Are you worried about your mental health, or a young person’s mental health, but don’t know where to start? Would you like to talk to a qualified therapist without having to join a waiting list or get a GP referral? Would you like some advice on next steps? We can help.

At Priory, we’re pleased to offer adults and young people (over the age of 11) fast access to a mental health therapist. During the session, one of our experienced professionals will be able to explore your mental health concerns, and make a recommendation for the best treatment pathway for you. This enables eligible clients to get the help they need, fast.

The sessions are delivered virtually, at a time that’s convenient for you, and are available to self-paying clients.

What are the benefits of gaining fast access to a therapist?

Gaining fast access to a therapist offers a number of benefits. It means that eligible clients can:

• Speak to a mental health professional, quickly and easily
• Receive support in identifying a suitable type of therapy for their needs
• Receive a recommendation for any further mental health support

This is all possible without the need for a GP referral, without having to join a waiting list, and without having to pay for a psychiatric assessment as a first step to accessing our services.

What happens during the session?

Unlike a more formal therapy or consultant assessment, the session won’t provide a diagnosis or treatment for your mental health concerns. Rather, it will allow us to develop an understanding of the challenges you’re currently facing, and provide a recommendation for next steps based on what’s right for you. This could include direct access to talking therapy and counselling, including psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This could be delivered face-to-face or online.

We’ll also develop a personalised report following the session, detailing everything that we talked about, and listing our recommendations for further support.

Below, you can find out more about gaining fast access to a Priory therapist, and what this looks like for adults and young people.

Getting started

Call us

The first step in the process is for you to call our friendly team on 0330 056 6020. We will be able to outline how you can gain fast access to a therapist and check whether this is something you’d be interested in.

Eligibility questions

If you’re interested in gaining fast access to a therapist, the next step will be for our team to run through some simple eligibility questions with you. This will only take a few minutes and can be done over the phone during this initial call.

Referral

If the therapist session is suitable for you, we’ll refer you to one of our specialist sites, who will be in touch to arrange your session.

If, for whatever reason, the therapist session isn’t the most suitable for you, we can help you with next steps and we will support you with accessing the service that best suits your needs.

Therapist session

For adults, your therapist will be able to identify the issue(s) you’re presenting with. We can use this, as well as any other information you provide during the session, to make a recommendation for further treatment.

After the session, we’ll provide you with a personalised report outlining everything that was discussed, as well as our recommendations.

For young people, the young people’s therapist session will be split into two parts. During the first part, we’ll speak to the young person on their own, and during the second part, we’ll speak to the young person and their parent(s)/carer(s).

During the session, the therapist will be able to identify the presenting issue(s). We can use this, as well as any other information provided during the session, to make a recommendation for further treatment. This may be therapy, psychiatry or a specialist assessment such as an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment.

After the session, we’ll provide a report outlining everything that was discussed, as well as our recommendations for onward treatment.

Treatment

You’ll then be able to gain access to the treatment that’s been recommended for you, delivered by our Priory network. If you wish, we can support you with accessing either face-to-face or remote therapy, as recommended.

Crisis care

If you feel you are in crisis and need immediate support, our crisis information page has free resources that may be helpful.