Privacy & Data Protection

Your privacy

Your privacy is important to me. This notice explains what personal information I collect, why I collect it, how I use and protect it, and your rights in relation to your information.

I handle personal information in accordance with UK data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

I am the data controller for the personal information I hold about you in connection with my counselling and supervision practice.

What information I may collect

When you contact me or work with me, I may collect information including:

• your name and contact details

• your date of birth

• your GP or other relevant healthcare contact details

• emergency contact details

• information you provide when enquiring about counselling

• information discussed or provided during our work together

• brief counselling or supervision notes

• appointment and attendance information

• correspondence between us, including emails and messages

• information necessary for invoicing and financial records

Counselling may involve information about your physical or mental health, relationships, family circumstances, sexuality, beliefs or other aspects of your life. Some of this is classed as special category data under data protection law and receives additional protection.

I only collect information that is relevant to providing my services and meeting my professional, ethical and legal responsibilities.

Why I use your information

I use personal information where necessary to:

• respond to enquiries

• arrange and manage appointments

• provide counselling, relationship counselling or supervision

• maintain appropriate professional records

• communicate with you about our work

• manage payments and financial records

• maintain appropriate standards of safety and professional practice

• meet legal, regulatory, insurance and professional obligations

My processing of personal information is based on the appropriate lawful basis under UK data protection legislation. Where I process special category information, I also identify an appropriate additional condition for processing that information.

I do not sell your personal information or use information disclosed in counselling for marketing purposes.

Counselling notes

I keep brief notes relating to counselling sessions. These are intended to support safe and professional practice rather than provide a detailed account of everything discussed in a session.

Records are stored securely and access is restricted.

I retain counselling records only for as long as reasonably necessary, taking account of professional, insurance, legal and regulatory requirements. At the end of the appropriate retention period, records are securely destroyed.

Confidentiality

What you tell me in counselling is treated as confidential.

As part of good professional practice, I discuss my client work in clinical supervision. I minimise identifying information wherever possible and my supervisor is also bound by confidentiality.

There are limited circumstances in which I may need to disclose information without your consent. These can include situations where:

• I am required to do so by law or court order

• there is a serious concern about the safety of you or another person

• safeguarding responsibilities require information to be shared

• disclosure is otherwise legally or professionally justified

Wherever possible and appropriate, I would discuss this with you before taking action.

Relationship Counselling

When I work with two people together, information may relate to both of you.

Each person has data protection rights in relation to their own personal information. However, information contained within relationship counselling records may also contain personal information about the other person.

This means that a request to access, correct or erase information will be considered carefully to protect the privacy and rights of everyone involved. I will not automatically disclose information about one person to the other simply because they have attended counselling together.

Communications received from either person outside sessions may form part of the counselling record where they are relevant to our work.

The way confidentiality and communication are handled in relationship counselling will also be discussed as part of our working agreement.

Email, telephone and online counselling

If you contact me by email, telephone, text or another electronic method, some personal information will necessarily be processed through the relevant communication provider.

I take reasonable steps to protect confidentiality but no electronic communication system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Where counselling or supervision takes place online, I use appropriate online communication platforms and take reasonable measures to protect your privacy.

Website and cookies

When you visit my website, certain technical information may be collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies. This can include information about your device, browser and how you use the website.

My website is hosted using Wix and may use third-party services for functions such as website operation, security and analytics.

Where required, you will be given choices about non-essential cookies through the website's cookie settings.

Please see the website's cookie information for further details about the cookies and technologies used.

Sharing your information

I do not routinely share your personal information with other organisations.

Information may be processed by service providers that I use to operate my practice, for example website, email, online meeting, payment or administrative services. Where appropriate, these providers act under their own data protection obligations and/or contractual arrangements.

I may also share information where this is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, respond to a safeguarding concern, protect someone from serious harm, establish or defend legal claims, or otherwise meet an appropriate legal or professional obligation.

I will only share information that is necessary and proportionate to the circumstances.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis on which your information is processed, you may have rights including:

• the right to be informed about how your information is used

• the right to access personal information held about you

• the right to have inaccurate information corrected

• the right to request deletion of information in certain circumstances

• the right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances

• the right to object to certain types of processing

• rights relating to data portability where applicable

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every circumstance.

For example, I may sometimes need to retain information despite a request for deletion where there is a lawful reason or professional requirement for doing so.

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, please contact me.

Data protection complaints

If you have concerns about the way I have collected, used, stored or shared your personal information, please contact me in the first instance.

You can make a data protection complaint using the contact details on this website. I will acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days and will take appropriate steps to investigate it without undue delay. I will keep you informed where appropriate and will let you know the outcome of my investigation.

If you remain unhappy with how your personal information has been handled, you also have the right to raise your concerns with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

Changes to this notice

I may update this privacy notice from time to time to reflect changes in my practice, the services I use, or data protection requirements.

Last updated: August 2026