Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25 November 2025

1. Who we are

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and protect your personal data when you use this website https://www.melaniedale.co.uk or contact us about counselling and holistic therapy services.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, the data controller is:

Melanie Dale (trading as Melanie Dale Counselling)
54 Glebe Way, Feltham, TW13-6NZ, United Kingdom
Telephone: 07812480101
Website contact form: Contact Us

2. What this policy covers

This policy applies to:

  • Visitors to our website
  • People who contact us via our contact form, phone or other means
  • Clients and prospective clients of our counselling and holistic therapy services

It explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

3. The types of personal data we collect

3.1 Website visitors

When you visit our website, we may collect:

  • Technical data such as IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, device type, operating system
  • Usage data such as pages visited, how you navigate the site, and how long you spend on each page
  • Cookie data from tools such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager (see section 8 – Cookies and similar technologies)

3.2 People who contact us

When you contact us (for example using the contact form or by phone), we may collect:

  • Your name
  • Contact details (such as phone number and any email address you choose to share)
  • Preferred contact method and availability
  • Information you choose to share about your situation, including basic information about your mental health, wellbeing, or the issues you would like support with

3.3 Clients and prospective clients

If you decide to work with us, we may collect and process additional information, for example:

  • Date of birth and age
  • Address and emergency contact details
  • Relevant medical or mental health history that you choose to share
  • Information about your family, school, work, or personal circumstances that are relevant to therapy
  • Session notes and records
  • Payment-related information (for example, confirming that a payment has been received – we do not store your full card details if you pay electronically via a third-party processor)

Because we offer counselling services for adults, young people and children aged 11 and above, some of the information we hold may relate to children and young people. We treat this information with particular care.

4. Our lawful bases for using your data

We only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the situation, this may be:

  • Contract: to take steps at your request before entering into a counselling agreement, and to deliver counselling and therapy services if you become a client.
  • Legitimate interests: to manage and improve our website, respond to general enquiries, maintain practice records, keep our systems secure, and grow our practice in a reasonable way that does not override your rights and freedoms.
  • Legal obligation: to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including record-keeping, safeguarding and tax obligations.
  • Consent: for certain optional activities, such as non-essential cookies/analytics, or if we ever wish to use your details for specific marketing communications (which we do not currently do via this website).
  • Vital interests: in rare and exceptional circumstances, if we believe there is a serious and immediate risk of harm to you or someone else, we may need to share information to protect life.

5. How and why we use your personal data

5.1 To provide counselling and therapy services

We use your information to:

  • Respond to enquiries and requests for information about our services
  • Assess whether our services are suitable for your needs
  • Arrange appointments and manage our diary
  • Provide counselling and therapy sessions
  • Keep appropriate records of our work together
  • Handle payments and basic financial administration

5.2 To respond to messages and enquiries

If you contact us using the website, phone or other means, we will use the information you provide to respond to your enquiry, follow up with you, and keep a record of our communications as needed.

5.3 To manage and improve our website

We use analytics and similar tools to understand how visitors use our website, so that we can improve the content, user experience and security of the site (see section 8).

6. Sharing your personal data

We treat your information as confidential. We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. We may share your data only in the following limited circumstances:

  • Service providers: trusted third parties that help us run our website and business (for example, website hosting, email and analytics providers). These providers are only allowed to process your data on our instructions and must keep it secure.
  • Professional obligations and supervision: counsellors commonly discuss their work in supervision in a way that protects client identity. Any material taken to supervision is carefully anonymised wherever possible.
  • Legal or safeguarding requirements: if we are required by law to share information (for example, a court order) or if we believe there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else, we may need to share relevant information with appropriate services (such as your GP, emergency services, or safeguarding authorities). Where possible and appropriate, we will discuss this with you first.
  • Professional advisers: accountants, legal advisers or insurers may have limited access to necessary information to support us in running our practice and meeting our legal obligations.
  • Website analytics providers: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Google Search Console may process limited information about your visit (see section 8).

