Off the Record (OTR) has been supporting young people's mental health since 1994. We started out offering free counselling to 14–25 year olds in Croydon, and we've been growing ever since.

Today, we work across Croydon, Merton and Sutton, offering a wide range of free services — including counselling in person and online, mental health support in schools, specialist support for young refugees and young carers, and more.

We Believe That You:

• Have the right to be respected and valued, whoever you are
• Have the right to make choices and decisions about your own life
• Have the potential to live a vibrant and fulfilling life

You Can Expect Us to:

• Keep what you share with us private and confidential
• Listen to you in a way that feels genuinely helpful and supportive
• Work hard to earn your trust — not just expect it
• Respect your wishes, values and beliefs
• Be honest, clear and friendly
• Give you as much choice as we can
• Work alongside you, not just tell you what to do
• Support and challenge you to be the best version of yourself

We're committed to making our services fully accessible to everyone. That means actively working to remove barriers and reach young people who might find it harder to get in touch with us.

Read Our Accessibility Strategy

We're an organisational member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and follow their Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions. Our counselling is rooted in a humanistic model, drawing on person-centred, cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic, existential and other approaches — to support you in the way that works best for you.

Read the BACP Ethical Framework