Privacy Notice

Introduction

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

This notice covers both my counselling and yoga services. It tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after our work together has ended, including:

Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for
Whether you have to provide it to me
How long I store it for
Whether there are other recipients of your personal information
Whether I intend to transfer it to another country
Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling
Your data protection rights

I am happy to discuss any questions you have about this notice. You can contact me via email.

As your counsellor, I am the data controller for your personal information. I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) — registration number: [ICO registration number].

My contact details:

Email: sorcha@always-becoming.co.uk

Last updated: 19 June 2026

My Lawful Basis for Holding and Using Your Personal Information

The UK GDPR requires me to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. The basis I rely on depends on the nature and stage of our relationship.

For counselling clients:

If you are currently in therapy, or in contact with me to consider therapy, I process your personal data as it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
If therapy has ended, I rely on legitimate interests as my lawful basis for retaining your personal information.

For yoga clients:

I process your contact details (which may include name, email, phone number) on the basis that it is necessary to perform our contract - that is, to book you onto and run a class or session.
If you choose to receive marketing or class updates from me, I will rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

Some of the information you share with me may be classed as special category personal data (for example, information about your health or mental wellbeing). My lawful basis for processing this is that it is necessary for the provision of health treatment - specifically, counselling - under a contract between us as a mental health professional and client.

How I Use Your Information

COUNSELLING CLIENTS

Initial contact

When you contact me to enquire about counselling, I will collect information to help me respond to your enquiry. This will include your name, contact details and details of enquiry.

If you decide not to proceed, I will delete your personal data within 30 days. If you would like this done sooner, please let me know.

While you are having counselling

Everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if I believe you or someone else is at risk of serious harm or if I am required to under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, child or adult safeguarding legislation or the Terrorism Act 2000. I will always try to speak with you about this first, unless safeguarding concerns prevent me from doing so.

I will keep a record of your personal details including name, contact details and, where necessary, GP details and details of medication. These are stored securely on a password protected laptop and are not shared with any third party without good reason.

As a BACP member, I am required to attend monthly supervision to ensure ethical conduct and best practice. This may involve the discussion of anonymous client information.

I keep brief written notes of each session. These are stored digitally on a password protected document.

For security reasons, I do not retain text messages for more than 30 days. Where a text contains relevant information, I will add these to your notes. Email correspondence will be deleted after 30 days unless it needs to be retained, in which case I will add these to your notes.

After counselling has ended

Once our work together has ended, your records will be retained for 7 years from the date of our last contact, after which they will be securely destroyed securely.

Data Security

I take the security of your personal data very seriously. I use an encrypted devices and use password-protected digital documents.

Yoga clients

When you contact me to book a yoga session, I collect your name, email address, and/or phone number so that I can confirm your booking and contact you about class arrangements (for example, changes to time or location).

Bookings are made and managed manually via email or text - I do not use a third-party booking platform.

I do not collect health or medical information as part of yoga bookings. If you choose to tell me about a relevant injury or condition verbally before a class, this is used only to help me teach you safely and is not retained as a written record beyond the duration of the sessions. I am required by my insurance provider to retain the name of class attendees and store these securely for 7 years. I will dispose of these records safely when they are no longer required.

If you stop attending classes, I will delete your booking details within 30 days, unless you ask me to keep them on file for future bookings.

Third Party Recipients of Your Personal Data

I do not currently share your personal data with external suppliers or partners, other than the following

Wix - hosts my website and processes related data (see "Visitors to my website" below)
Zoho Mail - used to send and receive correspondence with you, including booking confirmations and general enquiries

I do not sell your personal data to anyone, and I do not share it with any other third party without good reason or your knowledge. I do not intend to transfer your data to another country.

Important Security Note

Please be aware that email and online forms are not always fully secure. To protect your privacy, we recommend that you avoid sharing highly sensitive personal details via email and save these discussions for your sessions.

Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:

The right to access a copy of the personal data I hold about you
The right to have any inaccuracies corrected
The right to ask me to delete your personal data
The right to restrict or object to how I use your personal data

To exercise any of these rights, please contact me in writing at sorcha@always-becoming.co.uk.

If you have a concern about how I handle your personal data, please contact me first and I will do my best to resolve it. If you wish to make a formal complaint, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Visitors to My Website

When someone visits my website, I use Wix Analytics to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour. This is done to understand how the site is used and to improve it. This information is processed in a way that does not identify individuals, and I do not attempt to identify visitors.

My website is built and hosted by Wix (wix.com). You can read Wix's privacy policy at wix.com/about/privacy.

My website uses cookies to help it function effectively. You can find out more about how I use cookies here: www.always-becoming.co.uk/cookies-policy.

If you fill in a contact form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored by Wix before being sent to me.

Last updated: 19 June 2026