Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12 October 2026
This privacy policy explains how The Art of Listening Counselling Service collects, uses and protects information when you visit art-of-listening.co.uk or get in touch through the website.

If you become a client, separate information is shared with you about how your clinical records and therapy session data are handled. This policy covers the website only.

This policy is written in plain English. If anything is unclear, please get in touch and I'll be happy to explain.

Who I am and how to contact me

I'm Jael Ribeiro, an integrative therapist trading as The Art of Listening Counselling Service. I'm the data controller for any personal information collected through this website.
Email: ku.oc.gninetsil-fo-tra%40leajICO registration number: ZB494849
I'm registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is the UK's data protection regulator. You can verify this registration at ico.org.uk.
I'm a Senior Accredited Member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) and adhere to their ethical framework, which includes specific requirements about how I handle client information.

What information I collect, and why

I collect different types of information depending on how you use the website.
If you fill in the contact formThe contact form asks for your name, email address and (optionally) phone number, plus details to help me respond: the kind of therapy you're interested in, what you're struggling with, whether you've had therapy before, your goals and preferred session times, how you heard about me, and anything else you'd like to ask. You also confirm you're 18 or over, and you can tick a box to join my newsletter. The form is provided by the website platform (see "Who has access to your information" below). I use this information to respond to your enquiry and to see whether I can help.

Lawful basis under UK GDPR: legitimate interests (responding to enquiries about my services). What you tell me about what you're struggling with is information about your health, which is special category data. For that, the lawful basis is your explicit consent, which you give by ticking the consent box on the form.
If you sign up for my newsletterThe sign-up form appears at the bottom of a number of pages of this site, and the contact form has a tick-box for it too. I collect your email address (and your name, if you provide it), and the website platform passes it to Mailchimp, which is the email marketing platform I use to send the newsletter.
Lawful basis: your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time by clicking 'unsubscribe' in any newsletter email, or by contacting me.
If you pay through the websiteThe Payment page uses PayPal. When you pay, you're taken to PayPal's pages and PayPal collects your payment details directly. I never see your card or bank details. PayPal then tells me that a payment has been made, along with your name, email address and the amount, which I keep for my accounting records.
Lawful basis: contract (taking payment for the service you've asked for) and legal obligation (keeping accounting records).
Information collected automatically when you visit the websiteLike most websites, art-of-listening.co.uk uses cookies and similar technologies to understand how the site is used and to improve your experience. The detailed list is on the Cookie Declaration page.
Where these cookies are not strictly necessary for the website to function, they only operate after you've given consent through the cookie banner.
The servers that deliver this website and its cookie banner also automatically log technical information about each request, including your IP address, for security and operational purposes. This is standard server behaviour, not something I actively collect or analyse, and it is retained only briefly.
Lawful basis: your consent (for non-essential cookies) or legitimate interests (for cookies that are strictly necessary for the website to function safely, and for server logs kept for security).

Who has access to your information

I don't sell your information to anyone, and I don't share it for marketing purposes. The following organisations have access to information collected through the website because they provide the technical infrastructure that runs it:
Website platformThe website is built and looked after by We Love Websites, a service operated by Philip Osborne Design, which acts on my behalf. The underlying technology is provided by Weblium, a website platform operated by Jetimpex, Inc. (a US company), which hosts the website on Google Cloud infrastructure in Belgium.

Weblium also handles this website's contact form and newsletter sign-up form. Those submissions are processed using Google Cloud services, which may include servers in the United States, and are stored in Belgium, within the EU. Contact form submissions are delivered to my email and also stored in the website's backend. No separate third-party form service is involved. Weblium has confirmed to us that it handles form data in line with US, UK and EU data protection requirements.

For platform support enquiries, contact We Love Websites at ku.oc.setisbewevolew%40troppus. For exercising your data protection rights, contact me directly using the details above.
Mailchimp (Intuit)If you sign up for the newsletter, your email address is stored in Mailchimp, which is operated by Intuit Inc. (a US company). Data is transferred to the United States under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which the UK government recognises as providing adequate protection for UK data.

PayPal
PayPal processes payments made through the Payment page. PayPal is responsible for the payment details it collects, under its own privacy statement. Its European operations are run from Luxembourg.
Google Analytics and Google Tag ManagerIf you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics processes information about how visitors use the website, in aggregated and pseudonymised form. Google Tag Manager is the technical service used to deliver the analytics scripts. Neither loads unless you accept analytics. Both are operated by Google, and data may be processed in the United States, which is also covered by the UK Extension to the Data Privacy Framework.
Cookie BannerThe cookie banner is a small script hosted by We Love Websites on its own server, so there's no separate consent-management company involved. When you make a choice, an anonymous record is stored: the date and time, the choices you made, the language of the page, and a random number that isn't linked to you or your device. It contains no IP address or other identifying detail, and it lets me show that the banner is working as it should.

Each of these third parties listed above has its own privacy policy, which you're welcome to review. I've selected each one on the basis that it offers appropriate data protection safeguards.

How long I keep your information

Contact form messagesWhen you submit the contact form, your message is delivered to my email and also stored in the website's backend database. If your enquiry doesn't lead to us working together, I'll delete your message from both locations within 12 months. If we do work together, your initial enquiry becomes part of your client record, which is retained according to my clinical privacy notice (provided to clients separately).
Newsletter subscriptionsI keep your email address until you unsubscribe. If you don't open any of my newsletters for a long period, I may remove you from the list to keep my records accurate.

Payment records
Records of payments are kept for as long as the law requires me to keep accounting records (usually around six years).
Website analyticsGoogle Analytics deletes the information linked to the identifier stored in your browser after 2 months without a visit from you, and the detailed records of individual events (such as page views) after 14 months. Aggregated reports that don't identify anyone may be kept longer.

Your rights under UK data protection law

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding the personal information I hold about you:

● The right to be informed about how your data is used (which is what this policy is for)● The right to access a copy of the personal information I hold about you● The right to have inaccurate information corrected● The right to have your information deleted in certain circumstances● The right to restrict how I use your information● The right to receive your information in a portable format● The right to object to my processing of your information in certain circumstances● The right to withdraw consent, where consent is the basis for my processing

To exercise any of these rights, please email me at ku.oc.gninetsil-fo-tra%40leaj. I'll respond within one month.
If you're unhappy with how I handle your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/concerns, or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Children's Information

This website is intended for adults. I don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you're under 18 and have shared personal information through the site, please ask a parent or guardian to contact me and I'll delete it.
My therapy practice works with adult clients only, and the contact form asks you to confirm you're 18 or over.

How I keep your information secure

I take reasonable steps to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. This includes:

● Using reputable platforms (Weblium, Mailchimp, Google, PayPal etc.) that maintain strong security standards● Using strong, unique passwords on the accounts that hold your information● Limiting access to information to what's needed for the purposes described in this policy● Reviewing my data handling practices regularly

No system is completely secure. If a data breach occurs that affects your information and is likely to put your rights at risk, I'll notify you and the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of it.

Changes to this policy

I may update this policy from time to time, for example if I add new technology to the website or if data protection law changes. The 'Last updated' date at the top will tell you when the policy was last revised.
If a change materially affects how your information is used, I'll notify subscribers by email.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how I handle your information, please email me at ku.oc.gninetsil-fo-tra%40leaj and I'll be happy to help.