Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY: STATEMENT OF INTENT

This policy sets out how we at Balance Hypnotherapy use and protect the information that you provide when you use our services and our website.

It is our intention to ensure that any data you provide is managed respectfully, kept secure and only used for the purposes for which it has been provided.​

Your Privacy

I am committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in a safe, secure, and confidential manner, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This Privacy Policy explains what information I collect, why I collect it, how it is stored, and your rights regarding your personal data.

​Who I Am

Fiona Robinson, Clinical Hypnotherapist
Email: fiona@balancehypnotherapy.co.uk

Tel: 07801 436633

ICO Registration Number: ZA530322​

What Information I Collect

I only collect the minimum amount of personal information necessary to support our therapeutic work together. This may include:

  • Your name
  • Telephone number
  • Email address
  • Relevant health or wellbeing information you choose to share
  • Brief session notes
  • Address details where required for safeguarding or other essential purposes, including your GP name and address
  • Your next of kin: this is used very rarely and only in emergency situations​

Why I Collect Your Information

Your information is collected so that I can:

  • Arrange and manage appointments
  • Contact you between sessions
  • Send Zoom links for online sessions
  • Maintain brief clinical notes to support your therapy
  • Fulfil professional and legal obligations
  • Safeguard vulnerable clients where necessary​

Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, the lawful bases relied upon for processing your personal information are:

Article 6 UK GDPR

  • Performance of a Contract – where processing is necessary to provide
  • therapy services requested by you
  • Legitimate Interests – for the safe administration and operation of the
  • practice
  • Legal Obligation – where records must be retained for legal, insurance,
  • safeguarding, or taxation purposes
  • Article 9 UK GDPR (Special Category Data)
  • Health or therapeutic support purposes under Article 9(2)(h) UK GDPR
  • Explicit Consent, where appropriate

Session Notes

Session notes are kept to an absolute minimum and contain only information relevant to your therapeutic support.

Notes are concise, factual, and professional in nature.

Where hypnosis scripts are prepared, I may record brief details about your goals or preferences to create personalised therapeutic material.

​Safeguarding

If you are under 18 years old, I may retain your address details and parent/guardian contact information during the period we are working together where necessary for safeguarding purposes.

​If you disclose vulnerability, including self-harm or suicidal ideation, or serious welfare concerns are disclosed, relevant contact information may also be retained for safeguarding purposes.

This information will be deleted when it is no longer necessary.​

How Your Information Is Stored

Paper records are stored securely in a locked filing cabinet, with keys kept in a secure location. Premises are kept locked to provide additional security. Electronic devices and communications are protected using passwords and appropriate security measures where reasonably possible.

I take reasonable steps to ensure your information remains confidential and secure at all times.

While reasonable security measures are used, email and online communications cannot be guaranteed as completely secure.

Some third-party providers used for email or online sessions may process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, appropriate safeguards are relied upon in accordance with UK GDPR.​

Confidentiality

Information shared during sessions is treated confidentially.

Confidentiality may only be broken if:

  • There is a serious concern regarding your safety or the safety of another person
  • I am legally required to disclose information
  • Safeguarding obligations apply
  • Where possible, this would be discussed with you first.
  • If in the therapist’s opinion there is good cause to believe that not to disclose would cause danger or serious harm to self, the therapist or others, your GP

or other appropriate agencies may be contacted.

  • Only information required to ensure safety of relevant parties would be disclosed.
  • Information may have to be disclosed without consent for the prevention, detection or prosecution of a crime.
  • The sharing of anonymous case histories with supervisors, supervisees and peer support groups is not a breach of professional confidentiality.

How Long Your Information Is Kept

In accordance with professional requirements:

  • Adult client records are retained for 8 years after therapy ends
  • Records relating to clients under 18 are retained until 8 years after their 18th birthday

After this period, records are securely destroyed.​

Sharing Your Information

Your information will never be sold or shared for advertising or marketing purposes.
Information will only be shared where:

  • Required by law
  • Necessary for safeguarding purposes
  • You have given explicit consent
  • Where necessary for professional insurance or legal defence purposes

Any third-party services used for administration, email, payment processing, or online sessions are expected to comply with applicable data protection laws.​

Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data
  • Request correction of inaccurate information
  • Request deletion of your data where appropriate
  • Withdraw consent where applicable

Your Rights to complain re: Personal Data

  • Lodge a complaint with your Clinical Hypnotherapist re how your Data is used and stored. This can be done by emailing your Clinical Hypnotherapist in the first instance.
  • I will respond to requests relating to your personal data within 30 days, in accordance with UK data protection requirements, and maintain records of complaints where legally required.
  • If this is not resolved to your satisfaction you have the right to take the complaint re your Data usage and storage to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Online Privacy Policy

This privacy policy also applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information shared and/or collected online. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.

Contact Form

When you contact us via our website Contact form, we will collect your name, email address and telephone. By using the Contact Form, you consent to us using this information for correspondence purposes, notably to discuss your interest in Hypnotherapy treatment and to book an appointment. To have your email deleted from our records, please contact us by email.

Testimonials

Subject to your prior consent, we may publish information you provide about treatment you received from us as a Testimonial on our website. Such information may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such information by others. To have your testimonial deleted from our website please contact us by email.

Cookies

Like any other website, our website uses ‘cookies’. These cookies are used to store information including visitors’ preferences, and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users’ experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information.

You can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser options. More information on how to do this can be found by visiting the following links:

  • https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
  • https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
  • http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
  • https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and
  • https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).

Note that if you block cookies, some features of our website may not be available to you.

See our Cookie Policy page.

Links to other sites

Our website may contain links to other sites (Facebook, X, Whatsapp, Telegram etc). Our Privacy Policy does not apply to other websites. Thus, we are advising you to consult the respective Privacy Policies of these other sites for more detailed information. It may include their practices and instructions about how to opt-out of certain options. 

Log Files

Our website follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. All hosting companies do this and a part of hosting services’ analytics. The information collected by log files include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analysing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movement on the website, and gathering demographic information. 

Children’s Information

We do not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 18. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

Consent

By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, and we invite you to check this page periodically to ensure you are happy with any changes to it.

ICO Website:
Information Commissioners Office
ICO Registration:ZA365823 

Cookies & amp; Website Data

If this website uses cookies, analytics, contact forms, or online booking systems, limited technical information may be collected automatically, such as:

  • IP address
  • Browser type
  • Device information
  • Website usage statistics

This information is used to improve website functionality and user experience. Where legally required, cookie consent will be requested.​

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to reflect legal, professional, or operational changes.

The most recent version will always be available upon request or via the website where applicable.​

Contact

If you have any concerns or questions regarding your personal information or this
Privacy Policy, please contact:Fiona Robinson

Email: fiona@balancehypnotherapy.co.uk

Telephone: 07801 436633

I aim to respond to data protection enquiries within 30 days.