Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

• Identity & contact details — name, email, phone number, and similar.
• Assessment responses — answers you give in our online screening tools.
• Health & session information — clinical notes and, with your explicit consent, session recordings and transcripts (special personal information under POPIA).
• Account & usage data — login details and basic technical information needed to run the platform.

2. How we use your information

• To provide counselling, coaching and recovery services and manage your care.
• To schedule, confirm and deliver sessions (including creating video-meeting links).
• To prepare clinical notes — including, with your consent, AI-assisted note drafting.
• To communicate with you about bookings and your care.
• To meet legal, regulatory and professional obligations.

3. Legal basis & consent

We process your information on the bases permitted by POPIA, including your consent, the performance of our services to you, and compliance with law. Because health information is special personal information, we rely on your informed consent and the provision of health services. You may withdraw consent (for example, to session recording) at any time, without affecting care already provided.

4. Sharing your information

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as needed to provide our services, including with:

• Your treating practitioner(s) within Holistic Helps.
• Trusted service providers (operators) who process data on our behalf — such as secure hosting, video conferencing, AI transcription and email providers — under confidentiality and data-protection obligations.
• Authorities or third parties where required or permitted by law (see Terms, clause 8).

5. Cross-border processing

Some service providers process data outside South Africa. This includes our secure hosting provider and the AI transcription and note-drafting services used to prepare your clinical records. Where this happens we rely on section 72 of POPIA, and take reasonable steps — including contractual data-protection commitments with each operator — to ensure your information receives a comparable level of protection to that required by POPIA.

6. Security

We apply appropriate technical and organisational measures — including access controls, encryption in transit, and restricted staff access — to protect your information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. No system is completely secure, but we work to reduce risk and respond promptly to any incident.

7. Retention

We keep personal and health information for as long as necessary to provide our services and to meet legal, professional and record-keeping obligations, after which it is securely deleted or de-identified. Session audio is deleted once your notes have been prepared; the resulting transcript and notes are retained with your clinical record.

8. Your rights

Under POPIA you may request access to the personal information we hold about you, request correction or deletion, object to certain processing, and withdraw consent. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

9. Children

Where we provide services to a minor, we process their information only with the consent of a parent or legal guardian and in the child's best interests.

10. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be posted here with a revised "last updated" date.

11. Contact & Information Officer

For privacy queries or to exercise your rights, email hello@holistichelps.co.za. You may also contact the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.