Can I sign up for my child?

It’s great that you want to support your child to access support, but it really is better if you support them to sign up themselves, rather than doing it for them. Please encourage them to use their own email address and phone number, so they get used to interacting with us themselves from the start. This enables your child to know it is their own private counselling space and have confidence to use it to communicate with their counsellor. You can help by reminding them to log in and check their messages.

Your Child's Confidentiality

Parents and carers can have a really important role in supporting their young person to access help when they need it. But it is important that the actual chat page, where they have their sessions, is private to them. Everything your child shares with our online support service is strictly private between them and Off the Record and will only ever be shared with someone else (like parents or someone like a teacher or doctor) if we believe they may be at risk of serious harm themselves, or that others may be at risk of harm.

At a young person’s first appointment we talk with them about our Confidentiality Policy and our Counselling Agreement. It can be helpful for parents and carers to also read these with their young person and help ensure that they understand them.

Emergency Help

Off the Record is not an emergency service and your child’s counsellor may not see their messages outside of the weekly session time. We encourage parents, carers and young people to be aware of where they can access immediate support in a crisis. You can find information about support services and staying safe here: www.talkofftherecord.org/need-help-now/.

Counselling Sessions

We usually offer 6 counselling sessions. We offer young people the choice between:

• Live-Chat Counselling: a 50-minute live weekly session, at the same time every week.
• Message-Based Counselling: a young person can log in to read and write messages at any time during the week, and will receive a weekly response from their counsellor at the same time each week.

Whichever type of support they choose, all the counselling on this site takes place in writing, via written messages between the young person and their counsellor.

Support for Parents and Carers

We know that when your child is having a difficult time, it can be a tough time for parents and carers as well. Young Minds has some useful support for parents, including a parent helpline. To access this support visit Young Minds.

We also regularly run workshops for parents and carers, including ‘Support for Parents/Carers of Young People who struggle to get to School’ and ‘Self Harm support for Parents/Carers’. Click here to see our full range of workshops for parents.

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