Version 1 – 03 January 2025
1. Introduction
Protecting your privacy
Your privacy and maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information is important. I view it as an extension of my commitment to building a safe place for my clients that honours and respects them in full and that honours the trust they have placed in me over many years.
This Privacy Policy sets out how I care for your personal information, including the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information, and how, if it is needed you can access and change your information, provide me with feedback, or possibly, make a complaint.
We treat my obligations under this Privacy Policy very seriously. In addition, I comply with my obligations under various privacy legislation, including:
- the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (and the Australian Privacy Principles under that Act);
- health records legislation, including the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), Health Records Act 2001 (Vic), Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW); and
- marketing legislation, including the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).
2. Collection of your personal information
2.1 What kinds of personal information do I collect?
The extent and type of personal information that I collect and hold about you will vary depending on whether you are an existing client, have attended one of my courses or presentations, made inquiries about my services or purchased one of my products, and the extent to which you might have used my services.
If you are currently or have in the past been a client of mine, then the personal information that I hold about you may include:
- your name, address, telephone and email address;
- your gender, date of birth and marital status;
- your billing details;
- in the event that you are or have been a client I will have on file (as part of my Code of Practice) confidential and secure session attendance notes;
- details of sessions, courses or presentations you have attended.
In general, I do not hold information about anyone who is not a client or has not attended a consultation session with me. However, if you have previously contacted me to make an inquiry about my services I could hold the information you gave me at that time.
In addition, where a client provides me with information about someone else, or where another person is designated to act on behalf of a client, I may hold that person’s information.
By voluntarily providing me with information about you, you are consenting to my use of it in accordance with this Privacy Policy, but only in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
2.2 Do I collect sensitive information?
For some of my services, I may be required to collect and hold sensitive information of yours. For example, if you have had a consultation session with me, I would collect and hold information about you in client notes as part of my duty of care, my Code of Professional Practice, and for the purposes of ensuring continuity in my sessions.
2.3 How do I collect personal information?
I may collect personal information from you in a range of ways, including:
- when you book a consultation;
- when you contact me in person, by phone, via mail, email or online; and
- when I contact you through any means.
I will always try to collect your personal information directly from you. However, there may be instances where I collect your information from other people or organisations. For example, if you are under the age of 18 and your parent or guardian is booking a session for you, I may collect information about you from them, although in such cases, I will only do so with the prior written consent of both parents or guardians.
If you have provided me with information about another person, then you need to tell that other person that you have done so, and that they have a right to access their information, and can refer to this Privacy Policy for information on how I will handle their personal information.
2.4 If you do not provide me with your personal information
If you do not provide me with the personal information I have asked you for, I may be unable to provide you with the services that you are requesting.
3. Use and disclosure of your personal information
3.1 How do I use your personal information?
We will use your personal information only in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
If you give me your personal information for a certain reason, I may use the personal information in connection with the reason for which it was provided. For instance, if you contact me by email, I will use the personal information you provide to answer your question or respond to your request.
Also, if you provide me your personal information in order to obtain access to my services, I will use your personal information to provide you with access to such services and to monitor your use of such services. I may also use your personal information and other information collected through my services to help me improve the content and functionality of my site and services.
We may use this information to contact you in the future to tell you about services that I believe will be of interest to you. If at any time you do not wish to receive any future communications or to have your name deleted from my mailing lists, you can contact me at any time to let me know.
My contact details are at the end of this policy.
In you accessing my services, I may use your information to:
- process a booking for a consultation;
- process payments;
- contact you in relation to any relevant matter relating to you or my services to you;
- identify whether you may be interested in attending one of my programs or presentations;
- contact you to advise you of upcoming programs or presentations;
- conduct research and evaluation of my services;
- carry out internal functions, including administration, and accounting;
- monitor and evaluate my services;
- conduct client surveys;
- comply with laws and regulations.
3.2 Direct marketing and client communications
From time to time, I may contact you to provide you with information about other services offered by me that may be of interest to you or your friends and family. This includes information about programs,courses, presentations, audios or other services that relate to topics of interest that you may have previously indicated you would like to know about, such as, how to build, strengthen and evolve loving relationships or support your health and well-being at a deeper level. When I contact you it may be via mail, phone, email or SMS.
When you attend a session or take part in one of my courses or presentations, you consent to me using your personal information for direct marketing purposes (such as a bi-annual newsletter posted on my website), unless you withdraw your consent.
If you do not wish to receive marketing material from us, you can contact me at any time to let me know. my contact details are at the end of this policy.
If you tell me that you do not want to receive marketing material, I will still contact you in relation to any on-going relationship that you are engaged in with us. For example, I will still send you any payment requests and notices relevant to the services you receive from us.
3.3 Who do I disclose your personal information to?
In order to allow me to provide my services to you or as part of my duty of care, I may be required to disclose your information to third parties. This may include disclosure in the following circumstances:
any people or organisations engaged by me or acting on my behalf in relation to the delivery of my services, such as service provider or suppliers;
any one acting on your behalf, including trustees or legal representatives;
where disclosure is required by law, including compulsory notices from courts of law, tribunals or government agencies
where required by legislation, for instance mandatory reporting.
