Privacy Policy

Lemon Counselling is a counselling practice run by Jo, based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Your privacy matters, and so does your trust. This policy explains what personal and health information we collect, how we use and protect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have. We handle your information in line with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020.

Information we collect

When you contact us through this website — our contact form collects your name, email address, message, and (optionally) your phone number, so we can reply to your enquiry.
When you become a counselling client — we collect the information needed to provide counselling safely and effectively. This may include your contact and identifying details, emergency contact information, and health information such as what you choose to share in sessions, your reasons for seeking counselling, and the notes we make to support your care.
Payment information — when you pay for a session, your card payment is handled by a secure third-party payment provider. We receive confirmation of payment but do not collect or store your full card details.
Technical information — to protect our contact form from spam, your IP address is shared with Cloudflare's Turnstile service when you submit the form. We do not use analytics, advertising, or tracking tools on this website. See our Cookie Policy for more.

How we use your information

To respond to your enquiries and arrange appointments.
To provide counselling and keep accurate, professional records of your care.
To process payments for sessions.
To meet our professional, ethical, and legal obligations as a counsellor.
We only use your information for the purpose you gave it to us, and for directly related purposes you would reasonably expect.

Confidentiality and its limits

What you share in counselling is confidential. We will not disclose your information without your consent, except in the limited circumstances required or permitted by law and professional ethics, including:
where there is a serious and imminent risk to your safety or the safety of someone else;
where there is a concern about the safety or wellbeing of a child or other vulnerable person;
where we are required to disclose information by law, such as a court order or summons.
Professional supervision. Like all ethical counsellors, Jo discusses her work with a qualified clinical supervisor to ensure safe and effective practice. Where possible this is done without identifying you, and supervision is itself confidential.

How your information is stored and protected

Counselling records are kept securely on a password-protected, encrypted device and/or encrypted private cloud storage, accessible only by Jo.
Online sessions are held over Zoom. Sessions are private and are not recorded unless we have discussed it with you first and you have agreed.
Enquiries made through the contact form are sent to us by email and stored in our email account; they are not stored in this website's database.
We take reasonable steps to protect your information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, but no method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure.

Who we share your information with

We do not sell your information or share it for marketing.
We use a small number of trusted service providers to run the practice — including Zoom (video sessions), our payment provider (payments), our email provider (enquiries and correspondence), and Cloudflare (contact-form spam protection). These providers process your information only as needed to deliver their service.
Some of these providers may store information on servers outside New Zealand (for example, in the United States). Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information remains protected to a comparable standard.

How long we keep your information

Health information must, by law, be kept for at least 10 years from the date we last provided you with services (Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996). After that, records are securely destroyed.
Website enquiries that do not lead to counselling are kept only as long as needed to respond to and follow up on your message, and are then deleted.

Your rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if it is wrong or out of date.
To make a request, email [email protected]. We may need to confirm your identity before releasing information, and in limited cases the law allows us to withhold some information.

Questions and complaints

If you have any questions or concerns about your privacy, please contact Jo at [email protected]. We take privacy concerns seriously and will do our best to put things right.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

Last updated: June 2026. We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practice or to legal requirements. The latest version will always be available on this page.