Our trained experts provide one-to -one counselling and group therapy, ensuring your conversations remain confidential. Whatever you're dealing with, we're here to listen and help you through it.
Types of support
Group therapy
Our group therapy sessions bring young people together in a safe and supportive space. It’s a chance to talk about how you’re feeling, hear from others, and realise that others may be going through similar things too.
Individual counselling
At Youth Talk, we use a type of counselling called psychodynamic therapy. That might sound a bit technical, but it simply means we help you make sense of what’s going on for you – including how your past experiences might be shaping how you feel and react today.
Tell me more
To access our service you need to:
- Be between 13 year and up to 25 years of age (referrals accepted up to 24th birthday)
- Live, go to school/college or work in St Albans District (which includes Harpenden).
- Be available for a potential appointment between 10am and 7pm Monday-Thursday, and 10am-5pm Friday and Saturday
To get started, we need to hear from you directly – even if a parent or carer is supporting you, the first step needs to come from you.
You can do that quickly and easily by either: filling in our online referral form, calling us, or droping us an email.
We try to offer an initial meeting with one of our counsellors within around two weeks so we can understand what’s going on and whether Youth Talk is the right support for you. If counselling feels like the right next step, we’ll then match you with one of our counsellors.
How quickly this happens can depend on your availability. Young people who can attend at a range of times during the week are often able to start sooner, while those who are only available at specific times may wait a little longer until the right session becomes available. We’ll always keep you updated and do our best to offer support as quickly as possible.
Referring yourself personally to us is an important part of getting access to our service.
There are 3 ways you can get in touch with us, either fill in our online form, pick up the phone or drop us an email:
It must be you, not your parent/guardians etc that get in contact.
Yes. What you talk about in counselling is private and confidential. Our counsellors provide a safe space where you can speak openly about what’s worrying you without fear of being judged.
There are a small number of situations where we may need to share information if we believe you or someone else is at serious risk of harm. If this ever happened, we would always aim to talk with you about it first and support you through the next steps.
Referring yourself personally to us is an important part of getting access to our service.
There are 3 ways you can get in touch with us, either fill in our online form, pick up the phone or drop us an email:
It must be you, not your parent/guardians etc that get in contact.
Our service covers the St Albans and District area which includes Harpenden and surrounding villages.
How we work
1 Get in touch
To get access to our service you will need to contact us yourself. This is called self referral and is an important part of how we work because it keeps you in control. Just fill in our referral form or send us an email info@youthtalk.org.uk or give us a call 01727 868684.
2 Getting an appointment
Our reception team are friendly and very experienced in helping young people, they will contact you following your referral to check any details, explain the process to you and ensure you have information about the service.
3 Your first meeting
Appointments are 50 mins long and will be with one of our experienced counsellors. It will be face to face or via Zoom. When you meet, the counsellor will explain more about how we work and answer any initial questions you have. It’s your chance to tell them why you got in touch and what you want to achieve. We’ll also explain our data sharing policy (we have to do this) – you can download a copy of the policy here.
If you are offered Zoom we ask that you have a private space to do this meeting or we can provide a zoom hub room at Youth Talk, if you need/prefer this.
4 Finding the perfect match
Youth Talk offers Individual counselling and group therapy. If Youth Talk is the right service for you we will then put you onto our waiting list. Currently there is a 3/4 month waiting list for individual counselling but the more availability you have the easier it will be to match you. Group therapy waiting times may be shorter. Please be aware that it may be a different counsellor from your first meeting. As soon as we can confirm your first session, we’ll contact you with more details. Being flexible and having good availability may help you to get a counselling appointment more swiftly.
5 Counselling and therapy
Individual counselling – Your counselling will take place at the same time and day with the same counsellor every week. After your first four sessions we can review how things are going. Together we can decide if things are going well and if it would be good to continue. If you and your counsellor think it would be good to continue, you can keep meeting at the same time and day each week. Find out more here.
Group therapy – You will be asked to attend one term of group therapy and then review if this is for you. Each group has 2 counsellors and no more than 6-8 young people. Group therapy is run at the same time and day every week. Find out more here.
6 Moving on from Youth Talk
When you and your counsellor feel you are ready you can talk about when and how to finish your counselling with us. We never just stop the sessions without talking it through with you first.
Explore our counselling centre
What about my parents?
Your counselling is confidential between you and Youth Talk. We do not talk to parents/guardians about any of our clients.
We have a fact sheet for parents/guardians, it provides information about what we do, how the counselling works and how they can best help you. Click below to download if you’d like to share it with them.
Whether you’re a parent or a professional, we have lots of information available to help you help someone else.