Your privacy matters, particularly when you are reaching out about something as personal as counselling. This policy explains what information this website collects, why, how it is kept safe, and what choices and rights you have. It covers this website and the enquiry, testimonial, newsletter and training forms on it. It does not replace the confidentiality practices covering what you share in therapy sessions themselves, which are set out in the Terms & Conditions.
1. Who We Are
For the purposes of data protection law, the data controller is Tracie Turner, trading as Hope Wellbeing Counselling, based in St. Mary Hoo, Rochester, Kent. You can contact us about anything in this policy at tracie@hopewellbeing.co.uk.
2. What We Collect, and Why
We only collect what is needed to respond to you, provide our services, and keep the site secure. Depending on how you interact with the site, this may include:
Contact and consultation requests
When you use the enquiry form, we collect your name, email address, phone number (optional), the service you are interested in, your preferred contact method, and your message. This is used only to respond to your enquiry and arrange your free initial consultation, and is sent securely to Tracie by email.
Testimonials
If you choose to submit a testimonial, we collect your name, email address, the service you used (optional), your testimonial text, and your consent choices (including whether you would like it published anonymously). Every testimonial is reviewed by Tracie before publication — nothing is published automatically. By default, testimonials are shown anonymously ("Anonymous client") unless you have chosen otherwise and Tracie has approved a named publication. Your email address is never published; it is kept privately and only used to contact you about your testimonial if needed, or if you ask for it to be removed at a later date.
Training interest and booking requests
If you register interest in a course or request a training session, we collect your name, email, phone (optional), organisation or role, your training interest, preferred days or times, number of places, and any access needs you share with us. We ask for your consent to be contacted about that specific enquiry, and separately — only if you tick this yourself — your consent to be told about future training dates. Registering interest does not automatically confirm a place; Tracie will always contact you directly to confirm.
Newsletter sign-up
If you subscribe using the newsletter form, we collect your email address, used only to send you occasional updates from Hope Wellbeing Counselling. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email you receive.
Cookies and analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site, so we can improve it. Analytics cookies are not set until you actively accept them via the cookie banner shown on your first visit — your choice is remembered in your browser, and you can change it at any time using the "Cookie Preferences" link in the footer. If you decline, no analytics data is collected about your visit.
3. Security and Spam Protection
All forms on this site are protected against spam and automated abuse using a combination of an invisible honeypot field, a minimum-time check, and Cloudflare Turnstile (a privacy-friendly alternative to traditional CAPTCHAs). To prevent abuse, we also apply a rate limit based on your IP address — but we never store your IP address in readable form. It is immediately converted into a one-way, salted cryptographic hash that cannot be reversed to identify you, is used solely to detect repeated automated submissions, and is kept only for a short period before being cleared.
4. Session and Clinical Records
This website does not collect or store clinical session notes. Any records Tracie keeps from your counselling or supervision sessions are held separately, securely, and in line with the BACP Ethical Framework and the confidentiality terms set out in the Terms & Conditions. Session records are kept for [confirm clinical record retention period, in line with BACP guidance and professional indemnity insurer requirements], after which they are securely destroyed.
5. Our Legal Basis for Processing Your Data
We rely on your consent when you submit a form, subscribe to the newsletter, or accept analytics cookies; on taking steps to enter into a contract with you when arranging counselling, supervision or training; and on our legitimate interest in keeping the site secure and responding to enquiries. Where anything you share indicates a serious risk to you or someone else, we may also need to process data to protect vital interests, as described in the safeguarding section of our Terms & Conditions.
6. Who We Share Data With
We do not sell or rent your data. We use a small number of trusted service providers (data processors) to run this website and our practice, each of whom only receives the minimum data they need to perform their function:
- Supabase – secure database hosting for testimonials and training enquiries.
- Netlify – website hosting and the secure functions that process form submissions.
- EmailJS – delivers enquiry form messages to Tracie's inbox.
- Cloudflare (Turnstile) – spam and bot protection on our forms.
- Google Analytics – visit statistics, only once you have accepted analytics cookies.
- Google Fonts – used to load the typefaces on this site.
We may also disclose limited information where required by law, or to protect someone's safety, as described in the "Limits to Confidentiality" section of our Terms & Conditions.
7. Where Your Data Is Stored
Our website and database providers may store data outside the UK. Where this happens, we rely on the safeguards those providers have in place (such as UK/EU data protection addenda and standard contractual clauses) to ensure your data continues to receive an equivalent level of protection. Our database hosting region is [confirm Supabase project region, e.g. "London (eu-west-2)"].
8. How Long We Keep Your Data
We only keep personal data for as long as it is needed:
- Contact enquiries are kept for as long as reasonably needed to respond to you, and are not retained indefinitely once resolved.
- Approved, published testimonials are kept for as long as they remain on the site, or until you ask for yours to be removed. Testimonials that are not approved, or later removed, are kept privately for internal record-keeping for [confirm internal retention period for unapproved/removed testimonials, e.g. "24 months"].
- Training interest and booking enquiries are kept for [confirm retention period, e.g. "12 months"] unless you ask to be removed sooner.
- Hashed IP addresses used for rate-limiting are kept only briefly and are not linked to any of the above.
9. Your Rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to: request access to the personal data we hold about you; ask us to correct anything inaccurate; ask us to delete your data; ask us to restrict or object to certain processing; request a copy of your data in a portable format; and withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it (this will not affect anything done before you withdrew it). To exercise any of these rights, contact tracie@hopewellbeing.co.uk.
10. Children's Data
Our services and this website are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children through this site.
11. How to Complain
If you have concerns about how your data has been handled, please contact us directly first so we can put things right. You also have the right to raise a complaint with the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at www.ico.org.uk, or by calling 0303 123 1113.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example to reflect changes in the law or in the tools we use. The most current version will always be available on this page, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.
13. Contact
If you have any questions about this policy or how your data is handled, please get in touch via tracie@hopewellbeing.co.uk or the contact page.