About this course

Behavioural addiction shares similarities with substance-related addiction but it concerns a rewarding activity, such as gambling or gaming. This webinar presents an overview of the growing field of behavioural addiction and discusses why certain behaviours are considered addictions. It summarises influential models and theories, shedding light on the psychology of addictive behaviour, and warning against the danger of pathologizing common behaviours. As the treatment for behavioural addiction is evolving, the webinar focuses on the evidence-based treatment for gambling harms, the first officially recognised form of behavioural addiction.

The National Gambling Clinic (NGC) and Central and North West London (CNWL) NHS Foundation Trust have offered evidence-based treatment for gambling harms since 2008. With the need for a public health approach to gambling harms being increasingly recognised (Goyder, Blank, Baxter, & van Schalkwyk, 2020), the NHS now funds treatment for those experiencing such harms across England.  This webinar presents the service model developed at the NGC, the first NHS clinic treating gambling harms.

It also presents the CBT treatment protocol adapted and refined by the clinic over the years. The CBT protocol, published in a self-help book (Bowden-Jones & Leonidaki, 2022), is at the heart of the treatment programme.  Delivered by a leading clinical psychologist, this training event also explains the role of integrating systemic and relational factors in the treatment of gambling harms. The treatment principles presented here may be relevant, at least to some extent, to other forms of behavioural addiction. 

This course is free to CNWL staff. Please contact us on cnwl.step-up@nhs.net before booking for more details.

Skills You will Learn

After the course, attendees are expected to be able to:

  • Recognise the signs, harms, and shared mechanisms of behaviours falling into the remit of behavioural addiction 
  • Identify the main types of gambling and assess the extent to which gambling has become harmful
  • Explain the cognitive, behavioural, relational, systemic and contextual factors underpinning gambling harms and behavioural addictions
  • Offer practical tools (e.g. stimulus control; motivation interviewing) to help with early change 
  • Understand what a typical course of treatment for gambling harms includes and how to transfer existing CBT and psychotherapeutic skills to work with this client group

 

Target audience

This course is suitable for psychologist practitioners working in primary care/mental health/substance use/forensic/CAMHS settings and private practice, who would like to enrich their knowledge in the area of behavioural addiction and develop relevant skills. It will also be beneficial for a range of professionals working in similar settings, including psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, drug workers, CAMHS/ youth workers, cognitive behavioural therapists and psychotherapists. It is highly recommended that attendees have generic therapeutic competencies and basic CBT competencies before attending this course.

 

References

 

  • Goyder, E., Blank, L., Baxter, S., & van Schalkwyk, M. (2020), Tackling gambling related harms as a public health issue. The Lancet, 5 (1), e14–15

 

Dates

20 November 2025

Time

03:00 pm - 05:00 pm

Duration

2 Hours

Setting

Zoom Webinar

Profession

  • Any Health Care Professional

Cost

£25

Understanding behavioural addictions and treating gambling harms

£25.00


The trainer

Dr Venetia Leonidaki is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the National Centre for Behavioural Addictions, which forms part of the Central and North West (CNWL) London Foundation NHS Trust.

Dr Leonidaki is a BABCP-accredited and BPC-accredited supervisor. She acts as a visiting lecturer teaching about gambling, and behavioural addiction to training programs across the country. She has also delivered webinars and workshops on the above topics to psychological professionals via the British Psychological Society and the National Centre for Behavioural Addiction. She is a co-editor of “Breaking Free: How to Stop Gambling”, a self-help CBT book for those affected by gambling harms.

Dr Leonidaki has published peer-reviewed articles and chapters on addiction and psychotherapy research and presented at various conferences.

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Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, DL is a Consultant Psychiatrist specialised in Addiction Psychiatry. She was appointed NHS England’s first ever National Clinical Advisor on Gambling Harms in September 2022 and is a regular advisor to the UK government on matters relating to gambling disorder, gaming disorder and mental health, She has been employed by the same NHS Trust (CNWL NHS Trust) for the past twenty-five years and is the Founder and Director of two national clinics which she leads clinically in parallel with her research and advisory roles.​​​​​​​

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Owen Baily developed a gambling addiction when he was a teenager following a difficult childhood and following treatment in 2011 at the National Gambling Clinic has since been rebuilding his life without gambling. Today, he  is a well known and respected Gambling Harms Specialist and for the past 15 years has used his insights to influence Gambling Policy, Research and Treatment and is a relentless champion and advocate for the empowerment and inclusion of those with Lived Experience of Gambling Harms.

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Jenny Cousins is a family systemic psychotherapist with over 20 years working in addictions and 15 years working with families affected by gambling harm. She has worked at the National Gambling Clinic since it opened and now currently shares her time between there and the East of England Gambling Clinic.


Andrew Bayston is a CBT therapist at the National Gambling Clinic.