Privacy Policy

Crooked Mile Counselling respects your right to online privacy. This document describes the privacy policy of Crooked Mile Counselling for the management of clients’ personal information. The counselling services provided are bound by the legal requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

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Basic Client Information.

Personal information (such as your name, address, phone number, and email) is collected when:
1. A new client makes an initial booking or email enquiry through the Crooked Mile Counselling website,

2. When completing and returning initial intake forms that are emailed to the client before the first appointment,

3. Through referrals from other organisations and

4..Via email or SMS when either the client or the service interact. 

This personal information is retained in order to document what happens during counselling sessions, to enable the counsellor to provide relevant and informed counselling services. As you progress with your contact with us, we may also request other related types of information that is specific to the management of your confidential file and how you interact with our services.

A clients' personal information will not be used, sold, rented nor disclosed for any other purpose than outlined..

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Confidentiality

We will never share your information without your permission or in ways other than as outlined in this policy.
 

All information provided by you is stored on encrypted or password protected applications. In the unlikely event of a data breach Crooked Mile Counselling will immediately notify clients.

Information cannot be released to anyone outside the service without your written permission. However, there are three limits to confidentiality:

1. For legal reasons, as bound by law. Examples of this are court orders, subpoenas and mandatory reporting processes. In each of these situations, we will carefully review the documentation provided, seek legal guidance, and only comply if such documentation meets requisite legal standards.

2. If information disclosed to the counsellor indicates that you or others may be at risk of serious harm, whereby emergency services or the client's emergency contacts listed on the intake form may be contacted.

3. To offer you the best possible service, your counsellor may need to discuss your case with a clinical supervisor. Supervision is part of counsellor registration requirements, to ensure counsellors are practicing in safe and ethical ways. Typically, in clinical supervision  identifying information such as names are not used.