Privacy

Privacy & Confidentiality

What you share is confidential, within clear professional and legal limits I’ll always explain at our first session.

This page also sets out how any details you send me are stored and used, and your rights over your information.

Confidentiality in practice

What you tell me in a session stays between us. I won’t discuss you with family, friends, your employer or your GP without your consent. There are a small number of limits to this, which I’ll explain clearly before we begin:

• If I believe you or someone else — particularly a child or a vulnerable adult — is at serious risk of harm.
• Where the law requires disclosure, for example in relation to terrorism, money laundering, or a court order.
• In my regular professional supervision, where your identity is not shared. Supervision is a professional standards requirement and my supervisors are bound by the same confidentiality.

Wherever it is safe and possible to do so, I’ll talk to you first before sharing anything.

Who is responsible for your information

Mark Hope, trading as Hope Well Being, is the data controller for the information described on this page. I serve Worle, Weston-super-Mare & North Somerset and work online across the UK. You can reach me at hello@hopewellbeing.uk or 07526 169645.

What I collect

• When you enquire: your name, email address, phone number if you choose to give it, the service you’re interested in, and whatever you write in your message.
• If we work together: contact details, brief session notes, and any information needed to keep you safe and to work responsibly.
• When you visit this site: privacy-friendly, aggregated analytics. No cookies are used to track you across other websites, and I do not build advertising profiles.

Why I hold it, and on what legal basis

• To reply to your enquiry and arrange sessions — on the basis of taking steps at your request before entering a contract.
• To deliver sessions and keep appropriate records — on the basis of our contract, and my legitimate interest in practising safely and responsibly.
• Health information is special category data. Where I hold it, I rely on your explicit consent, and on the provision of health and social care.
• To meet insurance and professional obligations — on the basis of my legal obligations and legitimate interests.

How long I keep it

Enquiries that don’t lead to sessions are deleted after 12 months. Client records are kept for seven years after our final session, after which they are securely destroyed. Where a client is under 18, records are kept until their 25th birthday.

These are the standard periods for counselling practice in the UK. If your insurer sets a different requirement, that period applies instead.

How it’s kept safe

Records are stored securely and are accessible only to me. Notes are kept separately from identifying details wherever practical. Digital records are held on password-protected, encrypted devices and services.

Services I use to run the practice, all acting as data processors:

• IONOS — the hopewellbeing.uk domain and email forwarding.
• Google — the mailbox my email is delivered to.
• Web3Forms — passes the contact form on this site to my email. It does not store your message.
• Vercel — hosts this website.

Session notes are kept separately from these services, secured as described above.

Who I share it with

I don’t sell your information and I don’t share it for marketing. Information is only shared in the confidentiality limits above, or with a service provider who helps run the practice (such as my email or website provider) under appropriate agreements.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the information I hold about you;
• ask me to correct anything that’s wrong;
• ask me to delete it, where I’m not required to keep it;
• ask me to restrict or object to how I use it;
• withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis I rely on.

To exercise any of these, just contact me. I’ll respond within one month.

Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how I’ve handled your information, please tell me first — I’ll do my best to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

If this notice changes, I’ll update this page. It was last reviewed on 8 August 2026.