Privacy policy
Advanced Hypnotherapy is run by me, Tim Dunton ("I", "me"), and I respect your privacy. This notice describes what happens to the details you give me when you send an enquiry, arrange a consultation or come for sessions, in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). Questions are welcome: please get in touch.
Who is responsible for your information
I trade as Advanced Hypnotherapy as a sole trader. I am the data controller and look after data protection personally.
- Address: 201 Broadway Lane, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH8 0AD
- Telephone: 07975 653893
- Email: hello@advancedhypnotherapy.uk
What information is collected
Enquiries and free consultations
- Name, phone number and email address
- The times that suit you for a call back
- Whatever you decide to share about why you are getting in touch, including anything about your health
Clients
- Contact details, plus a postal address where one is required
- Booking, appointment and payment history
- Consultation and session notes, covering your physical and mental wellbeing and your circumstances where relevant
- Messages sent between appointments
- For anyone under 18, a parent or guardian's name, contact details and written consent
UK GDPR classes health details as special category data. I give them added protection and records them only where your sessions need them in order to run safely and well.
Visiting this website
Visits are measured by Vercel Web Analytics, a cookie-free tool that leaves nothing on your device and cannot tell who you are. It notes the page you viewed, the site that sent you, a rough location, and your device and browser type, using a short-lived visitor code that expires after 24 hours. The web host also keeps brief security logs (for example IP address and browser type) purely to protect the site.
Why your information is used, and the legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Answering your enquiry and setting up a free consultation | Pre-contract steps you have asked for, and legitimate interests in replying to enquiries |
| Running sessions, keeping booking records and taking payment | Performance of the agreement between you and me |
| Keeping session notes that include health details | Your explicit consent (explained below) |
| Keeping accounts for tax | Legal obligation |
| Responding to complaints, insurance matters or legal claims | Legitimate interests and, for health data, the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims |
Health information
Special category data needs an extra lawful condition. For health details, that condition is your explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)), which I ask for before writing anything down. You are free to withdraw it whenever you wish; I then stop adding new notes, while records already made are retained for the period below.
Confidentiality
Your sessions are private. I never sell your details or passes them on for marketing. Disclosure without your agreement happens only in rare cases: a serious risk of harm to you or another person, a risk to a child or vulnerable adult, or a legal requirement. I would talk it through with you first whenever I can.
Who your information is shared with
A few carefully chosen suppliers help run the practice. Each one works under my instructions and must keep your data safe:
- Website form and email: Resend, which forwards your message to me, and Microsoft Outlook
- Online sessions: a secure video-calling service
- Card payments: a secure payment provider
- Bookkeeping and invoices: accounting software
- Website hosting: Vercel
- Visitor statistics: Vercel Web Analytics, without cookies
If a supplier holds data outside the UK, I check that suitable protections apply, for example UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual clauses.
How long information is kept
- Enquiries that go no further: 12 months
- Client records and session notes: 7 years from your final session
- Accounts, invoices and other financial records: 6 years, in line with HMRC rules
Once those periods end, the records are securely deleted or shredded.
How your information is protected
Any paper records are stored under lock, and digital records sit on encrypted, password-protected devices and accounts. Session notes are seen by me alone.
Your rights
UK data protection law gives you these rights:
- Access: request a copy of your personal information
- Rectification: have mistakes put right
- Erasure: have your information removed when there is no longer a valid reason to hold it
- Restriction and objection: limit how your information is used, or object to it
- Portability: receive information you supplied, or have it sent elsewhere, in a usable format
- Consent: withdraw it whenever you like, where consent is the basis for processing
Contact me at the details above to exercise a right. It is usually free of charge, and you will hear back within one month.
Complaints
Please raise any concern about your data with me first, so I have the chance to resolve it. You are also entitled to complain to the regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Cookies
No cookies, advertising tools or trackers are used on this website, which is why you see no cookie banner. Visitor statistics come from Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookie-free (described above). Should that ever change, I will revise this notice and ask your permission before any non-essential cookie is set.
Changes to this notice
I review this notice periodically, and the date of the latest review appears on this page.