Privacy Policy

Your Privacy Matters

At Zerin Counselling, your privacy and confidentiality are taken seriously. This privacy policy explains what personal information I collect, why I collect it, how it is stored and protected, and your rights in relation to your information.

When you contact Zerin Counselling or access counselling services, some personal information may need to be collected in order to provide you with a safe, professional and ethical service.

Information I may collect

I may collect information such as:

  • Your name and contact details

  • Emergency contact details

  • Information you choose to share when making an enquiry

  • Relevant information provided during your initial assessment or counselling sessions

  • Brief counselling notes or records relating to our work together

  • Information relating to appointments and payments

  • Correspondence between us, such as emails

I will only collect information that is necessary for providing counselling services and managing my practice.

How your information is used

Your information may be used to:

  • Respond to enquiries

  • Arrange and manage counselling appointments

  • Provide counselling safely and appropriately

  • Maintain appropriate professional records

  • Process payments and maintain financial records

  • Meet my professional, ethical and legal responsibilities

Your personal information will not be sold or used for marketing by third parties.

Confidentiality

What you discuss in counselling is confidential. However, there are limited circumstances where confidentiality may need to be broken, for example:

-Where there is a serious risk of harm to you or another person.

-Where safeguarding concerns arise, or where disclosure is required by law.

Wherever possible and appropriate, I would aim to discuss this with you before sharing information.

As part of ethical counselling practice, I attend regular clinical supervision. Client work may be discussed during supervision, but identifying information is kept to a minimum and supervision is itself confidential.

How your information is stored

I take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information and counselling records are stored securely and protected from unauthorised access.

Information is retained only for as long as it is necessary for professional, legal and insurance purposes, after which it is securely deleted or destroyed.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have rights regarding your personal information. These may include the right to:

  • Ask what personal information I hold about you

  • Request a copy of your personal information

  • Ask for inaccurate information to be corrected

  • Request deletion of your information in certain circumstances

  • Restrict or object to certain uses of your information

Some information may need to be retained where there is a legal, regulatory or professional reason for doing so.

Website and cookies

The Zerin Counselling website may use essential cookies and services provided by the website platform to enable the website to function correctly. Where non-essential cookies are used, appropriate consent will be requested where required.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how your information is handled, please contact:

Zerin CounsellingEmail: zerincounselling@gmail.com

If you are unhappy with how your personal information has been handled, you also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This privacy policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in the law, professional guidance or the way Zerin Counselling operates.