Counselling involves sharing personal and sensitive information. I take your privacy seriously and only collect and keep information that is necessary for providing safe, ethical and professional counselling.

I, Maria Georgiou, am the Data Controller for Maria Georgiou Therapy and am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This notice explains what information I collect, why I use it, how it is protected and your rights in relation to it.

Depending on whether you are making an enquiry or attending counselling, I may collect:

• Your name, date of birth, address and contact details.

• GP and emergency-contact details.

• Information provided during assessment and counselling.

• Relevant physical and mental-health information, medication and previous therapy information.

• Information relating to safeguarding or risk where necessary.

• Brief clinical notes, appointment and attendance information.

• Relevant emails or messages and payment and accounting information.

Counselling may involve special category data, including health information and other sensitive information about your life.

I use personal information where necessary to:

• Respond to enquiries and arrange counselling.

• Assess whether my service is appropriate for you.

• Provide counselling and maintain appropriate clinical records.

• Manage appointments and payments.

• Work safely where risk or safeguarding concerns arise.

• Meet professional, legal, insurance and accounting responsibilities.

• Respond to complaints or legal claims where necessary.

I do not use your counselling information for marketing purposes.

Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), I primarily rely on Article 6(1)(b), where processing is necessary to take steps towards entering into a counselling agreement or to provide counselling under that agreement.
Other lawful bases may apply where processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, protect someone’s vital interests or pursue legitimate interests associated with running a safe and responsible professional practice.
Counselling also involves special category information, particularly information relating to health and wellbeing. Where the relevant legal requirements are met, I rely on Article 9(2)(h) UK GDPR, relating to the provision of health care or treatment, together with the applicable provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and my professional duty of confidentiality.
Where a different lawful condition is required for particular circumstances, such as establishing or defending legal claims, I will use the relevant condition.

You can contact me through the contact form on my website, by email or by telephone.
I use the information you provide to respond to your enquiry, discuss counselling arrangements and, where appropriate, arrange an initial consultation.
My website is hosted by Wix, which may process and store information submitted through its contact forms. Email and telephone services may also process information as part of providing those services.
Email and text messaging are used mainly for administrative communication. As ordinary email and text messaging cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure, I recommend avoiding highly sensitive therapeutic information through these methods where possible.

Clinical records are stored electronically using password-protected Apple devices and Apple’s iCloud storage service.
I keep brief clinical notes rather than transcripts of counselling sessions. Wherever possible, identifying information is kept separately from clinical notes.
I take appropriate measures to protect personal information from unauthorised access, loss or disclosure, including restricting access to my devices and accounts.
I may use third-party service providers for website hosting, communications, electronic storage and other administrative functions. These providers may process information as part of delivering their services.
Some service providers may process information outside the UK. Where international transfers take place, appropriate data protection safeguards must apply.

Where counselling takes place online, I will use a platform assessed as suitable for confidential therapeutic work and will explain which platform we will be using before sessions begin.
I take reasonable steps to protect confidentiality during online and telephone counselling and will discuss any relevant practical considerations with you.

I attend regular clinical supervision as part of my professional practice.
Therapeutic work may be discussed in supervision to support safe and ethical counselling. Clients are discussed without using their names, and identifying information is protected as far as possible.

Confidentiality is central to the counselling relationship. I do not routinely share your personal information with other people or organisations.
There are limited circumstances in which information may need to be shared, including:
•    With your GP or another healthcare professional, where appropriate.
•    With emergency or safeguarding services where there are serious concerns about safety.
•    With my professional insurer or legal adviser where necessary.
•    Where disclosure is required by law or a court order.
•    With a referring or funding organisation where relevant information sharing has been explained and appropriately agreed or otherwise lawfully justified.
Wherever possible and appropriate, I will discuss any proposed disclosure with you first and share only the information necessary for the circumstances.

If you enquire about counselling but do not become a client, I will usually delete your enquiry information within six months.
Client and clinical records are normally retained for seven years after counselling ends, unless there is a legal, safeguarding, insurance or complaint-related reason to retain them for longer.
Payment and accounting records may be kept for the period required by tax and financial law.
When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or destroyed.

My website is hosted by Wix and may use cookies that are necessary for the website to function.
Where non-essential cookies or similar technologies are used, information and appropriate consent choices will be provided where required by law.

Under UK data protection law, you have rights relating to your personal information. Depending on the circumstances, these may include the right to:
•    Request access to the information I hold about you.
•    Ask for inaccurate information to be corrected.
•    Request deletion of information in certain circumstances.
•    Request that processing is restricted.
•    Object to certain types of processing.
•    Request data portability where applicable.
These rights are not absolute and may depend on the lawful basis for processing and other legal or professional obligations.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact me using the details below.

If you have questions or concerns about how your personal information is handled, please contact:
Maria Georgiou Therapy
Email: maria@maria-georgiou-therapy.com
Telephone: 07762 806118
You also have the right to raise a concern or make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Website: www.ico.org.uk

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Version 2.0 | October 2026