7. International transfers

Some of our service providers (such as Google) may store or process your information outside of the UK, including in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United States. When this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses or other legally recognised mechanisms) to help ensure your data remains protected to UK standards.

8. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site work properly, to understand how it is used, and to help us improve our services. Cookies are small text files placed on your device.

8.1 Types of cookies we use

  • Strictly necessary cookies: required for the basic functioning of the website, such as security and accessibility features. You cannot switch these off using our cookie controls.
  • Analytics and performance cookies: used to count visits, understand traffic sources and see how visitors move around the site. These help us improve the website.

8.2 Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect anonymised statistics about how visitors use our website (for example, which pages are visited and how long visitors spend on each page). Google Analytics collects your IP address, which may be processed in a way that helps us understand general patterns of usage. We do not use Google Analytics to identify individual users.

8.3 Google Tag Manager

We use Google Tag Manager to help manage and deploy scripts and tracking tools on our website (such as Google Analytics). Google Tag Manager itself does not collect personal data beyond what is necessary for its secure operation.

8.4 Google Search Console

We use Google Search Console to help monitor how our site appears in Google search results and to diagnose technical issues. This tool provides aggregated, search-related information and does not identify individual visitors to our site.

8.5 Managing cookies

When you first visit our site, you may see a cookie notice explaining how we use cookies and asking for your consent for non-essential cookies. You can usually control cookies through your browser settings, including deleting existing cookies and blocking new ones. Please note that disabling some cookies may affect how the website functions.

9. How long we keep your data

We keep your personal data only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy and to meet our legal and professional obligations. This may include:

  • Basic enquiry records: typically up to 1 year from our last contact, unless we need to keep them longer for legal or professional reasons.
  • Client records and session notes: usually for a period set in line with professional guidance and insurance requirements (for example, a set number of years after the end of therapy). Exact retention periods may vary depending on the circumstances and the nature of the work.
  • Financial records (such as invoices): generally for 6 years after the end of the relevant tax year, to comply with UK tax law.
  • Website analytics data: retained by Google in accordance with their own retention controls and policies.

When data is no longer required, we take steps to delete or anonymise it securely.

10. How we keep your data secure

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or alteration. These may include:

  • Using secure devices and software with appropriate access controls
  • Using passwords and, where possible, multi-factor authentication
  • Limiting access to personal data to those who need it for legitimate purposes
  • Keeping software and security tools up to date
  • Storing paper records in secure locations

While we do our best to protect your data, no system can be completely secure. If we become aware of a data breach that affects your rights and freedoms, we will inform you and any relevant authorities when we are legally required to do so.

11. Children and young people

We work with children and young people aged 11 and above. Where we process personal data relating to children or young people, we do so with particular care and in line with professional and legal guidance. Depending on the circumstances, we may need consent from a parent or guardian, or we may rely on another lawful basis where this is more appropriate and in the child’s best interests.

We will explain in an age-appropriate way what information we collect, why, and how it will be used, and we will respect the child or young person’s rights under data protection law.

12. Your data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights are not absolute and may be subject to certain limitations or exemptions, especially where they conflict with legal obligations, safeguarding requirements or the rights of others. Subject to those limits, you may have the right to:

  • Access – request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
  • Rectification – ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
  • Erasure – ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances (sometimes called the “right to be forgotten”).
  • Restriction – ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
  • Data portability – ask us to provide your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, where applicable.
  • Object – object to the processing of your data where we are relying on legitimate interests or, if applicable, for direct marketing.
  • Withdraw consent – where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw this at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew your consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in section 1. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

13. Complaints and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal data, please contact us in the first instance. We will do our best to address your concerns.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the UK data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can contact the ICO using the details on their website.

For more information, please visit the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk.

14. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to other websites, social media platforms or resources that are not controlled by us. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that they have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for how they collect or use your information.

15. Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, practices or legal obligations. The latest version will always be posted on this page, and the “Last updated” date at the top will show when it was most recently revised.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.