PRIVACY NOTICE
Kay Parkinson | Place to Talk Therapies
Version 2.0 · Last reviewed: 1st June 2026 · Next review: 1st June 2027
This Privacy Notice explains how Place to Talk Therapies and the therapists working within the practice collect, use, store and protect your personal information, from your first enquiry through to after therapy has ended. We hold your trust as something to be honoured, and protecting the information you share with us is central to the way we work. Please read this notice alongside your counselling agreement and the privacy information provided by your therapist.
We process personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. All therapists working with Place to Talk Therapies also adhere to the ethical guidance on privacy and confidentiality set by their professional body, including the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and, where applicable, the Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC).
Who we are
Place to Talk Therapies is a collective of independent counsellors providing counselling, psychotherapy, EMDR, couples counselling and clinical supervision.
Kay Parkinson is the founder of Place to Talk Therapies and manages the website, enquiries and administrative processes.
Contact:
Email: admin@place2talk.co.uk
Telephone: 07858 984519
ICO registration (Place to Talk Therapies): ZB600929
If you contact us through our website, by email or by telephone, Place to Talk Therapies initially acts as the data controller for the personal information you provide. This enables us to respond to your enquiry, manage the enquiry process and, where appropriate, help identify the therapist whose experience, availability and way of working best fit your needs.
Each therapist working with Place to Talk Therapies is an independent sole trader, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), responsible for their own clinical records, safeguarding, professional registration, insurance, clinical supervision and data protection obligations.
If you begin therapy with one of our therapists, they become the data controller for the personal information they hold about you. Your therapist will provide you with their own privacy notice before therapy begins.
What information we collect
To provide our services safely, ethically and professionally, we may collect the following information:
Your name, date of birth, address, telephone number and email address.
Emergency contact, next of kin and GP details, where relevant.
Health information relevant to your therapy, including your mental and physical health history, medication and any risk concerns.
Brief clinical notes made by your therapist, including themes discussed and the agreed focus of your work together.
Records of appointments, attendance and payments.
Some of this information is classed as special category data, meaning it receives additional protection under UK data protection law because of its sensitive nature.
Why we collect your information and the lawful basis for processing
Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal information. The lawful basis we rely on depends on the stage of your relationship with Place to Talk Therapies and your therapist.
Considering or receiving therapy: We process your information because it is necessary to respond to your enquiry, arrange, cancel or rearrange appointments, and provide the therapy service you have requested.
After therapy has ended: Your therapist relies on legitimate interests to retain accurate records and to meet professional, legal, insurance and regulatory obligations.
Legal obligation: Information may be disclosed where required by law, for example in response to a court order or certain safeguarding duties.
Where we process health information or other special category data, we also rely on the lawful basis of providing health treatment and, where appropriate, substantial public interest where there is a serious risk of harm. On rare occasions, we may rely on your explicit consent, and we will explain this clearly if it applies.
How your information is used
We will only use your personal information for purposes connected with providing and administering the services offered by Place to Talk Therapies. We retain your information only for as long as is necessary, in accordance with guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and our professional obligations.
Initial contact
When you contact Place to Talk Therapies, we collect enough information to respond to your enquiry and, where appropriate, help identify the therapist whose experience, availability and way of working best fit your needs.
If you decide not to proceed with therapy, your enquiry information will be retained only for as long as necessary before being securely deleted, unless we are required to keep it for legal or regulatory reasons.
While you are accessing therapy
Your email address or telephone number will be used to confirm appointments and, where you have agreed, to send you information relevant to your therapy. We will not use your contact details for marketing purposes.
Before your first appointment, your therapist will ask you to complete a client intake form. This collects personal information, including your name, address, date of birth, contact details and GP details, together with other information that will help your therapist work with you. The information is stored securely on the Kiku practice management system (or a comparable UK GDPR-compliant alternative).
Your therapist will not routinely contact your GP, as your attendance is confidential. To fulfil their duty of care while maintaining your confidentiality, they will only contact your GP where it is necessary and, wherever possible, will discuss this with you first.
Your therapist keeps brief clinical notes to support your work together and maintain an accurate record of your therapy. These notes are for your therapist's use only, do not contain personal details that could identify you, and are stored securely in a password-protected file that only they can access. Your session notes are kept separately from your personal information held on the practice management system.
After therapy has ended
Counsellors are required to keep certain records after therapy ends. Financial records are retained for as long as legally required for tax and accounting purposes. Retaining your records also means your therapist can continue to offer an efficient service should you contact them again.
Your therapist retains your personal details, together with your anonymised session notes and client reference number, for seven years after therapy ends, in line with current professional guidance. Where a client is under 18, records are retained until their 25th birthday.
All records are stored securely, and your anonymised session notes are kept separately from your personal identifying information wherever possible.
Online and telephone sessions
Where you meet with your therapist online or by telephone, they will use an agreed secure platform, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or WhatsApp Video, where appropriate. These platforms provide end-to-end encryption where available. Please be aware that no online platform can be guaranteed to be entirely secure, and we ask that you take part from a private space where you will not be overheard.
Sessions are not recorded unless this has been agreed in writing beforehand by both you and your therapist. We also ask that you do not record sessions unless this has been agreed for a specific purpose.
Who we share your information with
We treat confidentiality as a matter of professional honour and will not share your personal information without good reason. There are limited circumstances where information may need to be shared:
Clinical supervision: Your therapist discusses their work in clinical supervision, as required by their professional body. Wherever possible, this is done without identifying you, and supervisors are bound by the same duty of confidentiality.
