Gambling addiction therapy Copenhagen
Help to stop chasing the next bet and face what lies beneath it
I work with you, not your debts, on what keeps pulling you back to the game
- Last updated October 23, 2026
What I want you to know if you cannot stop betting
In this short video, I explain why the urge to win back what you have lost is so hard to resist, and what we look at together so that it loosens its hold.
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At a glance
Gambling addiction therapy Copenhagen helps you understand why you keep going back to betting, casino games, scratch cards or trading apps, even when you have promised yourself you will stop. You see me on your own for 1-hour appointments with 50 minutes of therapy, in English or Danish, in central Copenhagen or online.
I work with you as a person: the excitement, the escape, the shame and the secrecy, and the older needs that the game has learned to meet. Debts, budgets and blocking tools are practical matters for specialised services, and I encourage you to use them alongside our work. This page is a focused part of addiction therapy within my psychotherapy. If lying about money has spread into the rest of your life, compulsive lying therapy may also be relevant.
From here you can book a session, request a free discovery call, read the client policy or contact me directly.
Is this the right page for you?
This is for you if…
Gambling addiction therapy Copenhagen is for adults who cannot stop betting, even though it is costing them money, sleep and peace of mind. You may gamble on sport, online casinos, poker, slot machines or crypto and trading apps. You want to understand what keeps pulling you back, and to stop living between the next win and the next loss.
- You open the betting app on the metro without thinking, and an hour later you have lost far more than you meant to.
- You tell yourself one more bet will win back what you lost last night, and then you lose that as well.
- You feel more alive in the minutes before a result than at almost any other time in your week.
- You have taken a loan, used a credit card or borrowed from a friend to cover a loss, and nobody at home knows.
- You delete notifications and bank messages before your partner sees them, and your stomach drops whenever the post arrives.
- You have self-excluded or deleted the apps before, and found your way back within days or weeks.
- You think about gambling at work, in bed and during dinner with friends, and it is wearing you out.
- You feel ashamed when you add it all up, and the shame is often exactly what sends you back to the screen.
This is probably not for you if…
Gambling is one form of a wider pattern, and some situations need a different starting point. If what you need most right now is practical help with debts, creditors or a budget, please contact a specialised debt advice service first. If one of these is closer to your situation, the linked page is the better fit.
- Your habit is mainly drinking, drugs, porn, shopping or something other than betting. → addiction therapy
- Lying has become automatic in many areas of your life, not only about money. → compulsive lying therapy
- Deep shame about who you are runs wider than the gambling, and that is what you most want help with. → shame therapy
- A loss or a discovery has just blown up your life this week, and you need help within days. → acute psychotherapy
- Betting feels like a symptom of something wider in your life, and that wider picture is what you want to explore. → psychotherapy
- Your partner has found out, and you both want to work on the relationship together. → couples therapy
- Your partner will not come, and you want help with the damage to the relationship on your own. → couples therapy alone
- You are in immediate danger, or you are thinking about ending your life. Please call 112, or 1813 for urgent mental health help in the Capital Region.
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Client reviews
The reviews shown here are shared by clients who have worked with me in therapy and chosen to reflect on their experience. They are collected via Google and displayed through an independent verification service, offering an open and transparent picture of how my work is experienced.
Mark’s view
“In my experience, people who gamble are rarely chasing money. They are chasing a feeling, and the money is simply how the feeling is measured. The rush before a result can be the only moment in the week when the noise inside goes quiet. That is why counting the losses so seldom stops anyone. Underneath the next bet I often hear ‘If I win this, maybe I will finally be enough’ and ‘Do not look at me, I will sort this out on my own.’ The second voice is the dangerous one, because it keeps the whole thing secret. I want you to come before the losses are unbearable, not after.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
Meet Mark, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA, a psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist specialising in expats and international couples. I work in English and Danish, from my practice in central Copenhagen and online.
Practising since 2004, I bring a bicultural perspective to work with individuals and couples across languages and cultural contexts. My work integrates depth-oriented psychotherapy with approaches such as integral psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, Jungian psychoanalysis, and object relations theory. I also have specialist training in attachment theory, narcissism, and borderline personality disorder.