If (which is possible as I use a cloud-based server) I send your personal information outside of Australia, I will require that the recipient of the information comply with Australian privacy laws and my contractual obligations to maintain the security of the information. This is necessary as part of complying with obligations under the Australian Privacy Principles.
3.4 How do I store personal information and for how long?
I will take all reasonable care to ensure that your personal information is protected, remains confidential and is stored securely. This includes my adopting a range of systems and communication security measures, as well as the secure storage of copies of any documents I hold recording information about you.
In addition, because your personal information is held confidentially, access to this information will be restricted to only people properly authorised to have access. I keep your personal information only for as long as I need it to provide you with the services you requested from me and to comply with my legal obligations.
If I no longer need to store your personal information for any purpose, including legal purposes, I will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information in a secure manner.
4. Counselling and bodywork clients and people attending workshops, etc
This section outlines how your information will be handled if you attend a consultation session that I offer.
4.1 What information is collected if I attend a consultation session?
When you attend a consultation session with me, I will only collect your personal information for the purposes of offering my services to you, and to ensure that my services are provided to you in accordance with my policies and procedures, duty of care and Code of Conduct.
When you attend a consultation session with me or use any of my related services, the information that I may collect includes:
- your name, address, telephone number and email contact details;
- your gender and date of birth;
- health information, which includes the treatments you have had or are planning to have, health conditions or ailments that you have suffered or may be at risk of suffering, and any other information that is relevant to your health and well-being;
- name and contact details of any person authorised to act on your behalf when speaking with me (known as a Health Partner or Personal Representative);
- details of any correspondence and resources that I have sent you, such as brochures, information sheets or videos;
- details of any conversations I have had with you; and
- records of my interactions with you, including (but not limited to) client session notes.
4.2 How will my information be used or disclosed?
When you attend a consultation session with me or use any of my related services, I may use your personal information for the purposes of offering and providing services to you.
I may use your personal information to:
- contact you to advise you about upcoming programs;
- conduct customer satisfaction surveys and to otherwise evaluate my services;
- conduct marketing, research and statistical analysis;
- comply with any laws or regulations, including mandatory reporting legislation.
In addition, I may use de-identified information to conduct data analytics and to identify clients who might be interested in attending one of my tailored programs.
In the course of providing services to you I may disclose your personal information:
- to any person authorised to act on your behalf (including a Health Partner or Personal Representative);
- where required, to a regulatory authority over any part of my business or affairs; and
- where I are required or permitted by law to do so, including where I reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious and imminent threat to life, health or safety of you or of another person.
5. Accessing and correcting your personal information
5.1 Can I access my personal information?
You can ask me for access to the information that I hold about you at any time. Simply contact me (our contact details are listed below) to make your request. I will endeavour to meet your request for access within a reasonable time and in the manner requested by you. However, in some circumstances, I may be unable to give you access to information, such as where:
- I no longer hold or use the information;
- providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
- the request is frivolous or vexatious;
the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings and would not normally be disclosed as part of those proceedings; - providing access would be unlawful;
- denying access is required by law;
- providing access would be likely to prejudice the prevention, detection,
- investigation and prosecution of possible unlawful activity;
- where access would pose a threat to the life or health of any individual.
If I are unable to give you access to the information you have requested, I will give you written reasons explaining why I are unable.
If you have any concerns about the refusal, please see section 7.1 for further information.
5.2 Correcting your personal information
To enable me to provide you with the best service that I can, it is important that the personal information I hold about you is accurate. I will take reasonable steps to ensure your information is accurate, complete and up-to-date at the time of collecting, using or disclosing it.
However, you should also notify me when your details change.
If you believe any information I hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, you should contact us. I will take reasonable steps to amend your records.
6. Your privacy online
6.1 Online data collection and use
When you access my website, I collect certain anonymous technical information about user activities on the website. This information which is collected using various technologies cannot be used specifically to identify you. The information collected may include information such as the type of browser that you use to access my website and the pages that you have visited.
We may store such information myselves or such information might be included in databases owned and maintained by my service providers. I may use this this information and pool it with other information to track, for example, the total number of users of my online services, the number of visitors to each page of my website, the domain names of visitors’ Internet service providers, and how my users use and interact with my website and online services.
6.2 Cookies and analytics
In operating my website and online services, I may use a technology called “cookies.” A cookie is a piece of information that the computer that hosts my services gives to your browser when you access my services. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used.
Using cookies helps provide additional functionality to my website and helps me analyze usage of my services more accurately. For instance, setting a cookie on your browser allows you to access my services without needing to enter a password more than once during a visit to my site. It will also allow me to determine which pages are of most interest for people visiting my site. In all cases in which I use cookies, I will not collect personal information except with your permission.
On most web browsers, you will find a “help” section on the toolbar. Please refer to this section for information on how to receive notification when you are receiving a new cookie and how to turn cookies off. If you decide not to display cookies, then you may not be able to gain access to all the content and facilities of this website. Accordingly, I recommend you leave cookies displayed.
7. Contact
7.1 Your feedback
If you have any questions, feedback or concerns about this policy or how your information is handled by us, or you require further information relating to privacy and my work and the services that I offer, you can contact me at any time.
If you are not happy with my response, you are able to seek advice from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling 1300 363 992 from within Australia. If calling from outside Australia +61 2 92849749.