Devon Coaching & Counselling
Last updated: October 2026

Your privacy is important to me. This Privacy Notice explains what personal information I collect, why I collect it, how I use and protect it, who I may share it with and your rights in relation to your information.

I aim to handle your personal information in a way that is respectful, confidential, secure and consistent with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the ethical standards of my professional body.

This notice applies to information collected through my website, by email, telephone or other contact, and information collected and used when you become a counselling or therapeutic coaching client.

Devon Coaching & Counselling is a private counselling and therapeutic coaching practice operated by Tara Culverhouse.

If you have any questions about how your personal information is used, or about this Privacy Notice, you can contact me at:

Email: info@devoncoachingandcounselling.co.uk
I am responsible for deciding how your personal information is collected and used.

Depending on how you use my services, I may collect:

• your name and contact details;
• information provided when you make an enquiry;
• appointment and availability information;
• information contained in correspondence with you;
• information relevant to your counselling or therapeutic coaching;
• information about your mental or physical health where this is relevant to the work;
• information about relationships, family circumstances, work, lifestyle or other personal circumstances that you choose to discuss;
• emergency contact or other relevant contact information where appropriate;
• payment and invoicing information;
• information needed to manage appointments and online sessions;
• information relating to the professional services I provide to you.

Some information discussed in counselling may be special category personal data, particularly information concerning your physical or mental health.

I only collect information that is relevant to providing and managing my services.

I may receive information:

• directly from you when you contact me;
• when you complete a website contact form;
• when you arrange an appointment;
• during counselling or therapeutic coaching sessions;
• through email, telephone or other agreed methods of communication;
• when you make payments;
• through third-party booking or communication services that you choose to use in connection with your sessions.

I will normally collect personal information directly from you. If information is received from another source, I will deal with it in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements.

I use your personal information where necessary to:

• respond to enquiries;
• arrange and manage appointments;
• provide counselling and therapeutic coaching;
• communicate with you about your sessions;
• maintain appropriate professional records;
• manage payments and accounts;
• provide safe and effective professional services;
• obtain professional supervision;
• comply with legal, regulatory and professional requirements;
• respond appropriately to safeguarding or serious-risk situations;
• deal with complaints or concerns;
• maintain the security and operation of my website and systems.

I do not use information from your counselling sessions for advertising or marketing purposes.

Under UK data-protection law, I need a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, I may rely on:

• Contract – where processing is necessary to provide services you have requested or to take steps before entering into an agreement with you.
• Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for the effective and secure running of my practice and those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
• Legal obligation – where I am required to process information to comply with a legal requirement.
• Consent – where I specifically ask for your consent and consent is the appropriate lawful basis.

For special category information, such as health information, I will also rely on an applicable Article 9 condition under the UK GDPR, where required.

Where I rely on your consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect processing that took place before you withdrew consent.

Confidentiality is a fundamental part of counselling and therapeutic coaching.

I will normally keep information you share with me confidential and will not disclose personally identifiable information to others without your consent unless there is a lawful and ethically recognised reason to do so.

There are, however, circumstances where confidentiality may need to be limited. These may include:

• where there is a serious and foreseeable risk of harm to you or another person;
• where safeguarding concerns arise;
• where I am legally required or authorised to disclose information;
• where disclosure is necessary to protect someone from serious harm;
• where disclosure is otherwise permitted by law and there is a clear professional justification.

Wherever reasonably possible, I will discuss a proposed disclosure with you beforehand and explain what information may need to be shared and why.

In exceptional circumstances, I may need to act without your prior agreement if delaying action could increase the risk of serious harm.

This approach reflects the ethical requirement to protect clients' privacy while recognising the limited circumstances in which confidentiality may need to be overridden.

As part of responsible professional practice, I undertake clinical/professional supervision.

I may discuss aspects of my professional work with my supervisor to support safe, effective and ethical practice.

Where client work is discussed, I take care to protect your identity and use anonymised information wherever this is reasonably possible.

