Merseycare - Liverpool

jodie C.

This place should be called CBT Liverpool… not Talk Liverpool. Back in 2021 I had 10 sessions of talk therapy with Talk Liverpool and it was amazing. I felt so much better getting things off my chest that had been bothering me for most of my life. Then during 2022 I felt my depression return. I asked Talk Liverpool for more sessions of talking therapy. They said they didn’t do it anymore and offered me an app to do CBT and I was so disappointed. Then during 2023 I give birth to my baby and I have been suffering with postnatal depression since and what did they offer me. CBT again. I don’t know if this place is underfunded but it seriously needs to sort itself out. Because you are not helping people at all. Will never use this place again.

g G.

Talk Liverpool should be ashamed of themselves they phoned social services on me coz I smoke cannabis which I have for 25 years , I only needed to talk to someone about mental health and this is what they did to me be carefull how u speak to these people , I received a call from social services and they told me they didn’t know why they put the referral in in the first place , no further action taking , messed with my mental health even more while I was waiting for that phone call from social services shame on yous people only needed to talk to someone and yous failed me

Ying Z.

I feel sorry for other users and staff who work for this place as the service seems to be really stretched and severely underfunded. One therapist who said we were going to start 6 sessions was unfortunately off sick (she was really lovely and listens) but Talk Liverpool offered no alternatives rather than me waiting for them to get back and then contact me or for me to ring back next week and check if they’re in.

Angela T.

CBT!? Is that the tumult? I was not impressed with the course around 15 or so in the class! It was akin to a George Orwell Novel!! They said I would benefit from Art therapy, that was 3 years ago and I'm still awaiting a referral!! An absolute joke! Cheap & nasty!!

Gary J.

Talk Liverpool should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. If this is the best that Liverpool and Liverpool City Council has to offer - then we might as well all give up now. The entire service is one of calamity and incompetency. There is no personable skills with anyone you talk to (who trains these people?!). This isn’t just a job to collect money at the end of the month, this is vulnerable people’s lives. The counselling is done mainly by people unqualified staff in training, fresh out of uni or those with low graded qualifications. Talk Liverpool generally takes 13 weeks of waiting (a quarter of a year). Once this time has elapsed, you’ll get a letter or a call without much warning that you have an upcoming appointment - so if you work, beware! … and if you work a Mon-Fri 9-5 job, unlucky, that’s the only hours available, so be prepared to take a half day off work only for them to cancel without any time to rearrange your schedule for the next date they propose. I’ve tried this service more than once- the first time was when I was younger and found it to be very unhelpful, writing notes of how I felt on a daily basis and my therapy consisting of the “counsellor” talking utter dross and basically just giving me what you could call homework. The second time - after being messed about by them for weeks with cancellations, I just gave up. I contacted Merseycare crisis team as I was in a bad way and when they pulled up my records, they informed me they could see I had been referred to Talk Liverpool but was down as “did not attend”, which I thought was an absolute insult considering the lengths I had went through to go to an appointment on the ORIGINAL days that they cancelled on me last minute. Liverpool City Council have a lot to answer for, in a city where suicide is becoming more and more rife. I feel as though unless you have schizophrenia or psychosis, they simply haven’t got the resources or funding. My advice would be for them and to Talk Liverpool would be to get their house in order and cut off further mental health issues at the source. You are better than this absolutely banal, humdrum dross that you are serving us.

I eventually had an appointment with Merseycare which I put forward I was unwilling to go to Talk Liverpool again and went through a two hour assessment, only to be called up days later… what did they offer me… you guessed it, Talk Liverpool.

As I’m unwilling to go back, they are putting my name forward to Step Forward, l a level 4 service that I’m hoping to get on to. My advice to others would be to try local mental health charities too, such as Brain Charity, Life Rooms, Rotunda etc and try and find a different avenue. Good luck and I wish you the best! Stay strong.

Lottie M.

did a compulsory 8 week ‘well-being course’ online, after which i was put on a 36 week waiting list for cbt. told them i wanted counselling not cbt because of SA and they said they’d look into what they can offer and i still haven’t heard back, this was almost 2 months ago.

Charlotte W.

Initial phone assessment great, got told the best treatment option for me to begin with was their help with depression. Turns out it was actually the basics of generalised CBT. All of which I already knew, and one of the bits of "advice" was, and I quote, "make more friends". After 3 weeks of this and many times communicating with my supporter that I felt this was over simplified and generic, and also was extremely basic information. The supporter also glossed over almost every time I spoke about my trauma, except for one time when she offered to send me information on additional services, when I said no, it was okay that's great.

3 weeks in I'm told, since you keep mentioning CBT isn't helping you, let's talk about counselling. Turns out what that means is, we're going to discharge you from Talk Liverpool. Here's some links, find another service and get some counselling. If that doesn't work, refer back to us and do CBT again. Also the links I was given - one service not accepting referral, one only for under 25s which rules me out, one without trained counsellors but which offers a "listening ear from another woman to hear your sorrows", and one which is 2+ hours away from my house.

Niall M.

Genuinely surprised to see so many negative reviews here, as my experience with Talk Liverpool for extreme anxiety was exceptional- the therapy ranged over two counsellors, who were both very attentive, courteous and warm in dealing with my issues, as well as organised, punctual and efficient in keeping appointments and getting the most we could out of them. Also, while I was initially given a long waiting period after referral, it only turned out to be like 2 weeks before they contacted me to start treatment. Basically, I was in pain and these folks helped me, so if you're suffering I would stress that you're not alone and you should reach out