Privacy Policy – Life Matters Holistic Counselling
Introduction
Life Matters Holistic Counselling (LMHC) is committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other relevant state laws in relation to the management of personal information.
This Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information and should be read together with our Terms of Use.
What is personal information?
When used in this Policy, “personal information” has the meaning given in the Privacy Act. Generally, it means any information or an opinion that could be used to identify you.
How do we collect personal information?
We may collect your personal information if you:
- have contact with us in person
- deal with us directly over the phone or via telehealth video calls / conferencing
- participate in public or closed surveys, questionnaires or marketing events
- register for face-to-face or digital events (such as workshops / webinars)
- interact with us online, including through our website, email, webchat, mobile apps and social network services (eg: Facebook & LinkedIn – such social network providers also handle your personal information for their own purposes and will have their own privacy policies)
- have consented to receiving information from LMHC
- apply for a position with us (either as an employee, a volunteer or a contractor)
- access our service through your workplace Employee Assistance Program
Collection of your personal information is required to allow you to:
- access our services as a client or supervisee
- make appointments through our website as a registered user
- make a donation
- receive information from us including via email or sms communications
- download or order resources
- access services for your organisation
- engage in professional supervision
- receive information about or become involved in our programs, workshops, webinars or other initiatives
- work with us
What personal information do we collect?
We collect the personal information which you provide to us. This may include but is not limited to your name, address, age or date of birth, telephone number, email address, employment or organisation details. With your written consent, we may also collect sensitive information including health information about you, such as your medical history.
If you access any of our services, we may also collect debit/credit card details and other information which will allow us to process your booking and make the transaction.
We may also request:
- your preferences for receiving further information about our programs, events, workshops / webinars or other activities;
- additional types of personal information such as your job title / role, family information pertaining to your family members, mental health history; and
- demographic information and unique identifiers in order to provide you with a more personalised experience
The choice of how much information you provide to us (beyond that required by Allied Health [Counselling] Industry Standards) is yours, however if you want to register a user account on our website, order printed or download select digital resources, or otherwise participate in our professional learning modules, programs and events, we require certain information from you in order to provide those services.
Where possible, you have the option of interacting with us anonymously (for example, as a visitor of the website) or using a pseudonym if you feel more comfortable dealing with us that way. For example, if you contact us directly by telephone with a general question, we will not ask for your full name unless we need it to answer your question.
Wherever possible we will collect personal information from you directly (f-t-f or via our website), rather than from other persons or sources, unless unreasonable or impractical to do so.
Collecting information from third parties
There may be occasions when we gather personal information about you from a third party, for example, your Employer or our delivery partners (such as Acuity Scheduling). These third parties also have their own privacy policies.
How does LMHC use your personal information?
The personal information you provide to us may be used by us for the following purposes:
- to meet your preferences for receiving further information about our programs, events, workshops / webinars or similar activities;
- in order to provide you with a more personalised experience
- to allow you to obtain access to the interactive elements of our website (including asking questions, making appointments, downloading information, accessing webinars)
- to provide you with the information or resources you have requested
- to inform you about programs, advertising, marketing research or other initiatives undertaken byLMHC
- for the marketing and research purposes ofLMHC
- for internal administrative purposes
- to respond to ‘Contact’ form submissions such as LMHC ‘How may I assist?’ enquiries
- to update our records and keep your contact details up to date
- to send you emails about our programs or activities if you have agreed to receive emails (you will be provided with an opportunity in each email to decline to receive any further emails from us by unsubscribing)
- to understand how you interact with us by recording information about you in a Client Relationship Management system (for example, that you are an EAP client or supervisee)
- to assess any application from you to work with us
- if you lodge a complaint or query with us, to process and respond to your complaint or query
If you access the interactive elements of our website (including online webinars / professional learning), only your display name will be shown online. We recommend that you do not post information online that may identify you or anyone else such as your address, email address or phone number. If you do post personal information online, your personal information may be identified, recovered and displayed by internet search engines.
Other than for the purposes described above, we will not use your personal information without your prior consent.
Security of your personal information
We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of all information we collect, including that the information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. For example, your personal information is maintained in a secure environment, which can be accessed only by authorised personnel. However, no data transmission over the internet or information stored on servers accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure.
In addition, we de-identify and destroy your personal information once we no longer need it and after a period of seven (7) years as required by Counselling industry regulators.
Disclosure of personal information
Personal information will only be disclosed to third parties in accordance with this Policy or as permitted by law.
We only use or disclose your personal information for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for a secondary purpose if permitted by law, which includes:
- where you have consented
- where you would reasonably expect us to do so, and where related to the primary purpose of collection, or, in the case of sensitive information, directly related to the primary purpose
- where required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order
- where a permitted situation exists under the Privacy Act, such as lessening or preventing a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, or to public health or safety, or locating a person reported as missing
Information may be provided to third parties where services relating to the purpose for which the personal information is collected are outsourced or you would reasonably expect us to disclose it to a third party for a particular purpose. For example, we may disclose your personal information to:
- our Support Service providers
- our third-party service providers (such as our IT and analytics service providers)
- legal professionals if subpoenaed by a court of law
We do not directly disclose personal information to recipients located overseas without your consent.
Our third-party service providers may store personal information overseas when providing support or other services. For example:
- traffic information is disclosed to Google when you visit our website and mobile applications – Google stores information across multiple countries
- when you communicate with us through a social network service such as Facebook or Twitter, the social network provider and its partners may collect and hold your personal information overseas
Our website and mobile applications
Website and Mobile Application Analytics
- Google Analytics
Our website uses Google Analytics, a product provided by Google, to help us understand traffic and usage in order to help improve our services, programs, content and resources. Our website and mobile applications also use the following Google Analytics Advertising Features:
- Remarketing and Impression Reporting
- Demographics and Interest Reporting
- Government (Commonwealth, State, Territory and Department) reporting
Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your device’s Internet Protocol address (IP address) with any other data held by Google.
By using our website and mobile applications, you consent to the processing of information about you by Google in the manner described in Google’s Privacy Policy and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics by using the opt-out service provided by Google.
Accessing and correcting personal information
You may request access to your personal information collected by us and ask we correct that personal information. You can ask for access or correction by contacting us and we will usually respond within 30 days. If we refuse to give you access to, or correct, your personal information, we will notify you in writing setting out the reasons.
Complaints about your privacy
If you believe your privacy has been breached or you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us in writing. We will respond within a reasonable period (usually within 30 days from lodgement).
If you are not satisfied with our response, then you may lodge a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au).
Changes to this Policy
This Policy may change from time to time. Any updated versions of this Policy will be posted on our website and will be effective from the date of posting.
This Privacy Policy was last reviewed and updated on 31 August 2023.
Meanings
References to “LMHC”, “we”, “us” and “our” are references to Life Matters Holistic Counselling: ABN 66 752 918 007.
How to contact us
lm@counsellingholistic.com.au
Post
Life Matters Holistic Counselling
Ground Floor, 12 Smith Street,
Hobart, Tasmania, 7000