Privacy policy

Last updated: 29 September 2026

Who I am

Holistic Woman is a trading name of Gentle Release Therapy Ltd, run by Helen Robinson. Gentle Release Therapy Ltd is the data controller for any personal information this site or my practice holds.

• Email: helen@holistic-woman.co.uk
• Phone: 07826 514803
• Postal address: 37 Main Street, Scothern, Lincoln LN2 2UJ
• ICO registration number: ZA392884

What information I hold, and why

I collect different information for different reasons. Each of these is separate, and giving me information for one purpose doesn't sign you up for anything else.

If you email me

I'll hold your name, email address and anything you choose to include in your message, so that I can reply to you.

If you book a treatment

When you book online, I ask for your name, email address and phone number so I can arrange your appointment and contact you about it.

Before your first session, I'll send you a consultation form. This asks about your health, any medication you take, and what has brought you to me, so I can make sure a treatment is suitable and shape each session around you. I keep notes of each treatment we have together.

If you book for a child, I ask a parent or guardian to fill in the forms and give consent on their behalf.

If you pay for a treatment

Card and online payments are handled by SumUp, Stripe or PayPal, and I never see or store your full card details. If you pay by bank transfer, I'll see your name and bank reference, as you'd expect.

Photos and client words

I only ever use a client's words or photos on this website with their permission, and anyone can ask for theirs to be removed at any time.

If you visit this website

This website doesn't use cookies, analytics or tracking of any kind, so there's no cookie banner. Like almost every website, the company that hosts it keeps basic technical logs, such as IP addresses, for a short time to keep the site secure and working.

Special category data

Much of what I hold about treatment clients is health-related. Under UK GDPR this counts as "special category data" and needs a specific legal basis. My basis is your explicit consent, which I ask for on your consultation form.

Lawful basis for holding your information

Beyond special category data, the general legal basis for how I use your information is:

• Consent, for your health information and for any photos or words you allow me to share. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Contract, for arranging and providing the treatments you book.
• Legitimate interest, for keeping the records my professional bodies and insurers may need me to keep.
• Legal obligation, for anything HMRC or other regulators require me to keep.

Who I share your information with

I don't sell your information to anyone, ever. I share it only in these specific situations:

• With Acuity Scheduling (part of Squarespace), who run my online booking on my behalf.
• With Jotform, who process my consultation and consent forms on my behalf.
• With SumUp, Stripe or PayPal, when you pay by card or online.
• With Google, who provide my email through Gmail.
• With my professional bodies (the Federation of Holistic Therapists, the Association of Reflexologists, the Complementary Medical Association and ThinkTree) or my insurer, if a formal complaint, query or claim is ever raised about my practice.
• With HMRC or other UK authorities, if the law requires it.
• With your GP or other healthcare professionals, but only if you ask me to, or in an emergency where your safety is at risk.

Some of these companies (Acuity Scheduling, Jotform, Google, Stripe and PayPal in particular) may store information on servers outside the UK, including in the United States. Where information is transferred outside the UK, I rely on appropriate UK GDPR safeguards (such as contractual safeguards) to make sure it's protected to UK standards.

How long I keep your information

• Emails and enquiries that don't lead to a booking: up to two years after your last contact with me.
• Consultation forms and treatment notes: seven years after your last treatment, as my professional bodies and insurers may need them if a query or claim is ever raised. For children, until they turn 25.
• Payment records: seven years, to meet HMRC record-keeping requirements.

At the end of a retention period, I either delete your information completely or, where useful, keep it in an anonymised form that can't be linked back to you.

Keeping your information safe

I take reasonable steps to protect your information. My online systems store data on secure servers with encryption in transit. Access is limited to me and any assistant under a confidentiality agreement. Physical records, where I hold any, are kept locked away with restricted access.

No online system can ever be completely risk-free, but these measures are in place to keep the likelihood as low as I reasonably can. If a data breach were ever likely to affect your rights or freedoms, I would tell both you and the ICO where required.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the following rights over the information I hold about you:

• The right to be informed about how I use your information (this policy).
• The right of access, to see what I hold about you.
• The right to rectification, to correct anything that's wrong.
• The right to erasure ("the right to be forgotten"), to have your information deleted, where the law allows.
• The right to restrict processing, to ask me to hold your information but not use it in certain ways.
• The right to data portability, to receive a copy of your information in a common format so you can move it elsewhere.
• The right to object to how I use your information.
• Rights around automated decision-making, though I don't use any automated decision-making.
• The right to withdraw consent, at any time, for anything you've consented to.

To use any of these rights, please email me at helen@holistic-woman.co.uk and I'll respond within one month.

Complaints to the ICO

If you're not happy with how I've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. I'd ask you to come to me first if you can, but the right to complain to the ICO is yours regardless.

Changes to this policy

I may update this policy from time to time. When I make a substantial change, I'll update the date at the top. You can always ask for an earlier version by emailing me.