Therapala Counselling and Therapy

Last updated: June 2026

Therapala, whose place of business is South Barn, Bacon End, Dunmow, CM6 1JW, knows that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust in us to do that carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy and forms part of our website terms and conditions. We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller.

By accepting our Website Terms or by visiting www.therapala.com you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. We are committed to giving you a personalised service that meets your needs in a way that also protects your privacy. This policy explains how we collect personal data about you, the security measures we take to protect it, and tells you certain things we will and will not do.

When we first obtain personal data from you, or when you take a new service or product from us, we will give you the opportunity to tell us if you do or do not want to receive information from us about other services or products. You may change your mind at any time by emailing us at katie@therapala.com.

OUR LAWFUL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR DATA

Under UK GDPR, we are required to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. We rely on the following:

  • Consent — where you have actively agreed to us processing your data, for example by signing our counselling contract or submitting an enquiry via our website
  • Legitimate interests — for example, keeping basic contact details to manage appointments and communicate with you in the course of providing our service
  • Legal obligation — where we are required by law to process or disclose your data, for example in response to a court order

For special category data (which includes information about your health and mental wellbeing), we rely on your explicit consent, given when you sign our counselling contract.

WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The main pieces of information we collect are:

  • Name
  • Mobile phone number
  • Email address
  • Postal address

WHEN WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION

There are a few occasions when we might collect information from you. These include when:

  • You first call or email us to make an enquiry about our service, or to make an appointment
  • You give us this information face-to-face if we meet on any occasion
  • You attend your first session and sign our Counselling Contract
  • You provide information via a contact form, comment box or payment facility on our website

We will not collect this information from you at any other time.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION

We collect information in the following ways:

  • When you give it to us directly
  • When you contact us via our website

We do not collect your data in any other way. We will only ever get it from you.

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We are experienced counsellors and psychotherapists, fully trained in the importance of maintaining confidentiality. We go to great lengths to keep all your information safe and invest in the appropriate resources to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We manage it in accordance with our legal responsibilities under applicable data protection laws.

However, no internet-based platform, including email, is 100% secure, so we cannot be held responsible for unauthorised or unintended access that is beyond our control. We remain mindful of this and ensure that we do everything within our capability to protect your personal information.

HOW WE USE AND PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION

After we have received your information, there are a few ways in which we might use it to ensure we give you the best possible service:

  • To help us identify you when you contact us
  • To contact you to make, confirm, cancel or reschedule appointments
  • To respond to any queries or concerns that you raise
  • If we have a legal obligation to use or disclose information about you, for instance where we are ordered by a court or regulatory authority
  • For any other purpose to which you agree

We will not disclose your information to any third party except in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

HOW WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE AND WHO HAS ACCESS TO IT

We will never sell or pass on your personal information to third parties for their own purposes.

As all therapists are required to keep appropriate records of their client work, your therapist may keep short process notes of your sessions to support their own reflective practice. These are not a record of what you said in sessions — they are brief practitioner notes only, kept in a locked cabinet or on a password-protected secure computer in accordance with data protection laws. Each therapist keeps their own notes and they are never shared with anyone, even other therapists with whom they may work alongside.

HOW WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION

We operate distinct retention periods for different categories of data, reflecting both our professional obligations and our contractual commitments to you. These are as follows:

Therapist process notes

Short reflective process notes, where taken, are retained for a period of five years from the date of your last appointment, after which time they are securely destroyed. These notes are brief practitioner records only and are not a verbatim account of your sessions.

Electronic contact data

Electronic contact information — including your phone number, email address, and any text or email correspondence — is deleted one year after the end of our work together.

Basic administrative records

In line with our professional insurance requirements, the following basic administrative records are retained for seven years from the date of your last appointment, after which time they are securely destroyed:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your contact number
  • The date of each appointment
  • The amount paid per appointment

These retention periods are set out in full in our Counselling Contract, which you are invited to read before signing.

HOW WE WILL COMMUNICATE WITH YOU

We will only ever communicate with you via phone, email or text message outside of our face-to-face sessions.

VISITING THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

This website contains links to other websites that we believe may be of interest to you. This Privacy Policy only applies to our website. If you link to another website, we recommend you read its privacy policy before sharing any personal or financial data.

We do not provide any personally identifiable client personal data to any advertisers or third-party websites, and we exclude all liability for loss that you may incur when using any third-party websites.

COOKIES

Like most websites, we use cookies to help us improve how we create, and how you use, our site. Cookies mean that a website will remember you and can obtain an overall view of visitor habits and volumes. They can make interacting with a website faster and easier.

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer by websites that you visit. The cookies stored by our site cannot be used to identify you personally.

If you want to know how to disable the use of cookies on your device, visit aboutcookies.org. Please note that if you turn off cookies, you may find your browsing experience significantly degraded and may not be able to use some features of our website.

YOUR RIGHTS

We want to make sure you are in control of how we use and keep your information. You have the right to:

  • Be told how your personal information will be used
  • Request a copy of the information we hold about you
  • Update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong
  • Change your communication preferences at any time
  • Ask us to remove your personal information from our records
  • Request an electronic copy of your personal information be sent to you or another organisation
  • Raise a concern or complaint about the way in which your information is being used

SUBJECT ACCESS REQUESTS

You have the right to ask for copies of the personal data we store and use about you. We will normally respond within one calendar month of receiving your request. Please note that we may need to clarify the scope of your request or verify your identity before the response deadline begins.

Where sessions have involved more than one person, we are only able to release information that pertains solely to you as an individual. We would require written authorisation from each person before disclosing one individual’s data to another, unless a specific exemption under the Data Protection Act 2018 applies.

Should you wish to make a Subject Access Request, please contact us by email at katie@therapala.com.

HOW TO RAISE A CONCERN

If you have a concern about how your personal data has been handled, please get in touch with me directly — I welcome the opportunity to put things right.

All concerns must be raised in writing by email to katie@therapala.com. I will acknowledge your email within 30 days and will respond fully, in writing, without undue delay. All concerns are handled personally by Katie Page and are documented securely.

If you remain unsatisfied after hearing from me, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

  • Website: ico.org.uk
  • Telephone: 0303 123 1113

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you would like any more information or have any comments about our Privacy Policy, please email us at katie@therapala.com.

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, in which case we will publish the amended version on the website. It is your responsibility to check periodically whether this Privacy Policy has changed.

You can find out more on the Information Commissioner’s Office website at ico.org.uk/for-the-public/