We collect your contact details, health history, and session notes to provide counselling, keep you safe, bill for services, and meet our legal and professional duties. We collect only what is reasonably needed (data minimization). We don’t use your information for marketing, and we never sell it.

What you share in counselling is confidential. Under the CCPA Code of Ethics and Ontario law, your counsellor may need to share information, without your consent, only in these situations:

• There is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else.
• A child may be in need of protection. In Ontario, everyone must report this to a children’s aid society.
• A court order, subpoena, or other legal requirement.
• Other situations the law requires or permits.

Your counsellor may also talk about your care with a clinical supervisor or consultant, keeping you anonymous where possible.

We share your information with other people (such as your doctor, a parent, or an insurer) only with your written consent, except where the law says otherwise. You can name people we may or may not contact, and you can change that at any time.

Your records are kept electronically in Teletherapy.io, our electronic health record platform, with access limited to those who need it. Any paper records are locked. We keep records for 7 years for clients 18 and older, and 10 years for clients under 18, and then securely destroy them.

Your records are stored on servers in the United States. Teletherapy.io uses a hosting provider with servers there. Video sessions are not recorded or stored by the platform. Because your information is stored outside Canada, it is subject to US laws, and US courts or government authorities may be able to access it in certain circumstances. We choose providers with strong security safeguards and a contractual duty to protect your information, but we can’t remove this risk. If you’re uncomfortable with this, please tell us before your first session so we can talk through your options.

If your information is lost, stolen, or accessed without authority, we’ll tell you, and we’ll report it to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario when required.

• See and get a copy of your record (we may charge a reasonable fee).
• Ask for corrections if something is inaccurate.
• Withdraw or limit your consent at any time. This doesn’t undo what has already happened.
• Ask us how your information is handled and who has seen it.
• Make a complaint to us, or to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (ipc.on.ca), or to your counsellor’s regulatory body, if they belong to one.

Privacy Officer: Sofia Schuringa, sofia@luxcounselling.org, 1-888-817-1888.

Email and text can be intercepted or read by others and are not fully secure. Use them for scheduling only, not for clinical details. We’ll reply within 24 to 48 hours. This isn’t a crisis service. If you’re in crisis, call or text 9-8-8, call CAST at 1-866-487-2278 (24/7, Haldimand and Norfolk), or call 911.