Website Privacy Notice
1) Introduction
This privacy notice provides you with details of how I collect and process your personal data through your use of my site www.drjokirk.co.uk
This website is not intended for use by children under the age of 13 without the involvement of a parent or person with parental responsibility. Where services are provided to children or young people, appropriate consent arrangements are managed in accordance with legal and professional requirements, as set out in the Terms and Conditions.
I, Dr Jo Kirk, am the data controller and I am responsible for your personal data (afterwards referred to as “I” in this privacy notice).
Contact Details:
· Full name of legal entity as Sole Trader: Dr Joanna Kirk
· Email address: drjotkirk@gmail.com
It is very important that the information I hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let me know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing me at drjotkirk@gmail.com.
2) What data do I collect about you, for what purpose and on what ground I process it
See more details in Privacy Policy.
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymised data.
I may process the following categories of personal data about you:
· Communication Data - any communication that you send to me whether that be through the contact form on my website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send me. I process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. My lawful ground for this processing is my legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to me, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
· Customer Data - that includes data relating to any purchases of services such as your name, title, billing address, delivery address email address, phone number, contact details, purchase details and your card details. I process this data to supply the services you have purchased and to keep records of such transactions. My lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and I and/or taking steps at your request to enter into such a contract.
· I may use Customer Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising I serve you. My lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow my business. I may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. My lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow my business).
· Special Category Data- I will collect sensitive data about you, termed Special Category (SC) data as defined in GDPR Article 9. SC data refers to data that includes details about your health, race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. I may ask you about criminal convictions and offences. I need to collect the following sensitive data about you to provide appropriate services to you.
I require your explicit consent for processing sensitive data, so I will send you further communication asking for you to confirm your consent to this processing. This means that when you submit sensitive data, either in written form or in sessions, I have a record of your consent for me to process it.
Where I am required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide me with that data when requested, I may not be able to fulfil the contract (for example, to provide services to you). If you don’t provide me with the requested data, I may have to cancel the service you have requested but if I do, I will notify you at the time.
I will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. In case I need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose I will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
I may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
I do not carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling.
3) How I collect your personal data
I may collect data about you when you provide the data directly (for example by filling in forms on my site or by sending me emails). I may receive data from third parties such from GPs, other health providers, or Children’s Services.
4) Marketing communications
My lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or my legitimate interests (namely to grow my business).
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, I may send you marketing communications if
(i) you asked for information from me about my services or
(ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since.
Under these regulations, I may send you marketing emails without your consent. However you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from me at any time by emailing me at drjotkirk@gmail.com.
If you opt out of receiving marketing communications this opt-out does not apply to personal data provided because of other transactions.
I will not share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes.
5) Disclosures of your personal data
I may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:
• Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
• Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers.
• Government bodies that require me to report processing activities.
• Third parties to whom I sell, transfer, or merge parts of my business or my assets.
• If the therapy has been established through a third party (e.g. a GP, Local Authority or Adoption / Fostering Charity, or Private Health Insurance Company, or funded by the NHS or Adoption Support Fund), I will provide reports to them as agreed in their individual terms and conditions / contractual arrangements.
I require all third parties to whom I transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. I only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with my instructions.
All information that is sent electronically as attachments is sent securely, for example encrypted and password protected, or via secure platforms (e.g. Egress).
6) International transfers
I do not intend to transfer your personal data outside the UK. However, some of the electronic systems or service providers I use may process data on servers located outside the UK. Where this occurs, I will take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK data protection law, including reliance on adequacy regulations or equivalent protections.
7) Data security
I have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation.
I have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if I are legally required to.
8) Data retention
I will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes I collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for I look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.
If you make contact and do not become a client of mine, I keep your information for a period of 6 months. All your personal information is then permanently and securely deleted.
If you go on to work with me, I keep your clinical record for 7 years after you stop being a client, in line with professional and legal requirements. All your personal information is then permanently and securely deleted or disposed of.
The need to use your personal information will be reassessed on a regular basis, and information which is no longer required for any purposes will be securely disposed of.
For tax purposes the law requires me to keep basic information about my clients (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for 6 years after they stop being clients.
In some circumstances I may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case I may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
9) Your legal rights
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at:
You can make a subject access request (SAR) by contacting me, Dr Jo Kirk. Before processing a request, I may ask for additional information to verify your identity. In some circumstances, I may need to withhold personal information, as permitted by law. In practice, this means that I may not provide information where I believe that sharing it would be likely to violate your vital interests, for example by causing serious harm to you or to another person, or where disclosure would conflict with my safeguarding responsibilities.
While the primary purpose of clinical notes is to support effective therapy, I will aim to support access wherever it is appropriate and safe to do so. I may charge a reasonable fee if your request is repetitive or excessive, or I may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email me at drjotkirk@gmail.com.
I may need to request specific information from you to help me confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. I may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up my response.
I try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take me longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, I will notify you.
If you are not happy with any aspect of how I collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).
I would be grateful if you would contact me first if you do have a complaint so that I can try to resolve it for you.
10) Third-party links
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. I do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave my website, I encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
11) Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
Further information about cookies used on my website is available in the Cookie Policy.
12) Changes to this Website Privacy Notice
I may need to update this Website Privacy Notice following any changes to the law, and you may want to check it for updates. If there are any really important changes to the Policy or how I use your information I will let you know, and where appropriate ask for your consent.
Dr Jo Kirk Website Privacy Notice
Version 1 January 2026