For support with life between cultures, explore expat psychotherapy or expat couples therapy. My practice is supported by ongoing training and supervision. To read more about my background, training, and approach, visit About me.
The importance of supervision
Good therapy begins with good supervision
I regularly meet with experienced senior psychotherapists in Denmark and abroad to reflect on my work, challenge my thinking, and continue developing my skills. This ongoing process supports the quality of my individual and couples therapy, helping me offer thoughtful, ethical, and effective care.
My focus is simple: excellence, integrity, and impact.
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You are welcome to get in touch. We can clarify what’s the right therapy for you.
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A typical situation
Selin is 29 and works in marketing. It began with small football bets with colleagues. Now she places live bets on matches in leagues she cannot name, often from the bathroom at work. Last month she lost what she had saved for a trip home to see her family, then took a quick loan to win it back and lost that too. She is charming and organised at work. At night she lies awake doing sums and wondering how she will explain it.
I would start with the moment just before the bet, not with the money. In our first session, Selin would probably notice that the urge peaks when she feels invisible or bored, and that the screen gives her a feeling of being in the middle of something. I would also make sure she has contacted a debt advice service, so that the practical side is in good hands while we work on her.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
This is when you need gambling addiction therapy with me
You have deleted the apps, made promises and set limits, and the pull to bet keeps coming back.
You do not have to wait for a particular moment to start gambling therapy. You do not have to lose your home or your relationship first. If you sense that betting is taking more from you than it gives, that money worries are crowding out the rest of your life, or that you are hiding more than you want to, that is enough. Nobody needs to diagnose you, and you do not need one last losing streak to qualify. Over 22 years of practice, I have learned to see when betting has turned into something that will not settle by itself.
In sessions, I will help you see what happens in you before, during and after a bet, what keeps the cycle turning and what needs to change. My professional view is that the game is answering a need, and we have to find out which one. The 6 questions below describe the signs I see most often.
Do you keep betting to win back what you have lost?
If you do, take it seriously, because this is the engine of most gambling problems. A loss feels unbearable, so the next bet becomes a way to undo it. You raise the stakes, switch games or bet on matches you know nothing about. For a moment the thought of winning it all back is a relief. Then the balance drops again, your heart races, and the loss you were trying to erase has doubled.
I would look at how often you chase, how the amounts have changed and what you feel in the minutes after a loss. That tells us whether you are in a bad patch or caught in a loop that will keep tightening. If that is you, book a session with me and bring your last few weeks of betting with you.
Do you hate what gambling is doing to you and still look forward to it?
Loathing it and longing for it can sit side by side, because each answers a different need. One part of you sees the debts, the lies and the lost sleep and wants out. Another part looks forward all day to the evening match or the moment you open the app, because it is the one place where you feel excited, hopeful and in control. You may swing from firm resolutions to small exceptions: just the big game, just a few spins, just this weekend.
I will not cast the part of you that wants to play as the villain. In psychosynthesis we see these as sub-personalities, each with its own reasons. I help you understand what the player in you is hungry for, whether it is excitement, escape, hope or a sense of being somebody, and what the part that wants to stop is protecting. The aim is not to crush one of them, but to make choices that both can live with.
Do you check scores, odds and balances again and again until you cannot settle?
Many people who gamble do. Once a bet is placed, it is hard to think about anything else. You refresh the score, check the odds, look at your balance and then check again. Silence from the screen feels unbearable, and a lost bet can leave you desperate to restore the feeling of being connected to the game. You may also check your phone for messages from someone you owe, and dread what you will find.
This constant checking is your nervous system looking for something to hold on to, and there is nothing shameful in that. What I help you change is the alarm that will not let you rest until you know the result. Together we notice what the checking is soothing, often an older fear of being left with nothing or of not counting, and you practise ways of settling that do not depend on the next outcome.
Do you want someone to know, and then hide it the moment they ask?
This is very common with gambling. Part of you longs to tell your partner, a parent or a friend, to stop carrying it alone. When they ask about money or seem worried, you feel cornered and play it down, change the subject or get angry. You may confess everything one evening and then gamble the next morning, as if the closeness was too much to bear.
