Data controller
Paul Melia is the data controller at Therapy in Manchester. You can contact me at Paul[dot]melia[at]therapyinmanchester[dot]co[dot]uk or by phone at 07592 340211 or by post at 548 Royal Exchange Building, Old Bank Street, Manchester MN2 7PE.

What information do I collect about you?
When you become a client of Therapy in Manchester, I collect and hold the following information:
• Your name, address, and date of birth.
• Contact details – a phone number and email address.
• The name and address of your GP.

Some of this information is provided by you by email or by telephone when you book your first therapy appointment. The remainder is provided by you in writing during our second appointment when you sign a declaration agreeing to the terms and conditions of my service.

My lawful basis for holding your information

I hold your personal data on the basis of contract: I cannot provide therapy services without it. Where information must be retained beyond the end of therapy, I do so to meet a legal obligation. In the exceptional circumstances described below, I may share information on the basis of vital interests or substantial public interest.

How will I use this information about you?
This information is solely used for the purposes of arranging and conducting therapy appointments.
I may share this information with your GP or the law:
• if I have reason to think the safety of a child is at stake, or you are going to harm another person, or you are going to seriously harm yourself,
• if I am compelled by law to provide information.

I discuss clinical work in supervision as part of my professional obligations. I may also refer to aspects of therapeutic work in education or training contexts. In both cases, all identifying details are removed so that no individual client can be identified.

Receipts from the Zettle by PayPal card reader
I use a Zettle by PayPal card reader to accept payment by cards and contactless devices.
If you need a receipt, please let me know, and I will email a receipt to you.

However, if you want a digital receipt from the card reader, then you will need to enter into the reader your name and phone number or email address. Zettle will then store this information. Zettle will send you receipts when you make payments on other Zettle card readers using the same payment card.

Owners of Zettle card readers do not have access to this information.

Zettle is responsible for this processing of your information. See: Zettle’s privacy information at
https://www.zettle.com/gb/help/articles/2258543-how-we-processes-contact-details-of-cardholders

How I store your personal information
Your information is securely stored.

Handwritten information (the personal details you provide at the beginning of therapy as well as appointment notes) is kept in a locked cabinet. IT devices (e.g. computers and smartphones) storing information (e.g. correspondence by email or text messaging) are locked and only accessible by password or by fingerprint or face recognition.

In the unlikely event of a data breach affecting your information, I will notify you and, where required, the Information Commissioner’s Office, within 72 hours of becoming aware of it.

Erasing your information
• Handwritten notes (relating to appointments) are retained for three years from the end of our work together.
• Electronic records (contact details, emails, and messages) are retained for three years from the end of our work together.
• At the beginning of therapy, you provide personal details and sign a declaration agreeing to the terms and conditions of my service. This sheet is retained for six years.

This policy follows guidance issued by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy:
BACP’s Good Practice in Action (071): Ownership and storage of records in the context of the counselling professions. See in particular, Section 4: How long should I keep my records?
Available at
https://www.bacp.co.uk/events-and-resources/ethics-and-standards/good-practice-in-action/

Access to your information and correction
You have the right to access the information I hold about you.

You may ask me to correct, remove, or update information you think is inaccurate. 

You also have the right to ask me to restrict how I use your data — for example, while a query about its accuracy is resolved — and the right to object to my processing it. In most cases the data I hold is required to provide the service or to meet a legal obligation, so these rights may be limited in practice, but I will always respond to any request and explain my position.

Other websites
My website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website, so when you link to other websites, you should read their own privacy policy.

If you have a concern
If you are unhappy with how I have used your information, please contact me in the first instance.

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with how I have used your information. The ICO’s address is:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

Changes to my privacy policy
I keep this privacy policy under review and will place any updates on this webpage.

This privacy policy was last updated on 3 July 2026.

Cookies

Therapy in Manchester uses Google Analytics to understand how visitors use this website. Google Analytics places small text files (“cookies”) on your device to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymised form. This helps me see, for example, which pages are visited and how people find the site.

Google Analytics collects your IP address at the point of processing, but this is not shared with me in a form that allows me to identify you. I do not use Google Analytics to track or collect personally identifiable information about individual visitors.

You can refuse or delete analytics cookies at any time by changing the settings in your web browser. You can also find general guidance on managing cookies at www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org, and further information on how Google uses data in its “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services” notice.

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