Privacy Notice

Who is responsible for your information?

Ayesha Jane Walker, trading as Ayesha Jane, is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice.

Email: info@ayeshajane.com
Business address: Suite 48, 275 New North Road, London N1 7AA

I provide therapy, counselling and coaching to adults, including individual and couples work. I am a member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS).

Information I may collect

• Your name, contact details and communication preferences.
• Booking details, appointment history, session format and attendance.
• Information in enquiry forms, intake forms, agreements and messages.
• Relevant health, wellbeing, relationship and therapeutic information you choose to share.
• Brief clinical notes, agreed goals, risk or safeguarding information, and records needed to support safe and appropriate work.
• Fees, invoices, payment status and limited payment records. I do not need to store your full bank-card details.
• Electronic-signature details, including the signed wording, name, date and time.

I usually receive this information from you. In couples work, one partner may provide information that relates to the other. I may also receive limited information from a referrer or another professional where you have agreed, or where the law permits or requires it.

Why I use your information

I use personal information to respond to enquiries, decide whether I can offer an appropriate service, arrange and provide sessions, keep suitable professional records, communicate about appointments and documents, issue invoices and record payments, protect safety, meet professional obligations, and establish or respond to legal or insurance matters if necessary.

The main lawful bases I rely on are taking steps at your request before entering an agreement, performing our agreement, my legitimate interests in running a safe and accountable practice, and compliance with legal obligations. For health and other special-category information, I rely principally on your explicit consent and, where applicable, other conditions allowed by law, such as protecting vital interests, safeguarding, or establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.

You may withdraw consent where consent is the basis being used. This will not make earlier processing unlawful, but it may affect whether I can safely continue providing the service.

Couples work

Couples records may contain information about both partners. Each person has privacy rights, so a request for access will be considered carefully and may require information about the other person to be withheld. The confidentiality and no-secrets approach for couples work is explained in the Couples Therapy Agreement.

How information is stored and shared

I use carefully selected services to help run the practice. Depending on the service you use, these may include:

• Supabase, which hosts the booking system, client records, agreements, payment records and clinical notes in a controlled database.
• Google Calendar for scheduling and Zoom for online sessions.
• WhatsApp or email for brief administrative communication, according to your agreed preference.
• Bank transfer, PayPal or Stripe, where offered, to facilitate or record payments.
• Professional supervision, accounting, legal, insurance or technical support where reasonably necessary. Information is minimised and identifying details are avoided where possible.

I do not sell your information. I disclose information without your agreement only where there is a lawful and proportionate reason, such as a serious safety or safeguarding concern, a clear legal requirement, or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Where it is safe and appropriate, I will aim to discuss this with you first.

Some suppliers may process information outside the UK. Where this happens, I expect an appropriate UK data-transfer safeguard or other lawful transfer mechanism to be in place.

Writing assistance for clinical notes

I write my session notes in concise shorthand. I may use a secure digital writing assistant to expand that shorthand into a clear, structured professional record. It is instructed to preserve my intended meaning and not to add new clinical information.

The writing assistant does not make clinical decisions, diagnose clients or determine treatment. I review, edit where necessary and approve all wording myself before it becomes part of the clinical record.

Unnecessary identifying information is removed wherever possible, and the service provider does not use this information to train its models. You may ask me not to use this assistance for your notes without affecting your therapy.

How long information is kept

I normally retain adult clinical records for seven years after our therapeutic relationship ends. They are then reviewed and securely deleted unless there is a specific legal, safeguarding, complaint or insurance reason to retain them for longer.

Unsuccessful or incomplete enquiries are kept only as long as reasonably needed, normally no more than 12 months. Financial and invoice records may be kept for the period required for tax, accounting or legal purposes. Where records are linked, I may retain the minimum information needed to preserve an accurate audit trail.

Security

I use measures intended to protect confidentiality, including controlled accounts, multi-factor authentication, access restrictions and secure service providers. No electronic system can be guaranteed completely risk-free, but I review how information is handled and limit it to what is reasonably necessary.

Please avoid sending detailed therapeutic or highly sensitive material through ordinary WhatsApp or email messages unless we have agreed that this is appropriate.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may ask for access to your personal information, correction of inaccurate information, deletion, restriction, objection, or a portable copy. You may also withdraw consent where consent applies.

Some rights are not absolute. For example, I may need to retain information to meet legal or professional responsibilities, protect another person's rights, or establish or defend a legal claim. In couples work, I must also protect information relating to the other partner.

To make a request or ask a privacy question, email info@ayeshajane.com. I may need to confirm your identity before releasing information.

Concerns and complaints

Please contact me first if you are comfortable doing so, as I would like the opportunity to address your concern. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

I may update this notice when my practice, suppliers or legal responsibilities change. The date at the top will show when it was last revised, and significant changes will be brought to clients' attention where appropriate.