I help you slow this cycle down, so we can see the exact moment the wish to be known turns into the urge to hide. Often it is set off by a tone of voice, a question about a bank statement or a memory of being shamed as a child. I understand why you protect yourself this way. I will still ask you to take responsibility when it leaves the people close to you in the dark.
Do you retreat into the game when life or people feel like too much?
For many people gambling is a private room nobody else can enter. When your partner wants to talk, when work piles up or when family obligations press in, the app on your phone offers instant distance. You stop listening, answer in short sentences and disappear into odds and outcomes. It feels like taking back control. Meanwhile the people around you feel shut out, and the pressure you escaped is still there when you look up.
My view is that you may genuinely need space, and I will not take that away from you. I help you understand what the game protects you from, so you can stay present a little longer when things get intense. You learn to ask for time alone out loud, and to take it in a way that costs you neither money nor trust. Needing space is healthy. Vanishing into a screen usually is not.
Has gambling started to decide how you see yourself?
After months or years of secrecy, it is easy to start seeing yourself as a liar, a failure or someone who cannot be trusted with money. You may have shaped your days around hiding it for so long that you hardly know what you would do with an evening free of betting. Perhaps winning once made you feel special, clever or chosen, and you have been trying to feel that again ever since. None of this means that you are bad. It means you have been coping in a way that has become very costly.
I help you separate the gambling from the person. We look at what the game has come to mean to you, what you may have inherited from your family about money, risk and luck, and what you value now. I will steer and I will push back when you talk yourself down, but I will not tell you who to be. The aim is a clearer sense of who you are and what kind of life you want, without the next bet in the middle of it.
If you are still weighing it up, request a free call, and if you already know you want to start, book a session.
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What gambling addiction therapy with me will help you do
Insight into why you bet helps, but it has to reach your thumb in the next idle moment.
Working with me, you come to understand what happens inside you as the urge to bet builds, see the patterns behind the chasing and make changes that show up in your days and your bank balance. Many people know a lot about odds and losses. Knowing why you gamble is valuable, but without a different way of handling boredom, stress, hope and loss, it rarely holds for long.
In 22 years of practice, I have found that people who gamble need a therapist who engages, not one who waits. I will say what I notice, plan the high-risk hours with you and argue with the logic of the next bet when it creeps into our conversation. The work usually covers these 6 areas.
What does the game really give you?
Together we pull apart the problem itself from the mess it has made. Debts, hiding and sleepless nights are real, yet they are the fallout, not the source. Underneath them you will usually find something the game has been meeting: a hunger for excitement, a way to escape a flat or painful mood, a hope of being rescued, or a sense of being in control in a life that feels out of control.
I keep the work structured. You will hear what I think is driving the betting, where I would begin and which beliefs are holding you in place, such as “I just need one big win and then I will stop”. Because the rush and the crash are physical, we work with your body and with patterns below awareness, not only with your thinking. Book a session with me when you are ready to look at it.
How can you notice the urge to bet before you have placed it?
You can learn to spot the early signs, and that is often where real change begins. The urge has a run-up: a quiet Sunday afternoon, a payday, a row with your partner, a message from someone about a match, a thought such as “I am due a win”. Your thumb is often moving towards the app before you have consciously decided anything. Once you can recognise the first link, you have a moment in which to choose something else.
We take a real betting session from your week and walk through it step by step: the trigger, the promise and the cost. Spotting it is the first half. The second half is rehearsing a different move, here and at home, until it is there for you on a quiet evening with your phone in your hand.
How can you ride out the rush and the crash without reaching for another bet?
Settling yourself does not mean pretending you feel nothing or white-knuckling every evening. It means staying present enough to notice the surge of excitement, or the hollow drop after a loss, and choose what to do next. Both states pass if you let them. When you know that from experience, they lose some of their power to drive you straight back to the screen.
We work on catching the surge sooner, on understanding what your body is responding to and on ways of slowing it that fit your days. This needs practice outside our sessions, alongside practical barriers such as blocking tools that a specialised service can help you set up. Short, regular practice between our meetings matters more than any single insight in the room.
