How we work
Youth Talk has helped thousands of young people through tough times for over 25 years.
Right now, we are more determined than ever that every young person has professional support when they need it.
This is how our service works:
There are six steps:
Step 1 – You contact Youth Talk
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.
Step 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. They will then call and offer you an Initial Consultation meeting with a counsellor. Depending on your availability we try to offer an initial consultation (IC) as soon as possible (ideally within 2-4 weeks of you making contact with us)
Step 3 – Your first meeting (Initial Consultation)
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 https://youthtalk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/YT-fair-processing-notice-July-2023.pdf. 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.
If you’d like to know what the Youth Talk offices look like – we will soon have a virtual tour here for you to take a look around.
Step 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.
Step 5 – Starting your Individual counselling or group 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.
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 – please read more about groups https://youthtalk.org.uk/help-for-you/group-therapy/. Group therapy is run at the same time and day every week.
Step 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.
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 as well as a section for parents on this website. You might like to share it with them – it provides information about what we do, how the counselling works and how they can best help you.
If you would like support from your parents/guardians with arranging appointments only, then please advise the reception team.
We are a charity
We need donations and support form our local community to keep supporting young people. If you know of someone that could support us or fundraise for us, please do contact us.
Without Youth Talk things would have continued to spiral and would have had no motivation to do any work for school or potentially even go to school
