About us
At Talk Well we’re here to support children and young people aged 9-25 and their families living in Gloucestershire.
You're not alone.
We're here for you.
Talk Well started life in 1993, becoming a registered charity with the Charity Commission in 1994, serving Gloucestershire and surrounding areas. Talk Well reaches hundreds of children and young people every year as well as offering support and advice to parents/carers and training for professionals. We work to ensure that every young person has easy, prompt, independent access to appropriate support according to their needs.
Talk Well has a head office in Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire and additional offices in central Gloucester; Counselling spaces are located throughout the County and staff and volunteers are a mixture of office and home-based, working across the County. We strive to ensure young people, parents and families feel accepted, safe & valued, so that they can say what’s on their mind, and feel they are really listened to without the fear of being judged. We work with young people to help them build resilience and give them strategies to cope with situations they might be facing.
Our mission statement
Talk Well's mission is to improve, preserve and promote good mental health and wellbeing among children, young people and their families
Our vision
Every young person should have someone to talk to when they need it most.
You might know us as TIC+ or Teens in Crisis
We became Talk Well on 14 April 2025. Find out why we’ve changed our name:
Our values
The Talk Well Senior Leadership Team has defined a set of values which represent the core beliefs that inspire and guide the choices we make, how we operate and how we interact with people:
We're here
We offer non-judgemental support
We communicate openly, honestly and respectfully
We take time to understand
We're accessible and responsive
We care
We value everyone as unique individuals
We show appreciation
We create safe spaces
We are kind, supportive, warm and friendly
We help change lives
We support everyone to reach their full potential
We build relationships that matter
We offer hope
We are passionate about getting the best outcomes
We keep moving forward
We listen, learn and grow to make things better
We seek new ways of working
We embrace collaboration
We use our funding wisely
About our counselling team
At Talk Well our counsellors are carefully selected because of their passion for the work that they do and for their specialist experience in working with children, young people and families. We work to a strict code of ethics and practise to ensure the safety of those we support and the quality and effectiveness of our services.
The majority of our counsellors are trained to deliver Humanistic/Integrative counselling, some have additional specialisms such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Brief/Solution Focussed Therapy. At its heart, a humanistic approach means the counsellor will provide a safe, confidential, non-judgemental space where young people can share freely whatever concerns they have no matter how big or how small. The end goal is to help young people better understand their thoughts and emotions, and in collaboration with their counsellor find ways of addressing their difficulties so that they are better able to cope with the issues they face.
Professional partnerships
Talk Well, formerly known as Teens in Crisis or TIC+, has been providing counselling services and support to children, young people and their families in Gloucestershire since 1993. Over this time we have built up a reputation as a caring, professional and flexible organisation and are committed to inter-agency working. Each year we receive hundreds of referrals from statutory and voluntary sector professionals across Gloucestershire and surrounding areas. Since 2013 we have had a formal mutual referral pathway with Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
If you think a young person you know might benefit from our service, have a talk with them and make sure you have their consent.
Please note: we make a charge to professionals directly referring children and young people to our service. We are only able to accept referrals via telephone and online chat.
Benefits of working with Talk Well
BACP
Our children and young people’s counselling service is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). We work within their the BACP Ethical Framework for the counselling professions. All of our counsellors are registered members of BACP.
Effectiveness of counselling
We use a selection of outcome measures to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the services we provide. Results from the past 12 months show that 82% of our service users reported a decrease in their level of distress after counselling, 90% said that the counselling had helped them ‘a lot’ ‘or totally’.
Supervision
All of our counsellors receive regular supervision with a qualified clinical supervisor to ensure their practise remains at a high standard, is safe, ethical and effective.
Ongoing training
At Talk Well, we pride ourselves on the quality of our staff. All therapeutic staff are fully qualified to at least Counselling Diploma level (a minimum of 450 taught contact hours). All counsellors have received specialist training which meets BACP core competencies for working with children and young people. Those working online have received specialist online counselling training. Our counselling team also receive regular ongoing training to support their professional development.
Our ethos
Talk Well is a Christian-led charity that is not affiliated to any particular denomination, church or group. We provide services to anyone of any faith (or none), and we employ staff from any faith (or none). As an organisation, we believe that the Christian faith provides the foundation and motivation for the work of the charity and is the reason why we do what we do. Our mission to improve, preserve and promote good mental health and well-being amongst children, young people and families is borne from Jesus’ words; “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
The Christian faith is never made explicit in any of the services we provide. An outworking of our Christian ethos means that we expect all representatives of the charity to treat everyone equally, with care and respect regardless of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic background, beliefs, status, ability or class. The ethos is given life through our relationships; the way we work together and behave with one another and those we serve, are a demonstration and authentication of our ethos.
Who we work with
"I honestly don't know where I'd be without you. You're amazing."