How can you tell the people close to you the truth about the money?
To tell the truth about money, you first need to be clear about what you feel, what you need and what you can realistically repair. Shame and fear make this very hard. You may hide everything, admit a part and keep the rest back, or tell it all in one flood and then expect instant forgiveness. Each half-truth adds to the weight you carry, and the weight makes the next bet more likely.
I help you put it into plain, exact words, neither shrinking the losses nor dramatising them. I will challenge you when you stay silent to protect yourself, and I will also challenge you when you hand your partner the job of policing your money or your guilt. We often rehearse the real conversation, with a partner, a parent or a friend you owe, until you can say what is true without collapsing.
How can you make decisions about gambling without being ruled by panic or guilt?
It gets easier to decide once you can tell the panic of debt apart from what you really want for yourself. Do you stop completely? Do you hand over control of your accounts for a while? Who do you tell, and when? With gambling, the pressure of debt can make every choice feel urgent, so it is tempting to decide nothing and hope the next win will settle it.
We look at each option and what it would mean in practice, week by week. I will tell you what I think, including when it sounds like the gambler in you is negotiating. You make the final call. If betting is one part of a broader struggle with habits, addiction therapy looks at that wider pattern.
What does a life look like when the next bet is no longer the centre of it?
Real change shows up outside our sessions. Stopping is a start, but the real test is the cup final, the bonus at work, the bored Tuesday night and the friend who suggests a small bet on the match. You may need different routines, honest money agreements at home, new ways to find excitement, friendships that are not built around betting, and people who know what you are working on.
Some things need to change and some do not, and I help you tell which is which. Your love of risk, competition or sport is not in itself the problem. Nothing essential in you has to be cut away. What we aim for is a life you steer yourself, with clear eyes and full responsibility, where your values decide rather than the next result.
You can also send me an email
What happens when you begin gambling addiction therapy with me
Come as you are, still betting, debts unsorted and words unfound. We start with this week and with the change you want.
From the first meeting, I listen, help you describe the gambling and its cost honestly and give the work a direction. You do not need a full account of your losses or your history. Your starting point is fine as it is. I work with you, the person, and I encourage you to get practical help with debts and blocking from specialised services in parallel.
Gambling therapy sits within my psychotherapy: individual, structured work that follows the betting back into your history, your feelings and your relationships. If gambling has broken trust with your partner and they are willing to come, couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. Where the work will clearly take a while, therapy discounts and bundles lower the cost per session and give us an agreed plan.
What does the first gambling session involve?
I start by asking why you have come now, how and how often you gamble, what you have tried to stop and what you want to be different. I listen for when it began, what it seems to give you and who knows about it. I will also ask whether you have support with the practical side, such as debts. We can do useful work long before I know your whole history.
At the end, I share how I understand your gambling and what I suggest we focus on. Then it is up to you whether this approach feels right. If a conversation first would help, request a free 30-minute discovery call.
When is working one to one the right choice for gambling?
Working one to one fits when the gambling itself is the focus: the urge to bet, the feelings beneath it, your history with money and risk, and the way the habit shapes your days and relationships. That is where most gambling work starts, because the pull lives in your own nervous system. We can discuss your partner and family in depth while you come alone.
On your own with me, you get a steady thread from week to week and someone who will tell you when the story does not add up. If the betting turns out to belong to a bigger question about your life, Psychotherapy Copenhagen explains my structured individual work in full.
When is it time to bring your partner into therapy?
Couples therapy is the stronger option once the gambling has damaged the relationship enough that it needs its own repair. Gambling often leaves a partner who has found hidden loans, empty savings or years of explanations that were not true. That injury sits between the 2 of you, and rebuilding trust usually needs both people in the room. That takes far longer than one difficult talk about the bank account.
Together in the room, you can both see the pattern that has formed, often one of you checking statements and the other hiding them, take ownership of your side of it and rebuild a sense of safety. Couples therapy Copenhagen is long-term relational development and healing. Many people start with individual work on the gambling and add couples work when they are steadier.
How frequent should gambling therapy sessions be?
