Class Description
Gambling disorder doesn’t just affect the gambler, it can deeply impact partners and relationships through secrecy, financial infidelity, and betrayal trauma. This class offers a practical, research-informed guide for clinicians working with individuals, partners, and couples affected by disordered gambling. Since 2002 of clinical experience and recent affected-other research, we’ll lay out a clear, phase-based roadmap for healing and long-term recovery. Participants will learn how to assess partner-specific harms, support safe and complete disclosure (and prevent “trickle-truth” retraumatization), reduce emotional flooding, and rebuild trust through safety, empathy, transparency, and accountability. Real case examples and ready-to-use tools will show how to set healthy boundaries, protect finances, and restore connection so couples can move from crisis toward lasting repair.
Learning Objectives
- Identify three key ways partners are impacted by disordered gambling
- Recognize three types of financial consequences experienced by gambling partners
- Define flooding and describe three potential outcomes when one or both partners are flooded
- Understand four types of boundaries that help spouses build a sense of safety and security
- Learn three essential steps in repairing betrayal with couples
Educational Goals
- Enhance clinical understanding of the multifaceted impact of gambling disorder on partners and couples
- Expand competency in recognizing and addressing betrayal trauma within couples
- Strengthen clinician capacity to deliver trauma-informed interventions for affected partners
- Improve practitioner skills in facilitating trust repair and relational healing
- Promote evidence-based, phase-oriented treatment approaches for couples impacted by gambling disorder
Outline
- Introduction: Impact of Gambling Disorder on Partners & Relationships (10 min.)
- Understanding Betrayal Trauma & Emotional Flooding (15 min.)
- Assessment Phase: Identifying Partner-Specific Harms (15 min.)
- Stabilization Phase: Safety, Coping, and Boundary Setting (20 min.)
- Couples Treatment: Cycles, Flooding Management & Communication Repair (15 min.)
- Betrayal Repair Phases & Long-Term Recovery Roadmap (15 min.)