Privacy policy

This website, www.phchelps.com, is operated by the Psychological Help Centre ("PHC", "we", "our", "us"). This policy describes how we collect, use and disclose your information through the Site and through the products, services, features, content and applications we offer.

It covers personally identifiable information — information that identifies you or could be used to identify you — gathered when you use or access the Site and our services. By using our services you consent to the collection, transfer, storage, disclosure and other uses of your information as described here.

One distinction runs through this whole page and is worth taking in first. There is a difference between:

• Website and enquiry information — your name, your contact details, what you tell us when you get in touch, and technical data about your visit. That is what this policy is mainly about.
• Clinical records — the notes a psychologist makes about your sessions, and the results and reports from any psychological assessment. These are held to clinical confidentiality standards, they are not part of the website, and they are not shared with the third parties named below.

This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties we do not own or control. We use the following, and you should read their policies as well as ours:

• Google — website analytics, search and usage analytics.
• Microsoft — email hosting and transmission.
• Meta — WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook messaging, and targeted advertising services.

On booking and payment, because this is the part people assume wrongly. There is no booking form and no payment page on this site. You reach us by WhatsApp, by phone or by email; a person at PHC replies to arrange the appointment; and the booking payment — half the session fee, at least 24 hours before the appointment — is made in cash or by bank transfer, with the rest paid after the session.

No card or bank-card details are asked for, taken, entered or stored at any point — not by PHC and not by anybody acting for us. There is no payment processor in this, no online checkout, and nothing about your payment leaves Pakistan.

The only information that reaches a company outside Pakistan is what you choose to write in the message itself, on the platform you write it on — WhatsApp, or email. Those are named above, and it is why the section on mental-health information asks you to think about where you are typing.

When you visit the Site we may collect non-personally-identifiable information such as your IP address, browser information, operating system, and user IDs or usernames used by connected platforms such as Meta.

IP addresses. We collect and store IP address information. It is not made public.

Cookies. Cookies are small pieces of text provided to your device through your browser when you access a website. We use them so that our servers can recognise your browser and tell us how and when you visit the Site and use our services. Our cookies do not by themselves contain personally identifiable information, and we do not combine the general information collected through cookies with other personal information to tell us who you are.

We may share personal information obtained in connection with the operation of the platform with:

• service providers who work on our behalf, business partners and other third-party partners providing features or functionality we integrate into the website — such as email communication providers and payment processors;
• any other party where you give us your consent for that specific use, processing, sharing or disclosure.

We may also share aggregated data with third parties for limited purposes, subject to any written agreements with those parties.

Business transfers. If PHC is acquired, sold or dissolved, its assets — including personally identifiable information we hold about you — may in whole or in part be sold, transferred, divested or otherwise disclosed as part of that transaction or proceeding. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer may continue to use your personal information as set out in this policy.

Disclosure for protection. We reserve the right to access, read, preserve and disclose any information we reasonably believe is necessary to: satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; enforce this policy, including investigating potential violations of it; detect, prevent or address fraud, security or technical issues; respond to user support requests; or protect the rights, property or safety of PHC, our users and the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and spam or malware prevention.

Sharing with your consent. Other than as set out above, you will be told when your personal information may be shared with third parties, and you will be able to prevent that sharing.

Website and enquiry information is kept for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, and for as long as required by law. Clinical records are retained separately, under clinical record-keeping standards.

Many of the people PHC works with are children and young people, and appointments for them are usually arranged by a parent or guardian. Where you provide information about a child, you confirm that you are that child's parent or legal guardian, or are otherwise entitled to provide it.

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy or how it is applied, contact us at:

Psychological Help Centre Plot 59A, Street 1 Rd, Shaheed-e-Millat Rohail Khand Society, Karachi 74800 Pakistan 0333 3736938 · [email protected]