Thomas-Lawson Counselling Services
https://thomaslawsoncounselling.co.uk
Last updated: 28 May 2026
Welcome to Thomas-Lawson Counselling Services's privacy policy.
Thomas-Lawson Counselling Services (Sole Trader) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy tells you how we look after your personal data when you visit our website at https://thomaslawsoncounselling.co.uk and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
This policy is provided in a layered format so you can navigate to the specific areas set out below. It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.
Thomas-Lawson Counselling Services is the controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as "we", "us", or "our" in this privacy policy).
Important: This policy is aligned with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We may collect, use, store, and transfer the following kinds of personal data about you:
Personal identification information: This includes your name, email address, and phone number.
Cookies and tracking data: This includes session identifiers and similar technologies that help us understand how you use our website.
Special category data (health and therapeutic information): As a counselling service, we may collect and process information about your mental health, emotional wellbeing, and personal circumstances where you choose to share this with us. This is classed as special category data under Article 9 of the UK GDPR and is subject to additional safeguards. This information is collected only with your explicit consent and is handled with the utmost care and confidentiality. See Section 5 for further details.
We collect data about you through a variety of methods including:
Under the UK GDPR, we must have a valid legal basis for processing your personal data. We rely on the following legal bases:
Consent — Where you have given us clear consent to process your personal data for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
Contract — Where the processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
Legitimate interests — Where the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
Legal obligation — Where the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
Counselling involves the sharing of sensitive personal information, including details about your mental health, emotional wellbeing, and personal history. Under Article 9 of the UK GDPR, this constitutes special category data and requires a higher standard of protection.
We process special category data on the following basis:
Special category data is stored securely within Zanda Health, our clinical practice management system, which is designed specifically for healthcare providers and complies with applicable data protection standards. This data is never used for marketing purposes and is never shared with third parties except in the circumstances described in Section 6 below.
Confidentiality is a fundamental principle of counselling practice. Everything discussed in sessions is treated as confidential. However, there are a small number of situations in which confidentiality may need to be broken. These are:
In all cases where it is safe and appropriate to do so, we will endeavour to inform you before any disclosure is made.
As required by our professional body (NCPS) and as part of safe and ethical counselling practice, we attend regular clinical supervision. Supervision involves discussing casework with a qualified supervisor in order to maintain the quality and safety of the service we provide.
Case material discussed in supervision is strictly anonymised. Your name and any directly identifying details are not shared with our supervisor. The purpose of supervision is reflective and developmental — it is not a disclosure of your personal data.
Our supervisor is themselves bound by professional confidentiality obligations.
We use the following third-party service providers who may process your personal data:
Analytics:
Payments:
Infrastructure:
Clinical and Practice Management:
Communications:
Financial Records:
Each of these providers has their own privacy policy governing how they handle your data. We encourage you to review their policies. We only share your data with third parties where it is necessary for them to provide their services to us, and where they have agreed to handle your data in compliance with applicable data protection law.
Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help us provide and improve our services.
For full details about the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, please see our separate Cookie Policy.
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
We will retain your personal data for a period of 7 years from the date your counselling relationship with us ends. This retention period is in line with the requirements of our professional body (the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society, NCPS) and our professional indemnity insurance obligations.
In the case of clients who are under the age of 18 at the time of receiving counselling, records will be retained until the client's 25th birthday, or for 7 years from the end of the counselling relationship, whichever is longer — in accordance with standard clinical practice guidance.
After the applicable retention period, your data will be securely deleted or anonymised. General website enquiry data (email correspondence not relating to an active client relationship) will be retained for no longer than 12 months.
We have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to ensure that your personal data is treated securely, and we review our data retention practices regularly.
Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:
Your right of access — You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This right always applies, though there are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process.
Your right to rectification — You have the right to ask us to correct personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure — You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances. Please note that this right may be limited where we have a professional or legal obligation to retain records (see Section 10).
Your right to restriction of processing — You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability — You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances. This right only applies to information you have provided to us.
Your right to object to processing — You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, including for direct marketing purposes.
Your right to withdraw consent — Where we are processing your data on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to the withdrawal.
Rights related to automated decision making and profiling — You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Email: admin@thomaslawsoncounselling.co.uk
Website: https://thomaslawsoncounselling.co.uk
Thomas-Lawson Counselling Services is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
If you wish to make a complaint about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details above and we will investigate your concern.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK's supervisory authority for data protection:
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk
We would appreciate the opportunity to resolve any issues before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.
You also have the right to raise concerns with our professional body if your complaint relates to the conduct of counselling practice:
National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS)
Website: https://ncps.com
We keep this privacy policy under regular review and will place any updates on this page. This privacy policy was last updated on 28 May 2026.
If we make significant changes to this policy, we will take steps to inform you, for example by placing a notice on our website or sending you a notification.