Privacy, in plain language
Counselling only works if you can trust where your information goes. This page explains what we collect, why, where it’s kept, and your rights under BC’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
The short version
- We collect only what we need to provide counselling and run the practice.
- Your counselling records are kept in Jane, a Canadian clinical records system, on servers in Canada.
- This website uses no tracking or advertising cookies, no advertising trackers and no Google Analytics. The only cookie you might get is one Cloudflare, our network provider, may set to tell people from bots; it holds nothing about you and expires within 30 minutes.
- The counsellor-match quiz runs in your browser. Your answers aren’t sent or stored; we only count which counsellor it suggested.
- What you say in counselling stays private, with a few legal exceptions explained below.
- You can ask to see or correct your information at any time.
Who we are
Desert Solace Counselling & Recovery is a counselling practice owned by Davis Wiggs, offering online and phone sessions to people in British Columbia. As a private organization in BC, we follow the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Our counsellors also follow their professional codes of ethics: ACCT for Davis, Jasneet and Chantelle, and the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario for Madison. CRPO’s rules apply to Madison wherever her clients are.
Our privacy officer is Davis Wiggs. Contact: [email protected] or 250‑689‑6927.
What we collect
When you book or become a client: your name, contact details, date of birth, emergency contact, where you are during sessions, payment details, insurance details if you claim, and the intake and consent forms you fill in through Jane.
During counselling: your counsellor’s session notes, which record what’s needed to provide good care.
When you contact us: whatever you include in an email, text, voicemail or the contact form. Please keep sensitive details out of these; they aren’t fully private.
When you visit this website: anonymous, cookie-free visit counts (see below). Nothing that identifies you.
Why we collect it
To provide counselling, keep you safe, book and remind you of sessions, take payment, issue receipts, bill insurers or CVAP when you ask us to, meet our professional and legal duties, and answer your questions. We don’t sell your information, use it for advertising, or send newsletters you didn’t ask for.
Where it’s kept and who can see it
- Jane (booking, video sessions, notes, payments): your counsellor, and Davis as practice owner for administration. Jane is a Vancouver-based company and keeps Canadian clinics’ records on servers in Canada (Montreal, Quebec).
- Email (Google Workspace): messages to our @desertsolacecounselling.com addresses. Google may store email outside Canada.
- Insurers and CVAP: only what’s needed to process a claim you asked us to submit, usually your name, the date, the service and the fee.
- Clinical supervisors: counsellors may discuss cases with a supervisor to give you better care, without identifying you where possible. Chantelle and Madison practise under supervision as part of their registration, so their supervisors review their work.
- This website is hosted by IONOS on a server in the United States and managed by NEW Design Co., which doesn’t have access to your counselling records. Contact form messages pass through it, and through our email delivery service Brevo (in the EU), on their way to the practice’s inbox. That’s one more reason to keep sensitive details out of the form.
AI note-taking: We don’t use AI tools to record or write up your sessions.
The limits of confidentiality
What you tell your counsellor stays between you, except when the law or safety requires otherwise:
- If you or someone else is at serious risk of harm, your counsellor may need to act to keep people safe.
- If a child under 19 may need protection, BC law requires counsellors to report it.
- If a court orders records to be released.
- If you give written permission to share something, for example with your doctor.
- Clinical supervision: your counsellor may discuss your care with their clinical supervisor, who keeps it confidential too.
Your counsellor will explain these limits at your first session, and you can ask about them in your free consultation before you share anything.
This website
- No tracking cookies. We count visits with Umami, a privacy-friendly tool that doesn’t use cookies, doesn’t identify you, and is hosted by our web developer in Canada rather than by an advertising company. We also count clicks on the Book buttons, and which page they were on, so we know which pages help people book. That count never includes your name or anything you type.
- No ad trackers. No Facebook or Meta pixel, no Google Ads, no session recording.
- The counsellor-match quiz runs entirely in your browser. We may count that someone finished it and which counsellor it suggested, never your answers. Your answers are never added to the page address.
- The contact form sends an email to the practice. It’s stored in our email account, not on the website.
- Embedded Instagram posts load only if you choose to play them. When they load, Instagram may set its own cookies.
- Links to Jane take you to Jane’s site, which has its own privacy policy.
How long we keep it
Counselling records are kept for at least as long as our professional bodies and the law require, then securely destroyed: at least 7 years after your last session, and longer for clients under 19. Contact form messages are deleted when they’re no longer needed.
Your rights
You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask how it’s been used, and ask us to correct anything that’s wrong. Email or call our privacy officer. We’ll reply within 30 business days, as PIPA requires. In rare cases we may hold something back, for example if releasing it could harm someone, and we’ll tell you why.
You can withdraw consent to some uses of your information at any time, though we may still need to keep records the law requires.
If something goes wrong
If we ever have a privacy breach that could cause you significant harm, we’ll tell you promptly and explain what we’re doing about it.
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell our privacy officer first. You can also contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia at oipc.bc.ca.
Changes
We’ll update this page if our practices change, and show the date at the top.