Pace depends on how strong the urge is, how much is at stake financially and personally, how much room you have in your life and how much continuity the work needs. In the early weeks, the gap between sessions is where the old habit tries hardest to return, especially around paydays and big sporting events.
I suggest weekly sessions to start. After a big loss or a relapse, a few sessions closer together can help, and once you are steadier I will propose spacing them out. Back-to-back sessions over a few days can be arranged if your schedule needs it.
Is a bundle sensible when money is already tight?
If you expect to need several sessions, a bundle spares you the weekly question of whether you can afford to come back. With gambling, money worries can become a reason to stop therapy just when it matters most. A planned course takes that decision off the table and protects the time for the work.
The saving is significant and the plan gives you something solid to stand on. I can help you work out which size of bundle is realistic. See therapy discounts and bundles, or the bundle cards further down this page.
When can you stop gambling therapy?
The work is done when betting has lost its grip on your choices and you can hold your course without seeing me every week. You may still notice the pull around a big match. The difference is that it no longer decides what you do with your money, your evenings or the truth.
I talk with you openly about progress and I will not keep you in therapy for its own sake. We can meet less often, pause or stop. Coming back after a slip or a difficult season does not cancel what you achieved. It shows you know how to protect it.
How it works with me
- Book your first session, or begin with a free 30-minute call. Tell me briefly how you gamble and what it is costing you, so I can check that this is the right starting point.
- Your first appointment is a 1-hour session with 50 minutes of therapy, in English or Danish, at Møntergade 4 in central Copenhagen or online. Times run from 08:00 to 21:00 Copenhagen time, 7 days a week, subject to availability.
- At first we usually meet weekly, with a simple plan for the riskiest days, such as paydays and match nights. Practical help with debts or blocking runs in parallel through specialised services.
- Every few sessions, we look honestly at what has changed, including any bets you have placed, without blame. We then agree whether to continue at the same rhythm, meet less often or end.
- Expecting several sessions? A therapy bundle saves you 10 per cent and gives the work a clear shape from the outset. You will find the bundles directly below.
Save with a prepaid session bundle
How the bundle works
- Current bundle savings are shown on the Pricing page.
- Your bundle is valid for 180 days from the date of purchase.
- The bundle can only be used for the type of session stated on your invoice.
- If you request a refund, sessions already used are recalculated at the standard single-session price.
- The administration fee applied to a bundle refund is shown on the Pricing page.
- VAT follows the type of therapy included in the bundle: VAT-exempt sessions remain VAT exempt, while VAT-liable sessions include applicable VAT.
Compare with nearby options
Unsure where to start? Here is gambling therapy next to the options closest to it.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling addiction therapy (this page) | Betting, casino games or trading apps keep pulling you back, whatever it costs. | Weekly 1-hour sessions at first |
| Addiction therapy | Your habit is mainly drinking, drugs or another behaviour rather than betting. | Weekly 1-hour sessions at first |
| Compulsive lying therapy | Lying has spread well beyond money and is damaging trust everywhere. | 1-hour sessions at a steady pace |
| Couples therapy | Your partner has found out and you both want to rebuild trust together. | One 2-hour session every few weeks |
Frequently asked questions
What is gambling addiction therapy with you?
Gambling addiction therapy with me is individual psychotherapy for adults who cannot stop betting, whether on sport, casino games, poker or trading apps. It focuses on why you gamble: the feelings the game manages, where that need began and what keeps you chasing. It is not debt counselling or financial advice, which belong with specialised services. Sessions are in English or Danish, at my practice in central Copenhagen or online, and nobody else needs to know you are coming.
My approach is integrative and in depth: I work with you as a whole person, including your feelings, body, relationships and family inheritance, not only with the betting. Gambling therapy is part of my addiction therapy, which covers other habits as well.
At what point should I see you about my betting?
Come when betting is costing you money you cannot afford, sleep, honesty or peace of mind, or when you have tried to stop and keep going back. You do not have to wait for a crisis or a final big loss. Your own doubt about it is enough of a reason.
