Privacy Policy

1 Information We Collect

We collect only the personal information necessary to provide counselling and related services. This may include:

• Contact details — full name, phone number, email address and postal address.
• Health & wellbeing information — details about your physical and mental health shared during sessions or via intake forms, used solely to provide appropriate care.
• Emergency contact details — the name and phone number of a trusted person in case of emergency.
• Session notes — confidential notes recorded during or after sessions to support ongoing and consistent care.
• Payment details — billing information to process session fees. Card details are processed by our secure payment provider and are never stored on our systems.
• Website data — anonymised analytics data about how you interact with our website (see Cookies section).

We collect this information directly from you — via intake forms, email, phone calls, or in-person sessions. We will not collect more information than is necessary for the services we provide.

2 How We Use Your Information

Your personal information is used to:

• Deliver, manage and improve our counselling, hypnotherapy and coaching services.
• Communicate appointment bookings, confirmations, reminders and follow-ups.
• Respond to your enquiries and provide information about our services.
• Maintain accurate and complete client records as required by our professional registration, ethical guidelines and applicable law.
• Comply with mandatory legal or regulatory obligations — for example, mandatory reporting under child protection legislation, or disclosure required by court order.

We will not use your information for marketing, advertising or any purpose unrelated to the delivery of your care, without your explicit written consent.

3 Storage & Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously. The measures we use include:

• Encrypted data transmission (HTTPS/TLS) on our website and digital communications.
• Password-protected, access-controlled systems for storing digital records.
• Physical security measures for any paper-based client records.
• Restricted staff access — only Ros Phillips accesses your records.

Client session notes are retained for a minimum of 7 years after the last session (or until the client turns 25 years of age if they were a minor), as required by Australian professional practice guidelines.

In the unlikely event of a data breach that could cause harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

4 Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information. We may share your information only in these limited circumstances:

• With your explicit consent — for example, if you request a referral letter to your GP or another practitioner.
• Legal obligations — if we are required to disclose information by law, court order, or to prevent serious and imminent harm to you or another person.
• Service providers — trusted third-party providers (such as our appointment booking platform, website host or email provider) who help us operate our services. These providers are contractually bound to confidentiality and may not use your information for any other purpose.

All third-party providers we use are assessed for their privacy and security practices before engagement.

5 Your Rights

Under the Australian Privacy Act, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access — you may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time.
• Correction — if any of your information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, you may request we correct it.
• Withdrawal of consent — you may withdraw consent for us to collect or use your information at any time, noting this may limit our ability to provide services.
• Complaints — you have the right to make a complaint if you believe we have breached the Privacy Act.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us (see Section 8). We will acknowledge your request within 5 business days and respond fully within 30 days.

6 Cookies

Our website uses cookies — small text files placed on your device — to ensure the site works correctly and to help us understand how visitors use it. We use:

• Essential cookies — required for core website functionality such as security tokens and form submissions. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies — anonymised data (via Google Analytics, if active) to understand page popularity and visitor behaviour. No personally identifiable information is collected.
• Cache cookies — used by our caching plugin to serve pages faster.

You can disable non-essential cookies in your browser settings at any time. Doing so may affect the appearance or functionality of certain pages.

7 Children's Privacy

Where we provide services to clients under the age of 18, we handle their personal and health information with additional care and in strict accordance with the Australian Privacy Act and relevant state child protection legislation.

Written consent from a parent or legal guardian is required before we collect personal information from, or provide services to, a minor. Parents and guardians have the right to access records relating to their child, subject to the child's own therapeutic best interests.

8 Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to access or correct your personal information, or wish to make a privacy complaint, please contact:

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the: