Privacy Policy
At SoulShine Counselling, your privacy and confidentiality are treated with care and respect. I collect, use, store and protect your personal and health information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, the Australian Privacy Principles, and applicable Victorian privacy requirements.
Information I Collect
I only collect information that is reasonably necessary to provide counselling and manage your care. This may include:
- Your name and contact details
- Date of birth
- Emergency contact details
- Information about your wellbeing, experiences and relevant background
- Family, parenting or care arrangements where relevant
- Information provided by a parent, guardian, referrer or other professional where appropriate
- Counselling notes and records created during or after sessions
Information may be collected through phone or email communication, enquiry and intake forms, and during in-person or online counselling sessions.
How Your Information is Used
Your information may be used to:
- Provide appropriate counselling support
- Understand your needs and goals
- Manage appointments, payments and communication
- Maintain clinical and administrative records
- Support professional supervision
- Meet professional, ethical and legal responsibilities
Your information is treated as confidential and will only be disclosed with your consent or where disclosure is permitted or required by law, including where necessary to respond to serious safety concerns or child safety concerns.
Where clinically relevant, aspects of your counselling may be discussed in professional supervision. Identifying information is limited wherever possible.
Information Storage and Security
Your personal and health information is stored securely and access is restricted.
Reasonable safeguards are used to protect both electronic and paper records from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure.
For online counselling, secure technology platforms are used and reasonable steps are taken to protect the privacy of the session. For in-person counselling, sessions are conducted in a private setting designed to support confidentiality.
External Services
SoulShine Counselling may use trusted third-party providers for services such as practice management, appointment bookings, payments, video conferencing, email and secure data storage.
These providers may handle limited personal information as required to provide their services and are selected with privacy and security considerations in mind.
Where personal information may be stored or processed outside Australia, this will be managed in accordance with applicable privacy requirements. Further information about relevant service providers or overseas data handling can be requested from SoulShine Counselling.
Record Retention
Counselling records are retained securely in accordance with professional and legal requirements.
For adult clients, records are generally retained for at least seven years after the last counselling service.
Where a client was under 18 years of age when the last service was provided, records are generally retained until the client reaches at least 25 years of age.
Records may be retained for longer where required or appropriate. When records are no longer required, they are securely destroyed or de-identified.
Access and Correction
You may request access to the personal or health information SoulShine Counselling holds about you and may request correction of information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
Requests can be made by contacting SoulShine Counselling directly.
Privacy Concerns and Complaints
If you have concerns about how your personal or health information has been handled, please contact SoulShine Counselling so the matter can be reviewed and responded to.
You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) or the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner if you wish to seek further information or make an external privacy complaint.
Questions
If you have any questions about this policy or how your information is collected, stored, used or disclosed, please feel free to contact SoulShine Counselling.