Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

NI Counselling are a team of private accredited therapists, with a combined goal to help people to manage their emotional health and wellbeing needs. We provide a counselling ‘matching Service’ to find the most suitable therapist to best meet your needs.

We provide face-to face and online appointments across Northern Ireland, and online services worldwide. Our head office is at: 34 Church Street, Antrim. Northern Ireland. BT41 4BA.

We respect your privacy

This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data the business collects from you, or that you provide to the business, will be processed by us.

It explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with and how we protect it. It also details the rights available to you in relation to how we hold and use your personal data, how to exercise those rights, and what to do if you require more information or wish to make a complaint.

Your privacy is a top priority. We’re committed to always being a good custodian of your personal information, handling it in a responsible manner, and securing it with industry standard administrative, technical and physical safeguards.

This privacy notice applies to all personal data we hold.  For example, we may hold information about current & previous customers, prospective customers and competition entrants etc.

Why we collect your Personal Data

We collect your personal data so that we can manage our relationships with you. Activities that we require personal data for include:

  • Performance and maintenance of a contract
  • Provision of other services
  • Improving our existing products and services
  • Developing new products and services
  • Responding to requests and providing information
  • A range of other activities which we are obliged to undertake, or which we have gained consent to complete.

We ensure that any information we collect relates to the purposes for which it is obtained.

Security of your Personal Data

NI Counselling keep our computer systems secure by following legal requirements and international security guidance. We ensure that our processes clearly identify the requirements for managing personal data and that they are up to date. We ensure that we remain compliant with these policies and legal obligations. We do not store any off-line personal data.

Each individual therapist is responsible for maintaining their computer systems to be secure in-line with legal requirements, and securely storing their individual client data in line with BACP and GPSR requirements.

Types of Personal Data we may hold

You can access and browse our site without disclosing any personal data. However; the business may collect and process the following data about you:

  • Information about you and your business: this includes, but is not limited to, enquiry forms, email links, posting material or requesting further services, your current and past products ordered
  • Information about account balances and outstanding balances
  • Information about how you use products & services supplied by us

We collect most of this information directly from the individuals that we interact with, when they contact by telephone or electronically. We may also obtain information about individuals from external parties.

Use of Cookies

The business may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service.
They enable the business: to estimate our audience size and usage pattern; to store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests; to speed up your searches; to recognise you when you return to our site.
Further information about the type of cookies that we use and their purpose is available in the Cookies Policy at the bottom of this document.

NI Counselling do not use cookies to gather any personal data for storage on our systems. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site. Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies, over which the business have no control.

How long we keep data

Information collected by us will be held for as long as it is required for the purpose it was collected and to protect our business & rights.  By law, we are required to keep certain types of information for a specific period of time. The length of time we keep your personal data depends on the type of information and the purpose for which it was obtained.

 How we may use Personal Data

The business may use information held about you in the following ways:

  • Providing requested information about products
  • Setting up new accounts and billing details
  • Monitoring product usage
  • Generating and sending invoices
  • Monitoring payment activity and managing debt
  • Discussing and responding to requests for information or general queries
  • To enable us to comply with any legal or regulatory requirements
  • To protect or enforce our rights or the rights of any third party
  • In the detection and prevention of fraud and other crime
  • For the purpose of safeguarding someone’s vital interests, national security, responding to statutory obligations or requests from the courts and enforcement authorities.


Activities that require your consent

In order for us to carry out certain activities using your personal data, we may need to ask for your consent. For example, in order to allow us to make contact with you via email or SMS to make you aware of new products that may be of interest to you, we need you to have provided us with prior consent to do so.

When consent is being requested, we will provide options such as the choice of whether we may contact you by phone, post, email, text or through other digital media.

Where we require consent, we will explain why and provide sufficient information to allow you to make an informed decision

When we receive consent to perform such activities, that consent may be withdrawn at any time by contacting us.

Who we share information with – We may share your personal data with, or disclose your personal data to, the following categories of third party:

  • Agents or suppliers: these are persons or companies we have contracts with to provide products or services that we use in conducting our business, including managing our relationship with our customers. In many cases, they will be within the European Economic Area (EEA) but in some cases they may be outside of the EEA. We will only share or disclose to these parties the information that they need in order to provide the products or services.
  • Professional advisers: we may share or disclose personal data to professional advisers we may engage for any reasonable purpose in connection with our business, including assistance in protecting our rights
  • Other external bodies: in certain circumstances, we may be required by law to disclose personal data to external bodies, such as local authorities, government departments or PSNI.  In these cases, we will only disclose the minimum amount of information required to satisfy our legal obligation.  However, once the information is disclosed, we will not be able to control how it is used by those bodies.


How to contact us

If you have any queries or comments about this privacy notice, we can be contacted at 34 Church Street, Antrim. Northern Ireland. BT41 4BA.

How we address your rights

We capture, store and process your personal information to provide you with a range of services. You have a range of rights available to you to give you confidence that your information is appropriately managed.

The rights that you have available to you include:

Gaining access to your personal data: you are entitled to receive, on request and free of charge, a copy of all your personal data that we hold. There are some limitations to this right – e.g. if the data also relates to another person and we do not have that person’s consent, or if the data is subject to legal privilege. Where there is data that we cannot disclose, we will explain this to you.

Ensuring that your data is accurate: our aim is to ensure that the data we hold about you is correct and up to date. From time to time we may contact you to verify the information that we hold. You may also contact us to correct any errors that you notice.

Granting or Removing consent: where we require your consent for any processing, for example, to provide you with direct marketing communications, we will clearly explain what the consent is for, and any consequences of giving or refusing consent, and will provide that consent can only be given by way of a positive action by you. We will also ensure that you are able to withdraw any such consent at any time. 

Restricting processing of your data: you have the right to request us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example, if there is a dispute over our rights to carry out specific processing activities, or where you do not want us to delete data.  We will respond promptly to your request and will provide an explanation if we cannot fully comply.

Deletion of your data: in certain circumstances, you may have the right to have some or all of your personal data deleted from our records. This is sometimes referred to as the “right to be forgotten”. This may occur if, for example, we retain data which is no longer required by us, or if you withdraw a consent.  If you continue to have a relationship with us, we must retain the data we need to manage this relationship. We will respond promptly to your request and provide reasons if we object to the deletion of any of your personal data.

Moving your data: where it is possible for us to provide it, you have the right to receive a digital copy of the personal data that you have provided to us.

International Transfers of Data: in certain circumstances, we may transfer your personal information internationally, including outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Should we do this, we ensure that all transfers are made in accordance with data protection law and that your data will be given an equivalent level of protection that it has when it is being managed in the UK. 

How to make a complaint

If for any reason you have a complaint about our use of your personal information, or you are unhappy in any way with the information we provide to you, we would like you to contact us directly so that we can address your complaint. You can contact us at: 34 Church Street, Antrim. Northern Ireland. BT41 4BA.

Breaches of data protection

In the event of any breach of data protection, NI Counselling will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours and will seek to rectify this immediately.

Raising concerns

Should you have any concerns about our data protection practices, you can raise these directly with our Project Manager by emailing deborah@nicounselling.co.uk. You can also notify the Information Commissioner’s Office. registered with ICO under the reference ZA788288.

Changes to our privacy notice

We will occasionally make updates to this privacy notice. Any changes we make to this privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail or any of the contact details we hold for you for this purpose. We encourage you to periodically review this notice to be informed about how we use your information.

× How can I help you?