Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how I, James Austin, owner of this website, use, collect and protect personal data and information that you provide when visiting this site.

By visiting www.austin-therapy.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree to the following policy, you may wish to stop using this website and/or from submitting any personal data to the site.

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018, the data controller is James Austin. I am registered at the Information Commissioner's Office and my registration number A8750071. You may contact me at james@austin-therapy.co.uk or 07735907803.

Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the GDPR 2018.

I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

Contact with me

When you email me, phone me or use the contact form on this website, I may collect, use and store the following types of personal data:

· Name

· Telephone number

· Email address

· Other information you have shared that is relevant to your referral

I use this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

· To contact you and assess your needs and suitability for counselling or psychotherapy

· To answer any questions you may have

· To arrange and send confirmation of your initial appointment

Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the GDPR 2018. In the event that you do not wish to book an initial session, or contact me about something else, I will delete any email correspondence and any other stored personal data within a month after our last contact. Any personal data will not be disclosed, sold or distributed to third parties unless I have your permission. I may also be required to do so by law, for example in cases of safeguarding adults (adult protection), safeguarding children (child protection), offences involving children under the age of 18, terrorism, fraud and money laundering.

My Email hosting is provided via a secure Google account associated with Google's hosting of the website www.austin-therapy.co.uk. I do not forward any emails received to any other email address.

I cannot guarantee that the transmission of any personal data via the email, post or phone is 100% secure or encrypted, this means that personal data and information may be lost, corrupted, intercepted or accessed by other people during transmission.

Cookies and analytics

My website is hosted by Google Domains. When someone visits my website, I use Google Analytics to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns (cookies).

A cookie is a small file placed in your device’s storage that sends anonymous data to Google Analytics for the purposes of monitoring and optimising website performance. I may use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps analyse data via Google Analytics about web page traffic and improve the website in order to tailor it to customer needs. Overall, cookies help me provide you with a better website, by enabling me to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives me access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with me. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of my website.

Each time you visit my website Google analytics automatically tracks information such as (but not limited to) your geographical location, IP address, browser type, browser version, operating system, referral source, page views, length of visit, the times and dates you visit the site, navigation paths, whether you are a new visitor or a returning visitor. When you visit www.austin-therapy.co.uk the information collected by Google Analytics may be used by me to customise the website according to your interests and help improve products and services.

You can read Google Analytics’ privacy notice here.

External links

Although my website only looks to include quality, safe, and relevant external links, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website. The owner of this website cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite their best efforts. Users should, therefore, note they click on external links at their own risk and this website and its owner cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

Access to information

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR), and you have the right to a copy of any personal data held. If you would like a copy of any stored personal information, please write contact the data controller at james@austin-therapy.co.uk. You will need to provide evidence of your identity, and I will send a copy of the information I have related to your personal data within one calendar month. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10.

Amendments to this policy

I may amend and/or update this privacy policy from time to time without notice to you, in which case, I will publish the amended version on the website. You confirm that I shall not be liable to you or any third party for any changes made to this privacy policy. It is your responsibility to check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.