Objective: Emerging evidence with integrated youth mental health services (IYMHS) indicates that brief intervention support can lead to positive outcomes for youth. Yet there is a lack of research on elements of IYMHS interventions that lead to positive youth experiences. This study focused on understanding youth experiences in this context using a phenomenological qualitative approach.

Method: Interviews were conducted with n = 11 young people (age range: 17–23; M = 19.91, SD = 2.02; 5 female) engaging with Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, Ireland and n = 9 clinicians (7 female), and analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.

Results: Identified themes for youth included (1) the uncertainty of help-seeking, (2) the therapeutic relationship as a non-judgmental collaboration, (3) young people feeling appropriately supported, (4) opening up emotionally, and (5) a bittersweet end to the intervention. For clinicians, themes focused on (1) young people’s first help-seeking experience, (2) the relationship as a safe foundation, (3) a youth-led intervention, (4) shifting to a strengths-focused narrative, and (5) the end of the intervention as a challenge.

Conclusions: Youth and clinician perspectives were aligned highlighting the importance of the therapeutic relationship. These findings were applied to develop a model of therapeutic change for youth engaging with brief interventions in an IYMHS context. Future research should empirically test these factors for their associations with positive outcomes to inform clinical practice.