Privacy policy

01 / YOUR PRIVACY MATTERS

Your privacy matters

The Counselling Wollongong Studio is committed to handling personal and health information respectfully. This information covers website use, enquiries and counselling arrangements. The relevant privacy framework includes the Australian Privacy Principles and NSW Health Privacy Principles; this information does not mean that every operational requirement has been independently audited. Reading a website is not blanket consent to collect or disclose sensitive information.

The practice is operated by RCS-Health trading as The Counselling Wollongong Studio, ABN 61 529 395 719. For service enquiries, use the enquiry form. For feedback, complaints or privacy requests, use the separate feedback, complaints and privacy form.

02 / WHAT WE COLLECT AND WHY

What we collect and why

Depending on how you contact the practice, information may include your name, safe contact details, communication preferences and a brief reason for seeking support. If counselling proceeds, relevant intake details, consent records, goals, session notes and safety information may be needed. Information is collected to respond to you, assess suitability, provide counselling, manage appointments, maintain appropriate records and meet legal and professional responsibilities. Relevant information may also be used for professional supervision and service review with appropriate confidentiality safeguards and a lawful basis.

Only information reasonably needed for these purposes should be requested. You can ask why a detail is needed or choose not to provide it; this may limit the response or service that can be offered. Please avoid sending a detailed personal history or identifying information about other people in an initial enquiry.

Information is generally collected directly from you. Information from referring professionals or other people is handled with appropriate consent or another lawful basis. An enquiry about counselling can itself contain health information.

03 / THE SEPARATE JOTFORM ENQUIRY FORM

The separate Jotform enquiry form

The enquiry page links to a separately hosted Jotform form. Following the link leaves this website; it does not submit an enquiry. This static site does not receive or store your form answers, embed Jotform, prefill fields or forward the wording guide’s choices.

Information you submit is handled through Jotform and the practice’s form arrangements. Read the collection notice and privacy information on the form before sending details, and use a contact method that is safe for you. Successful delivery and notification contents have not been independently tested.

Form encryption has been enabled. This is not a guarantee of absolute security or confirmation that notification emails contain no sensitive information. Account-specific storage locations, retention arrangements and any overseas disclosures still need to be verified before public launch. Australian-only storage is not claimed.

04 / THE OPTIONAL WORDING GUIDE

The optional wording guide

The optional wording guide only changes example text in your current page. It has no name, contact, personal-history or upload fields. Its code does not send your choices to a server or save them in cookies, local storage, session storage or a database. Resetting, reloading or leaving the page clears the guide. Nothing is copied into Jotform.

Using the guide does not create an enquiry, appointment or waitlist entry.

05 / WEBSITE AND HOSTING INFORMATION

Website and hosting information

This website’s own code has no analytics, advertising trackers or third-party embeds. Fonts and images are served with the site.

Hosting, sign-in services, internet infrastructure and your browser may still process technical information to deliver and secure the site. This is not a promise of zero logs or no third-party processing. This website uses ChatGPT Sites; see OpenAI’s Privacy Policy. External services have their own privacy arrangements.

06 / CONFIDENTIALITY AND SHARING INFORMATION

Confidentiality and sharing information

Counselling information is treated confidentially. Relevant information may be shared with your consent or where disclosure is required or otherwise permitted by law, including applicable safety, child-protection or court obligations. A complaint or insurance matter is not a blanket permission to disclose everything. Where safe and appropriate, the reason and scope of any disclosure will be discussed with you.

Before couples or family work begins, the counsellor will discuss who is participating, how records and individual communications are handled, and the limits of confidentiality. There is no automatic promise that information will either be shared with or concealed from another participant.

Family therapy is offered for ages 11 and over. A young person’s capacity, consent, safety and parent or carer involvement need individual consideration; age eligibility alone does not decide who can access their information.

07 / STORAGE, RETENTION AND SECURITY

Storage, retention and security

The practice uses Halaxy and Xero for payments and related administration, Zoom for online sessions, and NovoNote to listen to and transcribe counselling sessions and generate AI-assisted notes. The practice reports that AI consent is included in its consent form and that counselling is not currently offered without this AI use. The practice reports that transcripts are deleted after notes are prepared. The mandatory-use consent model requires review before public launch; this draft does not establish that consent is voluntary or that the arrangements satisfy applicable requirements. Audio retention, backup deletion and retention of the resulting clinical notes still need to be clarified. Jotform hosts the enquiry and feedback forms. Naming these providers does not establish their account-specific storage locations, retention settings, access controls or notification contents; these arrangements still need to be verified and explained.

The proposed practice commitment is to take reasonable steps to protect information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access, and to restrict access to people with an appropriate need. No online system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Records need to be retained for applicable legal and professional requirements, and securely destroyed or de-identified when lawful and no longer required. A specific retention schedule, backup arrangements and overseas processing locations have not yet been verified for the Studio. These details must be settled before this becomes the final practice policy.

If a data breach occurs, the practice will assess and contain it, address risks and provide notifications where required.

08 / ACCESS, CORRECTION AND PRIVACY CONCERNS

Access, correction and privacy concerns

You can request access to your information, ask for a correction, or raise a privacy concern. Identity may need to be verified. If access cannot lawfully be provided, the reason and available options should be explained.

Use the separate feedback, complaints and privacy form for privacy requests and concerns. It opens on Jotform. Share only the details needed to explain your request; do not send unnecessary clinical histories or identity documents. The general service-enquiry form is separate. A concern can also be raised with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or Information and Privacy Commission NSW, as appropriate. This policy will be updated when the practice arrangements are confirmed.