Across 22 years of practice, I have come to watch how often people chase losses, whether the amounts are rising and how much you are hiding. If any of that is growing, it deserves proper attention now. Many people carry this alone for a long time, and my article on struggling in silence describes how heavy that can become.
Can therapy really help me stop gambling?
Yes, often it can. Therapy can help you understand what the game does for you, change how you respond to the urge and build a life that needs it less. I cannot promise how quickly that will happen, or that you will never feel the pull again, and I do not offer quick fixes. What I offer is steady, serious work on the reasons rather than only the rules.
In my clinical experience, people who gamble are often bright, energetic and good at reading situations, and the game has hijacked those strengths. I would focus with you on the moments before the bet, the hope you attach to winning and the feelings you are trying not to feel when you lose.
Can you help me with my debts as well?
No, not directly. Debts, creditors, budgets and blocking tools are practical matters for specialised debt and gambling advice services, and I encourage you to contact one alongside our work. Getting that support often brings enough calm for therapy to do its part.
My role is to work with you, the person behind the debts. We look at what drives the gambling, how you relate to money and risk, and how you can face the practical consequences without being swallowed by shame. When the money side feels unbearable, that is usually exactly when the urge to bet is strongest, so we work on that together.
Why do I want my partner to know, and then lie when they ask?
Wanting to tell and needing to hide both come from the search for safety. Part of you wants to be known and helped. Another part is used to handling everything alone and feels exposed the moment someone gets close. A simple question about money can feel like an accusation, so you deflect, and then feel worse. It does not make you a bad person. It is self-protection that has outlived its usefulness.
I help you spot the moment you switch from wanting to tell to needing to hide, and what that switch costs you and your partner. Then we practise something steadier: telling the truth in a way you can sustain, asking for support without handing over all responsibility, and letting someone in at a pace you can bear.
What will you ask me about my gambling the first time we meet?
We open with the present. I ask how you gamble, how often, what it gives you and what it takes, and what you have tried so far. I ask a little about your history and your family, because attitudes to money and risk often have a past. By the end, you will have my first understanding, a proposed direction and a clear suggestion about practical support for the financial side.
You do not need to prepare a list of debts or find the right words. If you arrive full of shame, we will make room for that first. Whenever you are ready, book your first session, or start with a free discovery call if that feels easier.
How long will I need to come for gambling therapy?
Expect several months of weekly work rather than a handful of talks. The first months are when the urge is strongest and the triggers, such as paydays and big matches, keep coming round. A pattern that has been with you for years, or that is tied to older pain, usually needs longer.
From 22 years of practice, my advice is to agree a first block of sessions and then take stock honestly. At that point we decide together whether you carry on, ease off or finish.
Should I come to you, or join a group or a gambling helpline?
Seeing me individually suits you if you want to dig into what drives the betting, privately and at your own speed, with a therapist who comes to know your story. Helplines, peer groups and debt advice services are valuable alongside our work, and many people use them in parallel. They are not a competition.
These sessions are part of my psychotherapy practice, held in English or Danish, face to face in central Copenhagen or online. If you cannot tell which kind of help to start with, a free call is a good place to sort that out.
What does gambling therapy with you cost?
Gambling therapy is booked as individual psychotherapy: 1-hour appointments with 50 minutes of therapy. My prices page shows the current price. I invoice, and you pay by bank transfer.
A bundle saves 10 per cent and gives you a structured plan, which can matter when money is already tight. You will find the options on therapy discounts and bundles. If you pay by same-day transfer from a Danish bank account, you save a further 3 per cent.
How do I book gambling therapy with you?
Choose a time on my booking page, or request a free 30-minute discovery call if you would like to speak first. Either way, you can tell me briefly how you gamble and what it is costing you.
If no slot works for you, or a big loss has left you in acute distress, contact me directly. I keep space for acute situations, usually a time within days. Book, and we will take it from there.
You can also send me an email
My approach and values
My mission
My mission is to help individuals, couples and families rediscover connection, communicate with understanding, and build a stronger, more loving relationship that can thrive through any challenge.
My vision
My vision is to create a world where every person in my therapy room feels supported, connected, and empowered to grow, and to step one step closer to your Self.
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