The Quick Version

Your privacy is important to me, and protecting your data is important to me.

Everything we discuss in the counselling sessions will be kept confidential, in other words I won't talk about anything you say here, outside of the sessions. I would only break confidentiality if I felt there was a strong risk of serious harm to yourself or to others, or where I have a legal obligation to such as money laundering and acts of terrorism. Serious harm to yourself or others includes safeguarding of adults at risk, children and young people.

Like other counsellors, I also have counselling supervision to make sure I do the right thing by my clients. These supervision sessions are also confidential and I won’t refer to your full name.

Some More Privacy Policy Details

I use password protected and two step authenticated encrypted file storage to protect client contact details and notes from our sessions together.

I will keep notes from our sessions. These notes will not have your name written on them, but use a reference code only.

I will keep session notes in separate documents to my record of your name and contact details as well as a reference code. They are also kept in a separate file storage system to your name and contact details. I will keep signed contracts, session notes, contact details and GP details for seven years after our last session together before deleting them.

Google workspace is used for emails and storing client contact details (not client notes). Google workspace smart features (AI) have been disabled. Gemini (Google’s AI assistant) has also been disabled.

Emails and text messages to me to arrange and book sessions, will be kept for 6 months before being deleted.

I may occasionally record some notes about the content of emails or texts in your session notes where the content relates to therapeutic work.

Your phone number will be stored next to your initials only (not you’re name) on a dedicated mobile phone attached to the phone number for contacting me, and in WhatsApp should we use that to communicate as well or instead of text messages.

Records of payments and transaction information may be kept for 7 years, including name, email and billing address for online payments. Online payments are processed through Squarespace Payments, Squarespace’s secure PCI compliant card payment system.

Under GDPR (The General Data Protection Regulation 2018) you can request to see a copy of your session notes at anytime.

Under GDPR (The General Data Protection Regulation 2018) Right To Be Forgotten, you can request in writing for me to delete any personal data I hold about you. However, this is not an absolute right, and in certain circumstances I may have to retain some specific information.

I use clinicalwill.app to store minimal contact details for current and recent clients (up to 12 months after our last session together). In the event of an accident or similar event where I was incapacitated, a trusted experienced counsellor will be notified, and only then would access these contact details. They would then contact you to update you of my situation so that you were not left wondering where I had gone. This is in line with the BACP ethical framework and best practices.

Any use of LLMs (large language models) such as Claude.ai for assistance with research for my clinical work, will be kept broad and unspecific to any particular client. Any information or advice provided by an AI will be scrutinised and verified with trusted sources.

Privacy Policy 2026/10/31 Version 1.3