6 February – Time to Talk Day highlights something deeply human and essential to mental wellbeing: being able to talk openly and honestly about how we’re really feeling.
Talking often begins with everyday conversations — a daughter telling her mum how counselling helped, a friend checking in, a partner gently suggesting support. These moments matter. They are often the first step towards feeling less alone and accessing help.
At ACN, we believe talking is powerful. As a community interest company, all our profits are reinvested back into communities and charities across the UK. This allows us to keep counselling accessible, affordable, and focused on people — not profit.
The Benefits of Talking About Mental Health
Talking about mental health can help reduce isolation, ease emotional pressure, and support clearer thinking. Many people find that once they start talking, they feel a sense of relief — even if nothing has been “solved” yet.
Talking helps externalise thoughts that may feel overwhelming when kept inside. It can normalise experiences, reduce shame, and remind people they’re not alone. For many, being listened to without judgement is the first step towards feeling better.
Talking Without a Plan
One of the most common misconceptions about counselling is that you need to know what to talk about before you begin.
You don’t.
Counselling provides a 50-minute confidential space that belongs entirely to you. There’s no agenda, no expectation, and no pressure to arrive with a plan. You can talk about whatever feels important — or whatever spills out when you finally have room to breathe.
Many people use therapy as a place to empty their mind. A space to share worries, memories, frustrations, or feelings that have been building up over time. Making sense of things doesn’t need to happen straight away — that often comes later.
How Talking Helps You Make Sense of Thoughts and Feelings
When thoughts remain internal, they can feel tangled and overwhelming. Talking slows the process down.
As people talk, patterns often begin to emerge. Repeated themes, emotional triggers, and connections gradually become clearer. Over time, things that once felt confusing can start to make sense.
A counsellor’s role is not to judge or rush this process, but to listen, reflect, and support exploration at a pace that feels right.
A Confidential Space to Say What You’ve Never Said Before
For many people, counselling is the first place they speak openly about experiences or thoughts they’ve never shared elsewhere.
This may be because they’ve been protecting others, didn’t feel understood, or weren’t sure how to begin. In counselling, there’s no need to worry about upsetting anyone or saying the “wrong” thing.
What you share is confidential.
You don’t need to filter yourself.
You don’t need to manage your counsellor’s feelings.
You won’t be judged.
This freedom to talk openly is one of the most powerful benefits of counselling.
Talking Can Feel Easier When You Feel Safe
For some people, especially those experiencing anxiety, low mood, or exhaustion, accessing support in person can feel daunting.
Being able to talk from a familiar, private space can help people feel more relaxed and in control. Online counselling removes practical barriers such as travel and waiting rooms, allowing people to focus fully on the conversation itself.
In the UK, around 1 in 5 adults experiences a common mental health problem in any given week. Making talking more accessible helps people seek support earlier, before things feel unmanageable.
Why Talking Is Central to Counselling Effectiveness
Counselling isn’t about having the right answers or gaining perfect insight. It’s about being heard.
Research consistently shows that the quality of the therapeutic relationship — feeling understood, accepted, and supported — is what makes counselling effective. That relationship can be built just as strongly online as it can face to face.
Talking is not a secondary part of counselling. It is the work.
Time to Talk Day: How Conversations Lead to Support
Time to Talk Day reflects what we see every day at ACN.
We increasingly see people recommending counselling because they feel more comfortable talking openly about their own experiences.
As conversations about mental health become more normal, people are less concerned about sharing that they have had — or are currently having — counselling.
Friends, partners, parents, and colleagues are speaking more honestly about what’s helped them. These open conversations reduce stigma and make counselling feel more approachable, rather than something to keep hidden.
This shift matters. When people talk more openly about mental health and support, it becomes easier for others to take that step too. Reaching out isn’t weakness — it’s an act of care.
Time to Talk, In Your Own Way
Talking about mental health doesn’t need to be polished, planned, or articulate.
It can be hesitant — full of pauses and uncertainty.
It can be emotional — bringing tears, frustration, or relief.
It can begin with “I don’t know where to start,” and unfold slowly from there.
Talking might happen in small moments: a quiet check-in, a shared cup of tea, a message sent after days of thinking about it. Or it might happen in a dedicated space, where you finally have permission to speak freely without needing to explain or justify yourself.
Whether you’re opening up to someone you trust or considering counselling for the first time, talking helps create space — space to breathe, to reflect, and to feel less alone. In that space, things can begin to shift. Understanding can grow. And change, however gentle or gradual, becomes possible.
Thinking About Talking?
If counselling has crossed your mind — for you or for someone you care about — Time to Talk Day can be a quiet reminder that support is there if and when it feels right.
At ACN, we offer online low-cost counselling with trained counsellors, creating a confidential, nonjudgmental space where people can talk at their own pace. As a community interest company, any surplus we make is reinvested back into communities and charities that support others.
There’s no rush and no expectation. Sometimes, all it takes is knowing there’s a safe space available — and that talking can happen in your own time, in your own way.
