Privacy Policy

Kylie Bolton Individual & Relationship Counselling (“we”, “us”, or “our”) is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit kylieboltoncounselling.com.au or contact us through this website. We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

1. Who we are

Kylie Bolton Individual & Relationship Counselling is a private counselling practice based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Kylie Bolton is a registered counsellor, a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), and registered with PACFA.

If you have questions about this policy or our privacy practices, you can contact us at: kylie@kylieboltoncounselling.com.au

2. Information we collect

We may collect the following types of personal information:

• Contact form submissions — your name, email address, phone number (optional), service interest, and message when you use the website contact form.
• Usage data — information about how you interact with the website, collected via Google Analytics (see section 5). This includes pages visited, time on site, browser type, and general geographic location (city/country level). This data is aggregated and does not identify you personally.
• reCAPTCHA data — when you submit a contact form, Google reCAPTCHA verifies that you are a human. This involves Google collecting data including your IP address and browser behaviour. See section 6.

We do not collect sensitive health information through this website. Any health-related information you share in counselling sessions is governed by separate confidentiality obligations (see section 7).

3. How we use your information

We use the information we collect to:

• Respond to your enquiry and communicate with you about counselling services.
• Schedule and manage appointments if you become a client.
• Understand how visitors use the website so we can improve it (Google Analytics).
• Protect the website against spam and abuse (Google reCAPTCHA).
• Comply with our legal and professional obligations.

We will not use your information for marketing purposes without your explicit consent, and we will never sell or rent your personal information to any third party.

4. How we share your information

We do not sell, trade, or transfer your personal information to third parties, except as described below:

• Resend — contact form submissions are delivered to us via Resend, a transactional email service. Resend processes your name and email address to deliver your message. See Resend's Privacy Policy.
• Google — we use Google Analytics and Google reCAPTCHA (see sections 5 and 6). Both services are operated by Google LLC and are subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
• Legal obligations — we may disclose information where required by law or in connection with professional ethical obligations (see section 7).

5. Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to collect information about how you use the website. This data helps us understand visitor behaviour and improve the site.

The data collected by Google Analytics is anonymised — it does not identify you as an individual. Information is transmitted to and stored on Google servers, which may be located outside Australia. Google may use this data in accordance with its own privacy policy.

We also use Google Search Console to monitor and maintain the website's presence in Google Search results. Search Console does not collect personal information about website visitors.

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking at any time by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or by disabling cookies in your browser settings.

6. Google reCAPTCHA

Our contact form is protected by Google reCAPTCHA to prevent spam. reCAPTCHA collects hardware and software information (such as device and application data) and sends that data to Google for analysis. Your use of reCAPTCHA is subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

7. Counselling confidentiality

All information disclosed within counselling sessions is strictly confidential. Kylie Bolton is bound by the ethical codes of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) and PACFA, which impose rigorous confidentiality obligations.

Confidentiality has limited exceptions, which Kylie will explain before your first session. These include:

• Where there is a serious and imminent risk of harm to you or another person.
• Where disclosure is required by law (e.g. a court subpoena, mandatory reporting obligations).
• Where you have provided explicit written consent for information to be shared.

Session notes and clinical records are stored securely and are not accessible through this website.

8. Cookies

This website uses cookies — small text files placed on your device — to support analytics (Google Analytics) and security (reCAPTCHA). Cookies do not contain personally identifiable information by themselves.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect certain features of the website. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies, delete existing cookies, or be notified when cookies are set.

9. Data retention

Contact form enquiries are retained in our email systems for as long as reasonably necessary to manage the enquiry and any resulting client relationship, or as required by law. Google Analytics data is retained for 14 months by default, after which it is automatically deleted.

If you become a client, your clinical records are retained in accordance with Queensland health records legislation and ACA/PACFA guidelines — generally a minimum of seven years from the date of last contact, or seven years after a minor client turns 18.

10. Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, and disclosure. The website is served over HTTPS. Contact form data is transmitted securely via Resend.

No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

11. Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Request that inaccurate or outdated information be corrected.
• Request the deletion of your personal information (subject to our legal and professional obligations).
• Complain about a breach of your privacy rights.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us. We will respond within 30 days. If you are unsatisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

12. Third-party links

This website may contain links to third-party websites (such as our online booking system). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to review their privacy policies.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last updated” date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

14. Contact us

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us: