Privacy Policy

Wholistic Mental Health Care is a private counselling practice operated by Sumarie Engelbrecht, a Registered Counsellor with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), registration number PRC 0042480.

For the purposes of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), Sumarie Engelbrecht is the Responsible Party for the personal information described in this policy.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who has access to it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have in relation to it.

It applies to visitors to this website; people who book a session, complete an intake form, or contact us; clients of the counselling practice; and couples who enquire about, book, or attend the Premarital Couples Retreat.

By using this website or engaging our services, you confirm that you have read and understood this policy.

Contact information — your name, surname, email address, telephone number, and where relevant your partner's name and contact details.

Enquiry and booking information — the dates you are interested in, questions you ask, and correspondence with us by email, WhatsApp, or through website forms.

Payment information — the details necessary to process your session fees or retreat deposit and balance. Card and EFT details are handled by your bank or our payment processor and are not stored by us.

Practical information — dietary requirements, travel arrangements and activity preferences relevant to a retreat stay.

Special personal information — counselling requires us to collect information that POPIA classifies as special personal information, including information about your health, your mental and emotional wellbeing, and your personal relationships. This includes your responses to any intake or pre-retreat questionnaire, notes made during and after sessions, and any clinical or personal history you choose to share. We collect this only with your express consent, and only because it is necessary to provide counselling services to you — including compiling a Personalised Couples Growth Plan where relevant.

Technical information — when you visit this website we may collect your IP address, browser type, device type, and the pages you visit, through cookies and analytics tools, to understand how the site is used and to improve it. You can disable cookies through your browser settings; some parts of the site may not function correctly if you do.

Website analytics and advertising — if you agree to it when asked, this site uses Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, and the Meta Pixel to measure how well our Facebook and Instagram adverts work. These are only loaded if you choose "That's fine" on the cookie notice; if you decline, or simply do not answer, neither is loaded and nothing is sent. Where these tools are active, they receive your IP address and general information about your device and visit, and Meta may match it to an existing Facebook or Instagram account. Importantly, we do not tell them which counselling page, guide or article you read: those addresses are replaced with a general label such as "a resource page" or "an article" before anything is sent, so no information about your health, your relationship or your reason for visiting is shared. We have also switched off the Meta Pixel's automatic form-reading, so your email address is never passed to it. You can change your mind at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser, which makes the notice appear again.

Our own anonymous visit record — separately from the tools above, this website keeps its own simple record of how it is used: which pages are opened during a visit and in what order, which links and buttons are clicked, the general type of device (phone, tablet or computer), the country the visit came from, and the website or advert that linked here. It helps us understand which pages are useful and where the site is hard to use. This record is anonymous: it uses no cookies, does not store your IP address, is not linked to your name, your email address or anything you type into a form, and cannot follow you from one visit to the next — the random visit number it uses is forgotten when you close the browser tab. It is kept in our own database, is seen only by us, is never shared with Google, Meta or any advertiser, and is deleted after twelve months.

Responding to your enquiry — your consent, or steps taken at your request before entering a contract.

Confirming and administering a session or retreat booking — performance of a contract with you.

Preparing and delivering counselling sessions, including a retreat programme — your express consent, given the special personal information involved.

Compiling a Personalised Couples Growth Plan — your express consent.

Processing payments — performance of a contract with you.

Keeping clinical records — a legal and professional obligation under HPCSA rules.

Sending you information you requested — your consent.

Improving our website and services — our legitimate interest.

We do not sell your personal information to anyone, and we do not use your counselling information for marketing purposes.

Your counselling information — your questionnaire responses, session notes, and anything you disclose in counselling are seen only by Sumarie Engelbrecht, in her capacity as a Registered Counsellor. They are subject to the same professional confidentiality that applies in a consulting room, and are not shared with a retreat venue, with other couples attending a retreat, with your partner without your knowledge, or with anyone else, except in the limited circumstances below. Where you attend as a couple, some information is necessarily discussed in joint sessions — what you disclose individually will always be handled with care and professional discretion.

Service providers — we share limited information with third parties who help us operate: a retreat venue receives your name and dietary requirements only, and never any counselling information; our payment processor handles the details needed to process a payment; a scheduling tool is used where you book a session online. These providers process information on our instructions and are contractually or practically required to protect it.

Where we may be required to disclose — we may disclose information without your consent only where we are legally or ethically obliged to, including: a serious and imminent risk of harm to you or another person; a child at risk of harm, as required by the Children's Act; where required by a court order, subpoena, or by law; or where required by the HPCSA in the course of a professional investigation. Where this happens, we disclose only the minimum necessary, and inform you wherever it is safe and lawful to do so.

Some of our service providers store data on servers outside South Africa. Where your information is transferred outside the country, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected by laws or contractual terms substantially similar to POPIA.

Clinical records, including questionnaire responses, session notes, and Growth Plans, are retained for a minimum of six years from the date of your last consultation, in line with HPCSA recordkeeping requirements. In some circumstances we are required to retain records for longer.

Enquiry and booking information is retained for as long as necessary to administer your booking and to meet our accounting and tax obligations.

The anonymous visit record described in section 3 is deleted automatically after twelve months.

When information is no longer required, it is securely destroyed or de-identified.

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal information against loss, unauthorised access, and misuse — including password protection, secure storage of records, encrypted transmission where available, and restricting access to counselling records to Sumarie Engelbrecht alone.

No system is completely secure. If a security compromise occurs affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA.

Under POPIA you have the right to: access the personal information we hold about you; correct information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, misleading, or out of date; request deletion of information we are not legally required to retain; object to processing in certain circumstances; withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent (this does not affect processing already carried out, and may mean we can no longer provide services to you); unsubscribe from any communications at any time; and lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.

Your right to deletion is limited in respect of clinical records, which we are professionally obliged to retain for the period set out in section 7.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at sumarie@wholisticmhc.com. We will respond within a reasonable period and may ask you to verify your identity first.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001. Email: complaints.IR@inforegulator.org.za. Website: www.inforegulator.org.za.

Our services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 18 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian.

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on this page, with the date it was last updated shown above. Material changes affecting how we use your information will be communicated to you directly where practical.

Sumarie Engelbrecht, Registered Counsellor (HPCSA PRC 0042480), Wholistic Mental Health Care.

Email: sumarie@wholisticmhc.com · WhatsApp: 066 241 5632