Home / Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
How I collect, use and look after your personal information — including the health information you give me before a treatment.
Before this goes live
This policy is a working draft covering the normal obligations for a sole-trader massage therapist in the UK. Please review it, confirm the ICO registration position, and check the retention period against your insurer’s requirements before publishing. Items needing a decision are marked in bold.
Last updated: August 2026
Who this covers: Katherine Pugh, trading as Lowen Massage Therapy, Leafield Hub, Unit 23, Leafield Industrial Estate, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 9RS.
What I collect
When you enquire
If you contact me by phone, WhatsApp, email or the form on this website, I receive whatever you choose to send me — typically your name, phone number, email address and the details of your enquiry.
When you have a treatment
Before your first treatment I take a consultation, which records your contact details, relevant medical history, medication, injuries and anything else affecting whether a treatment is safe and suitable for you. Some of this is special category health data under UK GDPR, and it is treated accordingly.
I keep brief notes of treatments given, so that I can provide safe and consistent care over time.
Why I collect it, and the lawful basis
- To provide your treatment safely — contract, and for health information, Article 9(2)(h) (provision of health care and treatment).
- To contact you about appointments — contract, or legitimate interests when responding to an enquiry.
- To meet insurance and professional obligations — legal obligation and legitimate interests.
I do not send marketing emails or newsletters, and I do not add you to any mailing list.
Who sees your information
I am a sole trader. Nobody else routinely sees your records. Information may be shared only where:
- You ask me to share it — for example with your GP or physiotherapist;
- I am required to by law, or by my insurer in the event of a claim;
- There is a serious risk to someone’s safety.
Your information is never sold, and never passed to anyone for marketing.
How long I keep it
To confirm against your insurer’s requirements. Massage therapy consultation records are commonly retained for seven years after your last treatment (and for a client treated as a minor, seven years past their eighteenth birthday), because that is the period in which a claim may be brought. Enquiries that do not lead to a treatment are deleted within twelve months.
How it is stored
To confirm. Describe here whether consultation forms are held on paper, digitally, or both; where they are kept; and how they are secured — for example a locked cabinet at the treatment room, or a password-protected and encrypted device.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Ask for a copy of the information I hold about you
- Ask me to correct anything inaccurate
- Ask me to delete it, where I am not required to keep it
- Object to, or ask me to restrict, how I use it
- Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis I am relying on
To exercise any of these, email lowenmassagetherapy@gmail.com or call 07985 125981. I will respond within one month.
Cookies and this website
This website does not set advertising or tracking cookies, and does not run analytics. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, and the map on the contact page is embedded from Google Maps — both are provided by Google, which may receive your IP address as a result. If analytics or a booking system are added later, this section must be updated and a cookie banner added.
ICO registration
To confirm. Most therapists handling client health records need to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office and pay the annual data protection fee. Check your position using the ICO’s self-assessment, then state the registration number here, or remove this section if it genuinely does not apply.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, please tell me first and I will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes
If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted here with an updated date.