About TalkingPreferences

TalkingPreferences is a website designed to help people in psychotherapy and counselling have more say in the kind of therapy they receive.

We believe that therapy works best when it reflects what matters to you. Everyone has their own preferences—about how they want to talk, what they want to focus on, and how they would like a therapist to work with them. Our aim is to support clients to express those preferences clearly and confidently, so they can play an active role in shaping their own care.

What we offer

For adults and young people, TalkingPreferences provides accessible questionnaires that help you think about and communicate the kind of therapy you’re looking for. These forms include clear, jargon-free explanations of different therapy styles, making it easier to understand what might suit you. You can complete these questionnaires directly online and get a print off of your results, or download the forms for later use.

For mental health professionals and researchers, we offer free access to these questionnaires, along with guidance and additional resources to support conversations about client preferences in practice and research.

Who we are

TalkingPreferences has been developed by an international team of psychotherapy researchers—led by Professor Mick Cooper (University of Roehampton, London) and Professor John Norcross (University of Scranton, USA)—working in collaboration with UK-based service users, mental health professionals, and students. The project brings together decades of research evidence with lived experience to create tools that are both scientifically grounded and genuinely useful in real-world settings.

The development of our young person’s preference measure was funded by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

Who can use it

Our preference questionnaires and resources are available to all under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This means that the questionnaires are freely available for clients to use; and for therapists in their own practice, research, or supervision without permission, provided that the measure is not adapted in any way. The only exception to this is if the questionnaires are intended for use as part of a commercial operation (e.g., a therapy referral service). In such cases, please contact mick.cooper@roehampton.ac.uk to discuss licensing arrangements.

Take the first step towards clearer therapy conversations

Use a research-led questionnaire to help express your preferences and support a more collaborative therapeutic relationship.

Start Young Persons Questionnaire
Start Adult Questionnaire