What happens to your information.

Rosie Darnelle, trading as Darnelle Collaborative Counselling, Unit 9, 20 Shairps Business Park, Livingston EH54 5FD. You can reach me by email.

At first contact: your name, or what you would like me to call you, and a way to reach you (an email address or a phone number), plus whatever you choose to tell me about what is going on. You do not need to give me anything more than that.

If we go on to work together: brief session notes, held securely and separately from your name.

Enquiries are held with your explicit consent, given when you get in touch. Client session notes are held under the lawful basis that covers health and care provision, which works differently from consent and cannot simply be withdrawn once we are working together. I can explain what that means for you if it is relevant.

Nobody, except: Microsoft, who host my email and, if you book online or have a video session, the booking and video-call systems too. Microsoft has its own separate privacy terms. My clinical supervisor also hears about my work, but in a way that does not identify you.

My Microsoft 365 tenant is hosted in the UK, so email, bookings, and video calls stay in the UK.

Enquiries that do not go on to become appointments: deleted within three months. Session notes: destroyed after seven years. After that, everything is gone.

You can ask to see what I hold about you, ask me to correct it, object to how it is used, or ask for a copy of it. You can withdraw consent for an enquiry that has not gone anywhere. Once you are a client, the right to have session notes deleted on request does not apply in the same way, because they are held under a different lawful basis. I would rather tell you that plainly now than have it come as a surprise later. Where I can meet what you are asking for, I will.

Tell me first if you feel able to. Most things are easier to put right that way. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates how personal information is used in the UK. I am registered with them, registration number ZC231956.