Privacy notice

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 privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy 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.
• How secure your data is.
• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information.
• Your data protection rights.
• How I handle clients' data when communicating through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
• How the AI assistant on my website works.
• How cookies are used on my website.

I'm happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy. You can contact me — Jamie Longson — by email at jplcounselling@protonmail.com.

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

The UK GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. I have explained this below:

• If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use 'legitimate interest' as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information. My legitimate interest is keeping appropriate clinical records in line with my professional obligations as a BACP-registered counsellor and to protect against any future complaint or claim.
• If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.

The UK GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called 'special category personal information'. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for the provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you), under Article 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR.

How I use your information

Initial contact

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This includes your name, address, telephone numbers and email address. In addition, your date of birth, reasons for counselling, past counselling experiences, previous or existing medical conditions / admissions, GP details and any history of self-harm or violence or overdose will be recorded on your client agreement form. This information is highly sensitive, but essential for counselling to take place as it helps to build a picture of who you are and helps me to understand your circumstances.

Whilst useful it is not essential, and it is your right to refuse to give me any or all of this information.

Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral, or a trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf.

If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 30 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

While you are accessing counselling

Everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if you were to disclose involvement in or knowledge of an act of terrorism, money laundering or drugs trafficking. In addition to this, I have a responsibility to report instances of harm to self or to others, and I do have a legal obligation to report harm or abuse to a minor or vulnerable adult. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely, password protected, with access to me only and are not shared with any third party.

I will keep notes of each session. These are securely stored electronically using strong passwords and encryption, and the data is regularly backed up with multiple copies, in the event of accidental deletion, natural disaster, fire or a cyber-attack.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages and social media messages (WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram) for more than 1 year. If there is relevant information contained in a text message or social media message, I will screenshot and electronically store it securely. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 1 year if it is not important. If necessary, I will save the email electronically and store it securely.

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. This retention period is in line with guidance for counselling and psychotherapy practice and allows for the possibility of complaints, professional reviews, or insurance matters arising after the end of therapy. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

How your data is kept secure

I take the security of your personal information seriously. The measures I have in place include:

• Electronic records stored on password-protected and encrypted devices.
• Strong, unique passwords with multi-factor authentication where available.
• Regular secure backups so data can be recovered in the event of accidental loss, disaster or cyber-attack.
• Paper records (where used) stored in a locked location accessible only to me.
• Email handled through ProtonMail, which provides end-to-end encryption.
• Secure deletion of records once retention periods end.

In the unlikely event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, I will notify the ICO within 72 hours and inform you without undue delay where required.

Third party recipients of personal data

I will not share your information with any third parties unless:

• You have consented to this.
• It is as part of my duty to protect a child, a vulnerable adult, yourself or the public.
• I am required to do so by any court or law or any relevant regulatory authority.

I use a small number of trusted service providers ("data processors") to deliver my service:

• ProtonMail — email provider (Switzerland, end-to-end encrypted).
• Netlify, Inc. — website hosting (USA).
• Anthropic PBC — provides the Claude large language model that powers the AI assistant on this site (USA).

Each is bound by their own data protection obligations and only processes your data on my instructions.

International data transfers

Some of my service providers (for example, the AI assistant provider) may process data outside the UK. Where this happens, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards under UK GDPR — typically the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with additional technical measures such as encryption.

The AI assistant on my website

My website includes an AI-powered assistant that can answer general questions about my counselling service (for example, fees, location, how to book an initial assessment).

How it works:

• The assistant is powered by Anthropic Claude, a large language model built by Anthropic PBC (USA). Messages you send to the assistant are processed by Anthropic to generate a response.
• Your conversations with the assistant are not used to train AI models. This is contractually guaranteed under Anthropic's commercial terms of service.
• Conversations are not stored on this site. They exist only in your browser's memory while the chat is open, and are sent to Anthropic for the few seconds needed to generate each reply. As soon as you close the chat panel or navigate away, the conversation is gone — there is no permanent record on this site's servers and no admin dashboard that holds your messages.
• Anthropic acts as a data processor on my behalf and is bound by a data processing agreement. Anthropic operates its own logging on the API side (governed by their privacy policy and retention rules) — that is outside my control. You can read Anthropic's privacy policy at anthropic.com/legal/privacy.
• Anthropic processes messages on servers in the USA; appropriate safeguards (UK International Data Transfer Agreement / UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses) are in place, together with technical measures including encryption in transit.

Please do not share sensitive personal information, medical history, or details of what you'd like to discuss in therapy with the AI assistant. If you'd like to discuss those things, please book an initial assessment with me directly.

I do not use AI to make any automated decisions about you or your care. All decisions about whether to offer or continue counselling are made by me personally.

Cookies and website analytics

This site uses only strictly necessary browser storage — a single local-storage flag that records when you've dismissed the cookie notice, so it doesn't reappear on every visit. Nothing else is set. There are no analytics, no advertising trackers, and no third-party cookies on this site.

If non-essential cookies are ever introduced (for example, anonymous usage analytics), they will only load after you opt in through the cookie banner, and you'll be able to withdraw consent at any time.

The AI assistant on this site does not store anything in your browser. Your conversation with it is held only in memory while the page is open and is sent to Anthropic for the duration of each request.

How I handle your data when communicating through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp

Facebook

• I will not add you as a friend on Facebook nor like any of your posts.
• Any communication between us on Facebook will be kept private and not shared with any third parties.
• I will not post any information about you on Facebook.

Instagram

• I will not follow you on Instagram nor like any of your posts.
• Any direct messages between us on Instagram will be kept private and not shared with any third parties.
• I will not post any information about you on Instagram.

WhatsApp

• I will only add clients as contacts on WhatsApp if they have given me explicit consent to do so.
• Any communication between us on WhatsApp will be kept private and not shared with any third parties.
• I will not post any information about you on WhatsApp.

Please be aware that messages sent through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp pass through Meta's servers and are subject to Meta's own privacy practices. For confidential matters, I'd encourage you to contact me by email or phone instead.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Be informed about how your personal data is used (this notice).
• Access the personal data I hold about you.
• Rectification — ask me to correct any inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Erasure — ask me to delete your personal data ("right to be forgotten"), subject to my legal and professional record-keeping obligations.
• Restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Object to my processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Data portability — ask for a copy of your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Rights related to automated decision-making — I do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis for processing.

You can read more about your rights at www.ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.

If I do hold information about you I will:

• Give you a description of it and where it came from.
• Tell you why I am holding it, how long I will store it for, and how I made this decision.
• Tell you who it could be disclosed to.
• Let you have a copy of the information in a clear form.

You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.

To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to jplcounselling@protonmail.com. I will respond within one month, in line with UK GDPR.

Changes to this privacy notice

I may update this privacy notice from time to time to reflect changes in the way I work or in the law. The "last updated" date at the top of this notice will tell you when it was most recently revised. If the changes are significant, I will let current clients know directly.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about my use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to me at jplcounselling@protonmail.com.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how I have used your data. My Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) reference number is ZB394792.

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk