Privacy Notice

Therapy and counselling are confidential, but confidentiality is not absolute. Wherever possible, I will seek your consent and discuss it with you first before sharing any information — this is the approach BACP’s Ethical Framework describes as ethically preferred. I will not share what you tell me unless there is a lawful, ethical or safeguarding reason to do so, and where possible I will limit any sharing to the minimum information necessary.

There are some limits to confidentiality. I may need to share information if:

• I believe there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else
• there is a safeguarding concern involving a child, vulnerable adult, or person at risk
• I am required to do so by law, court order, or legal process
• disclosure is necessary to prevent or detect a serious crime
• there is a medical emergency and information is needed to protect life
• I need to consult my clinical supervisor, while protecting your identity as far as possible

Where possible and appropriate, I would aim to discuss this with you before sharing information. However, I may not always be able to do so if this would increase risk or undermine the purpose of the disclosure.

When you contact me, I may collect and use:

• your name, email address and phone number
• the information you choose to share in your enquiry
• any preferences around contact, availability, or therapy

If we arrange an initial call or begin therapy or counselling, I may also collect:

• your address and date of birth
• your GP details, where relevant
• emergency contact details, where appropriate
• relevant health, mental health or wellbeing information
• information about your personal history, relationships, work, identity, family and circumstances relevant to our work together
• brief clinical notes
• attendance, payment and appointment information
• correspondence between us

I only collect information that is necessary for providing therapy or counselling safely, ethically and professionally.

I use your personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and arrange appointments
• provide therapy or counselling
• keep appropriate clinical records
• manage payments and invoices
• meet legal, professional and ethical responsibilities
• manage risk or safeguarding situations where necessary
• maintain insurance, tax and accounting records

I do not sell your personal information.

I use WriteUpp, a practice management platform for therapists, to manage bookings, video sessions, clinical notes and invoicing. WriteUpp is ISO27001 certified and hosts data for UK and European clients within the EU (Microsoft Azure data centres in Dublin and Amsterdam). Video sessions are based on Zoom technology, integrated into the WriteUpp platform, with end-to-end encryption.

WriteUpp uses a small number of specialist sub-processors (e.g. for hosting, messaging and payment processing) to operate the platform — full details are available in WriteUpp’s own privacy policy. Weekly backups are retained for 2 years in anonymised, non-human-readable form.

For payment processing, I use Stripe (including PayPal as a payment option within the Stripe platform), a PCI-DSS-compliant payment provider. When you pay via a payment link, Stripe processes your payment and billing information (such as your name and card details) directly, in accordance with Stripe’s own privacy policy.

For email communication, I use STRATO AG, a German hosting provider with its registered office and servers located in the EU.

I use appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep information secure, including password protection, restricted access, and secure storage of any paper records.

I keep brief clinical notes to support safe and ethical practice. These are factual, proportionate and relevant to the work — for example session dates, brief themes discussed, and any relevant risk information.

As a general guide:

• enquiry information is usually deleted within 6–12 months if we do not begin working together
• client records are kept for 7 years after our work ends, in line with my professional indemnity insurer’s requirements
• financial records are kept for the period required for UK tax and accounting purposes

There may be times I need to keep records for longer — for example for safeguarding, legal, insurance or complaint-related reasons.

I will not share your personal information unless there is a clear, lawful reason to do so. Depending on the circumstances, I may share limited information with:

• my clinical supervisor
• a nominated clinical executor (a fellow therapist), in the event of my death or incapacity, so that clients can be informed and records handled appropriately
• professional advisers, such as my accountant, insurer or legal adviser
• my professional body (BACP), if required in relation to a complaint or ethical matter
• safeguarding services, emergency services, or your GP, where there is a serious risk or safeguarding concern
• a court or legal authority, if required by law

Where I share information, I aim to share only what is relevant and necessary for that purpose.

Current fees are listed on my Services & Fees page. I operate a 24-hour cancellation policy: cancellations made more than 24 hours in advance incur no charge; cancellations within 24 hours, or missed appointments, are charged in full, except in genuine emergencies.

Under UK data protection law, you have rights over your personal information, including the right to:

• be informed about how your data is used
• access a copy of your personal information
• ask for inaccurate information to be corrected
• ask for information to be deleted in some circumstances
• restrict or object to certain processing
• complain about how your information has been handled

Some rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances — for example, I may need to keep some information for legal, professional, safeguarding, or insurance-related reasons. If you would like to exercise your rights, please contact me using the details above. I will respond within 30 days.

If you have a concern about how I have handled your personal information, please contact me directly using the details above. I will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with my response, or would prefer to contact the UK regulator directly, you can reach the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Website: www.ico.org.uk · Telephone: 0303 123 1113

If your complaint relates to my professional conduct rather than data protection, you can also contact BACP: www.bacp.co.uk

When you visit this website, some technical information may be collected automatically, such as your IP address, device and browser type, pages visited, and the time of your visit, through website hosting and security tools. Where I use cookies or similar technologies that are not strictly necessary, the website will provide the level of notice, choice, or consent required by law.

To see anonymous visitor statistics, I use Umami, which I run myself on this website’s server; no data is passed to third parties. Umami does not set cookies, does not store IP addresses and does not build user profiles. It only records aggregated information such as the pages viewed, the referring website and a link’s campaign tag, country, device type and browser, as well as which buttons are clicked, which FAQs are opened and whether an enquiry was sent – without anything you enter. If “Do Not Track” is enabled in your browser, your visit is not recorded. The legal basis is my legitimate interest in improving the website (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR and EU GDPR).

For clients based in Germany or elsewhere in the EU using my separate counselling and coaching offer, the same data protection standards described above apply. Where relevant, additional information about this offer is available on the counselling page for Germany & the EU.

In accordance with Article 27 GDPR, I have designated an EU representative as a point of contact for supervisory authorities and data subjects in the EU:

Tobias Clemens Plankl
Bleichstraße 3, 63150 Heusenstamm, Germany
Email: dsgvo@langdon-psychotherapy.com