Introduction
This privacy policy is sets out how we look after your personal data, your rights and how the law protects you. Metta Hypnotherapy respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data in line with our regulatory bodies; GDPR, ICO, AfSFH & NCH
Purpose of this privacy policy
This privacy policy aims to give you information on how Metta Hypnotherapy collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you book a session, complete the Client Consent Form or sign up to our newsletter.
It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.
Data controller
Jo Naylor trading as Metta Hypnotherapy is the data controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as "Metta Hypnotherapy", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy).
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us by email at
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes
We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 21/12/2023. Historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Third-party links
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
The data we collect about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about you from which you can be identified. It does not include data where your identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity Data includes your name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
- Contact Data includes your address, email address and telephone numbers.
- Financial Data includes bank account or payment card details.
- Transaction Data includes details about payments from you and other details of services we have provided to you.
- Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plugin types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
- Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services.
- Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
- Medical Data includes information about your health, medical history and medication.
Apart from a limited amount of relevant Medical Data, we do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (such as details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to provide you with our services.
How is your personal data collected?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
- Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Financial and Health Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
- complete our Client Consent Form;
- create an account on our website;
- subscribe to our service or publications;
- request marketing to be sent to you; or
- give us feedback or contact us.
- Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We may collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies.
- Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
- Medical Data from your doctor or other health professionals;
- Technical Data from analytics providers;
- Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.
How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out below.
- Purpose/Activity To register you as a new client Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact Lawful basis for processing Performance of a contract with you
- Purpose/Activity To process your payment Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction Lawful basis for processing Performance of a contract with you
- Purpose/Activity To provide Solution Focused Hypnotherapy services to you Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Transaction (d) Profile (e) Medical Lawful basis for processing Performance of a contract with you
- Purpose/Activity To manage our relationship with you (including notifying you about changes to our terms of business or privacy policy and asking you to leave a review or take a survey Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Marketing and Communications Lawful basis for processing (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how clients use our services)
- Purpose/Activity To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical Lawful basis for processing (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business and network security) (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
- Purpose/Activity To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical Lawful basis for processing Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how clients use our services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
- Purpose/Activity To use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, client relationships and experiences Type of data (a) Technical (b) Usage Lawful basis for processing Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of clients for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
- Purpose/Activity To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you Type of data (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Medical Lawful basis for processing Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business)
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
International transfers
We do not transfer your personal data outside the UK.
Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. All documents and communications are stored securely or on one password protected computer. Text messages and WhatsApp messages are protected by fingerprint recognition.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
How long will you use my personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements.
As a member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy and the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, we are required by law to keep written records stored securely for eight years after your final session unless you are a child (in which case we must hold the records until your 25th birthday if you were under 16 at the time of our final session, or your 26th birthday if you were 17 years old when last seen). We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect of our relationship with you.
In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research, continuous professional development or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your legal rights
In certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.
- Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
- Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
- Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
- Request restriction of processing of your personal data.
- Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
- Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide our services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
