Privacy policy
How we handle your personal information, and what rights you have over it.
Who we are
The Pickle Jar Therapy Practice provides counselling and psychotherapy from Suite 5, Lullingstone House, St Johns Lane, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2NX. We are the data controller for the personal information described on this page. You can reach us at office@thepicklejartherapy.co.uk or on 01227 851574.
The short version
Two things on this website involve your personal information. The enquiry form, which collects what we need in order to reply to you. And analytics, which counts page visits and only runs if you agree to it. We do not sell your information, we do not share it for marketing, and there is no advertising tracking on this site.
Information you give us in the enquiry form
If you make an enquiry as an adult, we ask for your first and last name, what you would like to be called if that is different, your email address, your telephone number, a short description of what brings you to counselling, and which times of day you are generally available.
If your enquiry is about a young person, we ask for the young person's first and last name and their date of birth; your own first and last name, email address and telephone number; your relationship to them; and whether they know the enquiry is being made.
What you write about what brings you to counselling is likely to be information about your health, which the law treats as a special category of personal data. We ask for it because we cannot tell you whether we are the right service without it. Please write only as much as you want to.
If you email or call us instead, we hold whatever you choose to tell us that way.
Information the website collects on its own
If you accept analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages people find useful. It tells us that a page was read; it does not tell us who read it. It also records that an enquiry form was sent, so that we know the form is working. None of what you typed into it is included, and the record is not connected to your enquiry or to you. Advertising features and data sharing for advertising are switched off, and this site carries no advertising tag of any kind.
If you decline, no analytics runs and nothing is requested from Google at all. The site works exactly the same either way, and declining does not affect your enquiry.
Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses, for security and to keep the site running.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. This site sets as few as it can.
The analytics cookies are only set once you accept them. We remember your answer for six months and then ask again. You can change your mind at any time using cookie settings, or by clearing this site's cookies in your browser.
Why we use your information, and our legal basis
- To reply to your enquiry and arrange sessions. Our legal basis is that it is necessary in order to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, and for the contract itself once sessions begin.
- To provide therapy and keep clinical records. Because health information is special category data, we rely on the additional condition in Article 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR: the provision of health or social care by a professional bound by a duty of confidentiality.
- To meet our professional and insurance obligations, including keeping records for the period our indemnity insurer and the BACP require. Our legal basis is compliance with a legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in being able to answer a complaint or claim.
- To measure how the website is used. Our legal basis is your consent, given through the cookie banner, and you can withdraw it at any time.
- To keep the site secure. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the site and the people who use it.
Who else handles it
We use a small number of service providers, and each only handles what it needs to:
- Google Firebase. Hosts this website and stores enquiries submitted through the form.
- Google Workspace. Our email, so it holds correspondence with you.
- Google Analytics. Website measurement, only if you accept analytics cookies.
- Stripe. Card payments. Your card details go to Stripe directly. We never see or store them.
Some of these companies are based in the United States and may process information outside the UK. Where that happens it is covered by the UK's approved transfer mechanisms, including the UK extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses. Your clinical records are not sent outside the practice.
How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not become clients are kept for 90 days and then deleted. Clinical records are retained for three years, in line with professional and insurance requirements, and then securely destroyed. Analytics data is retained by Google for 14 months. Your cookie choice is remembered for six months.
Confidentiality and its limits
What you discuss in sessions is confidential. Practitioners discuss their work in regular clinical supervision, which is a professional requirement and is itself confidential. We may need to break confidentiality where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else, or where we are required to by law. Wherever possible we will tell you first.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 you have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have inaccurate information corrected, to ask us to delete information, to object to or restrict how we use it, to ask for it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent where we rely on it. Some of these rights are limited where we are required to keep clinical records. Contact us at office@thepicklejartherapy.co.uk to make a request, and we will respond within one month.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Changes to this policy
We review this policy periodically, and whenever we change what the website does. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last reviewed.