Privacy policy

Sample text for review — to be replaced by your legal counsel. This draft describes the kind of information a therapy marketplace handles and is provided for demonstration and review only. It is not legal advice.

1. Who we are

CounselRoute ("CounselRoute", "we", "us") runs an online marketplace where people looking for therapy ("clients") can find, compare, book and pay independent, verified therapists ("therapists"), and meet them by video or audio. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who can see it and what choices you have.

You can reach us at any time at support@counselroute.com.

2. Information we collect

• Account details: your name, email address, password (stored only as a one-way hash), country, time zone and the role you signed up with (client or therapist).
• Profile and preferences: what you would like help with, preferred approaches, languages and session times, and any goals you choose to record.
• Intake answers and assessments: answers to intake questionnaires and check-ins you complete. These are health information and are stored encrypted.
• Messages, journal entries and files: messages and attachments exchanged with your therapist and private journal entries. These are stored encrypted. Journal entries are private unless you choose to share a specific entry with your therapist.
• Session records: appointment times, attendance, cancellations and, for therapists, the clinical notes and treatment goals they write about their own clients.
• Therapist verification details: professional title, qualifications, licence and insurance details and the documents therapists upload so that we can verify them.
• Payment information: what you paid for, amounts, refunds and invoices. Card details are entered with our payment provider and are never stored on our servers.
• Technical information: device type, app version, IP address, log-in history and push notification tokens, used to keep the service secure and working.
• Reviews: ratings and comments a client leaves after a completed session.

We do not record or store the audio or video of your sessions.

3. How we use your information

• To create and secure your account and to sign you in.
• To show therapist profiles, suggest matches and let you book, pay for and attend sessions.
• To send service messages such as booking confirmations, reminders and receipts. Notifications about messages are deliberately neutral and never include what a message says.
• To verify therapists and to keep clients and therapists safe, including handling safety reports.
• To process payments, refunds and therapist earnings.
• To prevent fraud and abuse, to fix problems and to improve the service using aggregated figures.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We send marketing email only if you have agreed to it, and you can withdraw that agreement at any time in your account settings.

4. Who can see your information

• Your therapist can see your profile, your session history with them, your messages with them and, if you have shared it, your intake answers and selected journal entries. A therapist can only see clients they are in a care relationship with.
• Our administrators can see account, booking and payment records needed to run the service. They cannot read your messages, journal entries or your therapist's clinical notes.
• Service providers who process data for us under contract, such as hosting, email delivery, video, push notifications and payments. They may only use the data to provide their service to us.
• Authorities, where we are legally required to disclose information, or where it is necessary to protect someone from serious harm.

We do not sell your personal information.

5. Safety and confidentiality limits

Conversations with your therapist are confidential, with limited exceptions. A therapist may need to act, and we may need to be informed, where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else, or where the law requires it. If you tell us or your therapist about an emergency, we may share the minimum information needed to help you.

CounselRoute is not an emergency or crisis service. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number.

6. How we protect your information

• Sensitive content such as intake answers, messages, journals and clinical notes is encrypted before it is stored.
• Connections to the service are encrypted in transit.
• Access is limited by role, and important actions are recorded in a tamper-evident audit log.
• Sign-in sessions can be ended, and accounts can be suspended if misuse is suspected.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information we will tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

7. How long we keep it

We keep account and booking records while your account is open and for as long afterwards as needed for legal, tax and accounting reasons. Clinical records written by therapists are kept for the period required by the rules that apply to them. When you delete your account, we remove or anonymise your personal information, except for records we are required to keep.

8. Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• see the personal information we hold about you and receive a copy;
• correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your account and information;
• object to or restrict some uses, and withdraw consent you have given;
• complain to your local data protection authority.

You can manage most of this in the app or on the website, including consent settings, notification preferences and account deletion. For anything else, email support@counselroute.com and we will respond within a reasonable time.

9. International transfers

CounselRoute and its providers may process information in countries other than your own. Where we do, we use appropriate safeguards so that your information keeps a comparable level of protection.

10. Children

CounselRoute is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has created an account, please contact us and we will close it.

11. Cookies and similar technologies

The website uses cookies that are needed to keep you signed in and to protect against misuse. We do not use advertising cookies.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make an important change we will notify you in the app or by email and show the date of the latest version at the top of this page.

13. Contact

Questions about this policy or your information: support@counselroute.com.