Your information
Your privacy matters. This page explains what personal information I collect, why, and how I look after it.
I am Clare Kiernan, trading as Essex Therapy. I am the person responsible for your personal information (the “data controller”). I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
You can contact me at clare@essextherapy.com or on 07840 416633.
If you use the contact form, I receive your name, email address, telephone number (if you give one) and the message you write. I use this only to reply to your enquiry and to arrange a first conversation or session if you wish.
Please don’t include sensitive details in the contact form. You are always welcome to call me instead.
If you become a client, I will keep brief, secure notes about our sessions, along with your contact details and session arrangements. These are kept confidential and held in line with the BACP Ethical Framework and data protection law. I will only share information about you with someone else if you ask me to, or in the rare situations where the law or serious concerns about safety require it. Where possible I will talk this through with you first.
I use your information to respond to your enquiry and to provide counselling, because it is necessary to take steps at your request and to deliver the service you have asked for (legitimate interests and contract). Where I handle information about your health, this is for the provision of health or social care.
Enquiries that do not lead to counselling are deleted within a reasonable period, normally within six months. Client records are kept securely for the period recommended by my professional body and insurer, and then destroyed securely.
I do not sell or share your information for marketing. Your contact-form message is delivered by email through my website hosting provider, who process it on my behalf. This website does not use advertising cookies or tracking.
Under UK data protection law you have the right to ask to see the information I hold about you, to have it corrected, to ask for it to be deleted (in some circumstances), to restrict or object to how I use it, and to ask for a copy in a portable format. To make a request, please contact me using the details above.
If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, please tell me first so I can put things right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
I may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page.
Last updated: October 2026