My supervisor is also expected to respect the confidentiality of information shared within supervision.

I will only share personally identifiable information where there is a legitimate professional, legal or ethical reason to do so.

Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

• my clinical/professional supervisor;
• professional advisers where necessary;
• relevant healthcare or safeguarding professionals where there is an appropriate justification;
• organisations involved in processing payments;
• website, booking, email, video-conferencing or other technology providers that I use to operate my practice;
• government, regulatory or law-enforcement bodies where I am legally required or authorised to provide information.

I will take reasonable steps to ensure that anyone who receives personally identifiable information is required to handle it confidentially and securely.

If you have online sessions, I may use third-party technology such as Microsoft Teams or Whatsapp! 

You should be aware that online communication involves some inherent technological risks. I take reasonable steps to use secure and appropriate systems, but no internet-based system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

I will not record counselling sessions unless this has been specifically discussed with you and there is an appropriate professional and lawful basis for doing so.

My website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Some cookies are necessary for the website to operate. Other cookies may be used to understand how visitors use the website and to help improve its performance.

Where required, non-essential cookies will only be used with your consent.

You can manage or withdraw cookie consent using the cookie controls available on the website.

The cookies and analytics services actually used on the website should be listed in the website's cookie settings and should correspond with this Privacy Notice.

I use a number of trusted service providers to operate my practice and website.

These may include:

• Website hosting: [GoDaddy]
• Appointment booking: [Calendly]
• Email: [Outlook]
• Online sessions: [Microsoft Teams / Whatsapp!]
• Payment processing: [Stripe]
• Cloud storage: [Dropbox]

These providers may process personal information on my behalf. Where they do so, I take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate contractual and security arrangements are in place.

Some technology providers may process or store information outside the UK. Where this happens, I will ensure that appropriate safeguards required by UK data-protection law are in place.

I take reasonable and appropriate steps to protect personal information from:

• unauthorised access;
• accidental loss;
• misuse;
• alteration;
• disclosure;
• destruction.

This includes using appropriate passwords, access controls, secure systems and careful handling of paper and electronic records.

No method of transmitting or storing information electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but I take reasonable steps to minimise risks.

I keep personal information only for as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, taking account of my professional, legal, insurance and accounting obligations.

My retention periods are currently:

Enquiries that do not result in you becoming a client:
[6 weeks]

Client counselling/therapeutic coaching records:
[5 years]

Financial and accounting records:
[7 years]

Other relevant correspondence:
[process notes - 5 years]

At the end of the relevant retention period, information will be securely deleted or destroyed unless there is a lawful reason for retaining it for longer.

Under UK data-protection law, you may have rights including:

• the right to ask for access to the personal information I hold about you;
• the right to ask for inaccurate information to be corrected;
• the right to ask for information to be erased in certain circumstances;
• the right to ask for processing to be restricted in certain circumstances;
• the right to object to certain processing;
• the right to data portability in certain circumstances;
• the right to withdraw consent where I am relying on consent as the lawful basis for processing.

Not every right applies in every situation, and there may be lawful reasons why I cannot comply with a particular request.

The ICO provides further information about individual data-protection rights.

You can ask me for a copy of the personal information I hold about you by contacting me using the details at the beginning of this Privacy Notice.

I will normally respond to a valid request within one month.

In some circumstances, data-protection law allows this period to be extended, and I will explain this to you if it applies.

If you have concerns about the way I have handled your personal information, I would encourage you to contact me first so that I can try to resolve your concerns.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is the UK's independent supervisory authority for data protection.

Information Commissioner's Office
Website: https://ico.org.uk/
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

I will not use confidential information from counselling or therapeutic coaching sessions for marketing purposes.

Where I send marketing communications, I will do so only where I have an appropriate lawful basis to do so. You can ask me to stop sending marketing communications at any time.

I do not use your personal information to make decisions about you based solely on automated processing or profiling that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

I may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes to my practice, technology, professional requirements or data-protection law.

The most recent version will be published on my website with the date it was last updated.

Last updated: October 2026