• Home
• What we do
• Counselling
• Counselling at OTR

Counselling at OTR

Counselling at OTR

For all the locations in Bristol listed on the left the contact details are the same:

Call us: 0808 808 9120
Text us: 0789 688 0011
Email us: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

You can find a map for our city centre service at the bottom of this page.

Our counselling service is self-referring: this means that we would like to speak to you directly if you want to use the service. If you feel a bit nervous about calling us you can get someone to ring up for you the first time, but we will need to speak to you before we book you an appointment. Don’t worry – we are all very friendly!

We'll need to have a quick chat with you before we can arrange for you to come here. We want to make sure that this is the right service for you, so we'll normally chat a bit with you about what you can expect from us and ask you a little bit about yourself. We will ask for your full name, age, date of birth, postcode and a contact telephone number. Once that is all done we’ll then contact you as soon as there is a counsellor available.

What Happens Next?

We will contact you when there is a session free and book you in if you are happy with that time. You will then have that session at the same time each week.

Waiting Times

Off the Record (Bristol) is a unique service locally, offering FREE self-referral counselling/therapy to young people aged 11-25 in the city. Demand for our service is always very high, and as a small charity with limited funding and a small number of staff and volunteers, there is always a wait for our services. This can vary, but it means you will sometimes have to wait several weeks for an appointment.

We do understand that once you've made the decision to go for counselling, it's really hard to have to wait a long time. Please know that we do our utmost to keep waiting to a minimum, but it is sometimes beyond our control.

As part of that process, please be aware that as someone using our service you can help us keep waiting times to a minimum. You can help us by:

• providing accurate contact information;
• letting us know if your circumstances change, particularly changes in your availability and contact details;
• answering our calls and/or returning the messages/texts we send;
• being as flexible as you can be about when you can attend appointments
• attending your appointments as arranged and avoiding cancelling appointments at short notice or not showing up at all and without any warning.

All these things will help us keep waiting to a minimum. We do understand that sometimes life gets in the way and it is unavoidable that you need to cancel a session. However, please be mindful that if you cancel a session or simply don’t show up, the wait for those not yet accessing counselling is made longer.

What happens if I can’t make my counselling session?

If you do not attend your first appointment, we will assume you have changed your mind and the appointment will be given to someone else. You can always contact us again if you want to have counselling, but you might have to wait for another appointment.

Counselling works best if you attend all your sessions regularly, but we know that sometimes it's impossible not to miss one if there is an emergency or you are unwell, for example. Please ring us as soon as you can if you think you are going to miss a session. If we don’t hear from you by 12pm the day after your session, we will assume you no longer want the sessions and give them to someone else.

Counselling at Off the Record is confidential.

Find our city centre base! 2 Horfield Road, St Michael's Hill, BS2 8EA

 

View Larger Map

Downloads

OTR Counselling @ Barton Hill Poster
OTR Counselling @ Lawrence Weston Poster
OTR Counselling @ Lockleaze Poster
OTR Counselling @ Withywood Poster
OTR Counselling @ Knowle West Poster