Last updated: 02/10/2026

At Care and Connect Counselling, I understand that counselling involves sharing personal and sometimes very sensitive information. I take your privacy seriously and will treat your information with care, respect and confidentiality.

This Privacy Policy explains what information I collect, why I need it, how I protect it and what rights you have in relation to your personal information.

Care and Connect Counselling is a sole-trader counselling practice operated by Mrs Isla O'Dwyer.

I am responsible for deciding how your personal information is collected and used.

If you have any questions about how your information is handled, you can contact me at:

Email: info@careandconnectcounselling.co.uk
Phone: 07590605455

Depending on how you contact me and use my counselling services, I may collect:

• Your name and contact details, including your phone number and email address.
• Information needed to arrange and manage your appointments.
• Information you choose to share when enquiring about counselling.
• Information shared with me during counselling sessions and included in your counselling notes.
• Payment information and records of payments made.
• Information needed to meet my professional, legal and insurance responsibilities.

Some of the information you may choose to share during counselling may relate to your physical or mental health. This is considered special category data under UK data protection law and receives additional protection.

Please avoid sharing detailed personal or sensitive information by email, text or WhatsApp when making an initial enquiry. A brief message about your enquiry is usually sufficient, and we can discuss anything more sensitive privately.

I use your personal information only where there is a legitimate reason to do so. This may include:

• Responding to enquiries.
• Arranging and managing counselling appointments.
• Providing counselling to you.
• Keeping appropriate counselling and professional records.
• Communicating with you about appointments.
• Recording and managing payments.
• Meeting my legal, professional and insurance responsibilities.
• Protecting your safety, or the safety of another person, where there is a serious and appropriate reason to do so.

I aim to collect only information that is relevant and necessary and to use it only for appropriate purposes.

Confidentiality is an important part of counselling, and I will normally keep what you share with me private.

There are, however, some circumstances where confidentiality may need to be broken. For example, this may be necessary if I have serious concerns about your safety or the safety of someone else, if I am required to disclose information by law, or where disclosure is necessary to meet a professional or legal responsibility.

Where it is appropriate and safe to do so, I will discuss this with you before sharing information.

You can contact Care and Connect Counselling by email, text message or WhatsApp to arrange appointments and for practical communication relating to your counselling.

Please be aware that electronic communications can carry some privacy and security risks. I will take reasonable steps to protect your information, but I cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted through email, text messaging or WhatsApp.

For your privacy, please avoid including detailed or sensitive counselling information in messages unless it is necessary.

I do not sell, rent or share your personal information for marketing purposes.

As a sole practitioner, I generally keep your information within my practice. There may, however, be circumstances where information needs to be shared, for example:

• With my clinical supervisor, where appropriate and in accordance with professional confidentiality requirements.
• With professional advisers, such as an accountant, where necessary.
• With my insurer or other relevant professional organisation where this is necessary to meet my insurance or professional responsibilities.
• With emergency services or another appropriate person or organisation where this is necessary to protect someone's vital interests or safety.
• Where I am legally required to provide information.

Where possible and appropriate, I will discuss any necessary disclosure with you beforehand.

Payment for counselling sessions is made in advance of the appointment by bank transfer/BACS or in cash.

I keep appropriate payment records for accounting, legal, insurance and business purposes.

I do not retain cash-payment details beyond what is necessary for these purposes.

I take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from being lost, misused, accessed without permission, altered or disclosed inappropriately.

This includes taking care when storing counselling notes, contact information, correspondence and payment records.

I also take care when communicating with clients electronically.

No method of storing or transmitting information can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but I will take appropriate steps to protect your information.

I do not keep personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary.

Counselling notes and relevant records are retained in accordance with the requirements of my professional indemnity insurance and any applicable legal or professional obligations.

Other records, such as financial and payment records, will be retained for as long as necessary to meet relevant legal, accounting, tax and insurance requirements.

When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or destroyed.

Under UK data protection law, you have rights in relation to your personal information. Depending on the circumstances, these may include the right to:

• Ask what personal information I hold about you.
• Request a copy of your personal information.
• Ask me to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask me to delete your information in certain circumstances.
• Ask me to restrict how your information is used in certain circumstances.
• Object to certain uses of your information.
• Withdraw consent where I am relying on your consent to use your information.

These rights are subject to certain legal and professional exceptions and may not apply in every situation.

If you would like to exercise one of these rights, please contact me using the details provided below.

My website may use cookies or similar technologies to make the website function, understand how visitors use it, or improve the experience.

Where consent is required for non-essential cookies, I will ask for your consent before using them.

If the website uses specific analytics, contact-form, hosting or other third-party services, information about those services will be included here where relevant.

I hope you will feel comfortable speaking to me if you have any questions or concerns about how your personal information is handled.

You can contact me using:

Care and Connect Counselling
Email: [EMAIL ADDRESS]
Phone: [PHONE NUMBER]

You also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

I may occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to my practice, technology, legal requirements or the way I handle personal information.

The most recent version will always be available on this website, with the date of the latest update shown at the top.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how I handle your personal information, please get in touch.

Care and Connect Counselling
[YOUR FULL NAME]
Email: [EMAIL ADDRESS]
Phone: [PHONE NUMBER]