Need Help?
Call 0421 206 918
Get in Touch
When gaming stops being a choice and starts running the day, the problem is rarely the games themselves. Hypnotherapy works on what the gaming is doing for you — so that balance comes back without the fight.
Games are built to be compelling, and they are very good at it: achievement, progress, social belonging, escape, constant stimulation. None of that is a character flaw, and enjoying games is not a problem. It becomes one when the hours start costing sleep, study, work or the people around you, and stopping no longer feels like something you can simply decide to do.
Usually the gaming is meeting a real need that isn’t being met elsewhere — connection, competence, relief from stress or anxiety, somewhere predictable to go when the rest of life isn’t. That is the part we work on, because taking the games away without addressing the need underneath them rarely holds. Here is how hypnotherapy works if it is new to you.
Gaming disorder is a recognised clinical diagnosis, and this is a non-clinical service — we don’t diagnose it or treat it medically. Where compulsive gaming sits alongside depression, severe anxiety, or thoughts of self-harm, please start with your GP or a psychologist. We will say so honestly if that is what we think you need, and we are glad to work alongside them.
For young people aged 5 to 25, Kids Helpline is free, confidential and open 24 hours on 1800 55 1800. In a crisis at any age, Lifeline is 13 11 14, or call 000.
Clients under 18 are very welcome, with a parent or guardian’s consent. We ask a parent or guardian to be part of the free consult and the first session, and we talk through with everyone what stays private between the young person and their therapist.
Free 20-minute consults can be booked by phone, text or message — parents are welcome to call on behalf of a young person
Most people don’t come to us about the gaming. They come about what it has started to cost.
Late nights become chronic fatigue, and the tiredness makes everything else harder — which makes gaming the easiest thing left to do. Sleep is often the first thing worth fixing.
Online friendships are real friendships, and we don’t dismiss them. The trouble is when they are the only ones left, and going out starts to feel harder than it used to.
Deadlines missed, assignments abandoned, performance quietly sliding. The guilt that follows tends to send people straight back to the one place they feel competent.
Gaming is often doing a job: muting anxiety, filling a gap, offering control when nothing else does. Work on the need and the hours tend to look after themselves.
Long sessions mean sitting for hours, sore necks and backs, tired eyes, and meals that get skipped or eaten at the desk. Small changes here lift mood more than people expect.
Arguments about screen time wear everyone down, and they rarely change anything. Households usually settle once the underlying pull eases rather than being policed.
Call or text Stella on 0421 206 918, or send a message and we’ll come back to you.
Compulsive gaming is held in place by subconscious reward patterns, emotional avoidance and, often, a sense of identity — being good at something, belonging to a team, being known. Conscious reasoning struggles against all three, which is why rules and confiscated consoles so rarely work and so often damage the relationship instead.
Spiro Apostolopoulos and Stella Jones are Clinical Hypnotherapists, Strategic Psychotherapists and NLP Master Practitioners, and have worked with Canberrans on habits and addictions since 2012. We work on the pull itself, meet the underlying need another way, and build a life where the offline parts feel worth showing up for. Meet Spiro and Stella →
Your first session starts with a private conversation about your history, your triggers and what you want to be different. From there your therapist guides you into a deeply relaxed but alert state, where the subconscious is far more open to change. We identify the patterns driving the behaviour, reframe them, and strengthen your own sense of control.
Each session builds on the last. You leave with practical tools and a recorded audio for use in between, and secure online sessions are available anywhere in Australia. See what to expect from your first visit →
Call or text Stella on 0421 206 918, or send a message and we’ll come back to you.
Yes. The World Health Organization lists gaming disorder in the ICD-11, and the DSM-5 includes internet gaming disorder as a condition warranting further study. Diagnosing it is a clinical matter and not something we do here — but whether or not it meets a diagnostic threshold, gaming that is costing you sleep, study, work or relationships is real and worth addressing.
Often, yes — with their agreement. Hypnotherapy is non-invasive and young people generally take to it well, but it works with willing participation rather than on someone who has been marched in. Where a young person genuinely doesn’t want to be there, we will tell you that honestly rather than take your money.
For clients under 18 we need a parent or guardian’s consent, and we ask a parent or guardian to be part of the free consult and the first session. We also agree up front what stays private between the young person and their therapist, because that trust is what makes the work possible.
Often it isn’t, or not in the way it looks. For a lot of neurodivergent people gaming is genuine regulation — predictable, absorbing, low on social demand, and one of the few places executive function actually cooperates. Stripping it away without replacing what it does tends to make everything worse.
Our practice is neuro-affirming, with a working understanding of profiles such as PDA (a persistent drive for autonomy), alexithymia, interoception differences and rejection sensitivity. We look at what the gaming is regulating before we look at the hours, and nothing about how your brain works is treated as the fault.
Then you game. The goal isn’t abstinence and we are not anti-gaming — it’s choice. Playing because you want to, stopping when you mean to, and having the rest of your life feel worth turning up for as well.
Many clients notice meaningful shifts within three to six sessions. It depends on what the gaming is doing for you — where it is covering anxiety or low mood, that part takes its own time. You will get an honest view at your free consult.
No. This is a non-clinical service — we don’t diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Where compulsive gaming sits alongside depression, anxiety or social difficulties that need clinical care, we work alongside your GP or psychologist rather than in place of them, and we will say so if that is what we think you need.
Yes. Secure online sessions are available anywhere in Australia and are as effective as being in the room. For a client who finds leaving the house difficult, that is often the easiest way to start.
Call Stella for a free 20-minute consult — no obligation, no lectures about screen time, and parents are welcome to call first.
Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 6:00pm · 42 Geils Court, Deakin ACT 2600 · online Australia-wide
We're confident you'll benefit from hypnotherapy, so we'd like to offer you a free 20-minute discovery call to see if it feels right for you.
Prefer to speak with someone? Call 0421 206 918