Risk of serious harm: If you disclose abuse or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult, or information that suggests a serious risk of harm to yourself or others, your therapist may need to share information to help keep people safe. Wherever possible, this will be discussed with you first unless safeguarding concerns prevent this.
Legal requirements: Information may be disclosed where required by law, for example in response to certain safeguarding duties, terrorism legislation or a court order.
We also share a limited amount of personal information with trusted third parties where necessary to provide our services and meet our legal obligations.
Working with our counselling team
All enquiries are initially managed through Place to Talk Therapies. Where appropriate, the information you provide may be shared with the therapist whose experience, availability and way of working best fit your needs.
Each therapist working with Place to Talk Therapies is an independent sole trader, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and responsible for their own clinical records, safeguarding, professional registration, insurance, clinical supervision and data protection obligations.
Once you begin therapy with your chosen therapist, they become the data controller for the personal information they hold about you and will provide you with their own privacy notice before therapy begins.
Our accountant has access to invoices solely for tax and accounting purposes. Where we use carefully selected suppliers to support the running of the practice, they are required to process your personal information only for the agreed purpose and in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.
If your therapy is arranged or funded by a third party, such as your employer, only the information necessary for administration or invoicing will be shared. The content of your therapy sessions remains confidential unless you give your written consent or we are legally required to disclose information.
We will never sell your personal information or share it with third parties for sales, marketing or research purposes.
Data security
We take the security of your personal information seriously. Email accounts are password protected, and the devices used by members of the Place to Talk Therapies team are protected by passwords, encryption where available, and appropriate security software.
Personal information is retained only for as long as necessary to provide our services and meet our professional, legal and regulatory obligations. Where information needs to be retained, it is stored securely with access restricted to the appropriate therapist or authorised administrator.
Website visitors
This section explains how personal information is collected and used when you visit the Place to Talk Therapies website or contact us through it.
If you contact us using the website contact form, the information you provide is not stored by the website itself or passed to third-party data processors. Instead, it is collated into an email and sent securely to Place to Talk Therapies using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). SMTP servers are protected by TLS (sometimes known as SSL), meaning the content is encrypted before being sent across the internet and decrypted by the receiving devices.
The website uses cookies and Google Analytics. Further information is available in our Cookie Policy.
Your rights
You have rights over the personal information held about you. These include the right to:
Request access to your personal information (a subject access request).
Ask for inaccurate or incomplete information to be corrected.
Request the deletion of your personal information, although some records may need to be retained for legal, insurance or professional reasons.
Object to, or request the restriction of, certain types of processing in some circumstances.
Withdraw consent where consent is the lawful basis for processing.
You can find further information about your rights on the Information Commissioner's Office website: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters
To make a request, please contact us in writing at admin@place2talk.co.uk. Where your request relates to records held by your therapist, we may ask you to contact them directly, as they are the data controller responsible for those records.
We will respond to your request within one month, although there may be circumstances where we are unable to comply, for example where we are legally required to retain certain records.
If you are unhappy with how your personal information has been handled, please contact us first so we have the opportunity to resolve your concerns. If your concern relates to records held by your therapist, we may ask you to contact them directly in the first instance.
If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent authority for data protection. Further information is available at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or by calling 0303 123 1113.
Please note that concerns about your counselling or therapy are dealt with under our separate Complaints Policy.
Changes to this notice
We review this Privacy Notice regularly to ensure it remains accurate and reflects any changes to the way Place to Talk Therapies and its therapists collect, use, store and protect personal information. Where significant changes are made, this notice will be updated accordingly.
Please check this page occasionally to ensure you are familiar with the latest version.
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
Next review: 1 June 2027
COOKIE POLICY
Version 2.0 · Last reviewed: 1 June 2026 · Next review: 1 June 2027
This Cookie Policy explains how Place to Talk Therapies uses cookies and similar technologies when you visit our website. It should be read alongside our Privacy Notice.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites function correctly, remember your preferences and provide information about how visitors use a website.
Some cookies are essential for the website to work properly, while others help us understand how people use the site so we can continue to improve it.
How we use cookies
We use cookies to:
Ensure the website functions correctly.
Remember certain preferences where appropriate.
Understand how visitors use our website through anonymous analytics.
Improve the information and services we provide.
We do not use cookies to collect sensitive personal information or to identify you personally.
Types of cookies we use
Essential cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function properly. Without them, some parts of the website may not work as intended.
Analytics cookies
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous information about how visitors use our website. This may include information such as:
Which pages are visited.
How long visitors spend on the website.
How visitors found the website.
General information about the type of device and browser being used.
This information helps us understand how the website is being used and identify ways to improve it. We do not use Google Analytics to identify individual visitors.
Third-party services
Some parts of our website include content provided by trusted third parties, such as Google Maps. These services may place their own cookies on your device. We do not control these cookies, and you should refer to the relevant provider's own privacy and cookie information for further details.
Managing cookies
Most web browsers allow you to control or disable cookies through your browser settings. You can choose to block or delete cookies at any time, although doing so may affect how some parts of the website function.
You can also find more information about managing cookies and Google Analytics here:
Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Google Privacy & Terms: https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy
Information about managing cookies: https://www.aboutcookies.org/
Changes to this Cookie Policy
We review this Cookie Policy regularly to ensure it remains accurate and reflects any changes to our website or the way cookies are used.
The latest version will always be available on this website.
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
Next review: 1 June 2027
