Counselling offers support and space to work things through. It isn't a medical treatment or a quick fix, and no counsellor can promise you an outcome, including whether the person gambling will stop.
Sessions can help with:
- Making sense of finding out, and what's happened since
- Protecting your own wellbeing while someone else's gambling is ongoing or in recovery
- Working out what you need, separately from what they need
- Deciding whether to stay, without being told what to decide
- Rebuilding trust together, if you're staying and they're working on it too
Deciding whether to stay
This isn't a decision I can make for you, and I won't try to. If you want space to think it through on your own, that's individual counselling, here on this page. If you're staying together and want support rebuilding trust or working through what's happened, that's relationship counselling, as a couple.
I'm a Registered Member of the BACP (45587) and an Accredited Registrant with the NCPS (NCS20-00911). From 2014 to 2020 I worked as an associate counsellor with Krysallis, a GamCare partner agency, delivering GamCare-funded gambling addiction counselling to problem gamblers and their families.
What happens in sessions
You can start with a free 10-minute call, or book a session straight away if you already know you'd like to. The call has no forms and no commitment. You tell me a little about what's going on, I tell you how I'd work with it, and you decide whether it feels right, whether that's on your own or together.
Sessions are 50 minutes, weekly or fortnightly. There's no fixed number of sessions and no contract tying you in.
What you tell me is confidential, with the standard exceptions every counsellor works to around serious risk of harm. I'll explain exactly how that works before we begin.
Fees, no surprises
Start with a free 10-minute call, or book a session directly.
Registered to accept referrals from Bupa and Aviva. Please check any policy excess with your provider before booking.
Free family support
You don't have to work this out alone, and you don't have to be in counselling with me to get support.
The National Gambling Helpline supports family members directly, not just the person gambling, free and any time of day or night.
The NHS Northern Gambling Service also supports affected family members, free through the NHS, alongside their work with people who gamble.
Gam-Anon runs free peer-support meetings specifically for people affected by someone else's gambling, separate from Gamblers Anonymous meetings.
NHS Northern Gambling Service
For free NHS gambling treatment, including for family members.
0300 300 1490Where I work
I see people in person in private counselling rooms within the South Yorkshire Physiotherapy Centre, Day Street, Barnsley, S70 1NW, and by video anywhere in the UK. If it's the person gambling who needs support rather than you, my gambling addiction counselling page covers that.
Questions people ask
Do I need the person who's gambling to know I'm coming?
No. This is your counselling, and you don't need their permission or agreement to talk to someone about your own experience.
What if they haven't stopped gambling, or won't get help?
That's still a reason to get support for yourself. You don't have to wait for them to be ready before you look after your own wellbeing.
Can we come together?
Yes, if it's relationship counselling you're both looking for. I also see people individually about this, whether or not the other person is involved at all.
Is it confidential?
Yes, within the standard limits of confidentiality, which I'll explain before we begin.
Talk it through, on your own or together
A short, confidential call to see how I can help.