Nancy Wall Psychotherapy

Privacy Policy

Nancy Wall Psychotherapy ("we," "us," or "our") is a sole proprietorship providing psychotherapy services operated by Nancy Wall, a Registered Psychotherapist based in Hamilton, Ontario. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use of our services. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where applicable, the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) for health information.

What Is Personal Information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status), their health (e.g. health history, health conditions, health services received by them) or their activities and views (e.g. religion, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is to be contrasted with business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.

Who We Are

Nancy Wall Pyschoperathy is operated by Nancy Wall, a Registered Psychotherapist. To provide comprehensive services and to meet professional standards, we collaborate and contract with a wider team of, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, child and youth counsellors, and supervising psychologists. We also work with third party service providers, such as administrative support, bookkeepers, accountants, computer consultants, website managers, marketing agencies and legal advisors. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.

Collection Of Personal Information: Primary Purposes

Clients

We collect personal information, including personal health information under PHIPA, to provide psychotherapy services. This includes health history, family history, physical and psychological condition, and social circumstances to assess needs, advise on options, and deliver chosen care. We also collect baseline information to monitor changes over time. We obtain express consent for such collection, except in rare cases (e.g., emergencies where the client is unconscious or where consent is implied and impractical to obtain, such as a family member relaying a message).

General Public

For non-clients, we collect information (e.g., names, email addresses) to provide updates about events, programs, or services (e.g., seminars, newsletters). We obtain consent before using this information and will remove it from our database upon request. On our Website, we collect only the information you provide (e.g., via contact forms or newsletter sign-ups), except for cookies, which help improve site navigation and are not used for monitoring.

We Collect Personal Information: Related And Secondary Purposes

We may use or disclose personal information for purposes related to our primary goals, including:

Invoicing clients, processing payments, or collecting unpaid accounts.
Notifying clients or the public about events, new services, or opportunities (e.g., seminars, programs), with an option to opt out via email unsubscribe links or by contacting us.
Quality service review for client files
Complying with regulatory requirements from bodies like the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO), which may inspect records. We may also report serious misconduct, incompetence, or illegal behavior to authorities or other organizations, as required by law or professional standards.

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Sharing information with third-party payers (e.g., private insurers) with your consent or legislative authority to verify funding eligibility.
Retaining records for a minimum of 10 years, as required by the CRPO, to answer client inquiries or provide ongoing services.

Protecting Personal Information

We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.
Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.
Mental health practitioners and staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.

Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information, including personal health information under PHIPA, subject to legal retention requirements. To make a request, contact us at [email protected]. We will verify your identity and respond within 30 days. If access is denied, we will explain the reason. If you believe factual information is incorrect, you may request a correction. If we agree, we will update the information and notify relevant parties. If we disagree, you may submit a statement of disagreement, which we will include in our records and share with others who received the information.

Retention And Destruction Of Personal Information

We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.

We keep our client files for ten years. Our clients and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our general correspondence (e.g., with people who are not clients) newsletters, seminars and marketing activities for about six months after the newsletter ceases publication or a seminar or marketing activity is over.

We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed. Alternatively, we may send some or the entire client file to our client.

If You Need More Information

For more information about our privacy policies and procedures, please contact Nancy Wall at [email protected]

This policy is made under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. That is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.

This policy has been created in September 2025. Nancy Wall Psychotherapy reserves the right to change the terms of this privacy policy and to make new policy provisions effective for all personal information we maintain. If this privacy policy is revised, we will post the revised policy in a conspicuous location in our office as well as on our website.

For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:

112 Kent Street, Ontario K1A 1H3
Phone (613) 995-8210 / Toll-Free 1-800-282-1376 / Fax (613)947-6850
www.privcom.gc.ca