Privacy Policy
Version 3 · Last updated: November 2026
1. Who We Are
Life Therapy (Pty) Ltd (registration no. 2019/570691/07) provides the coaching and counselling offered on life-therapy.co.za and life-therapy.online. It is the "responsible party" for your personal information under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Roxanne Bouwer is its Information Officer, and the person you contact about anything in this notice: hello@life-therapy.co.za. This notice explains what we collect, why, who helps us process it, how long we keep it, and your rights.
2. What We Collect About You
What you give us: your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, gender, address, relationship status, how you heard about us, and an emergency contact. When you book or attend sessions: the bookings, session notes, your assessment answers (behaviours, feelings and physical symptoms you identify with), and what you write to us. When you pay: what you bought, invoices and payment records. Card details are entered on Paystack's page and never reach us. What is recorded as you use the site and portal: the date, time, IP address and browser when you accept a document or give a consent, as proof that you did; sign-in activity, to keep your account safe; and whether our emails are opened and their links clicked (section 7). Website analytics are collected only if you accept them (section 8).
3. Other People's Information You Give Us
Some details are about people other than you. We hold them only for the reason given here, and we ask you to tell them that you have shared their details with us. - A partner on a couples session: name, email and phone, to invite them to the session and send them its link. - Someone who pays for your sessions (a family member or an employer): name, contact details and, for a company, its VAT number and address, to invoice them. - Someone you buy a gift for: name, email and your message, to send them the gift. - A child you add to your account: the details of a client under 18, given by a parent or guardian, who also consents to their health information on their behalf (section 11). - An emergency contact: the name and number you give us, used only in an emergency.
4. Why We Use It, and Our Lawful Basis
- To provide your sessions and courses, manage bookings, credits and your account, and send session confirmations, reminders and links: because it is necessary for our agreement with you (POPIA s11(1)(b)). - To process your health information for your care: with your explicit consent, given in the portal (POPIA s27(1)(a)), see section 5. - To invoice, keep financial records and meet tax law: because the law requires it (POPIA s11(1)(c); the Tax Administration Act and the VAT Act). - To keep the site and your account secure, keep an audit trail of changes to your records, and see whether important emails reach you: in our legitimate interest in running a safe practice (POPIA s11(1)(f)). - To send newsletters and news about courses and offers: only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time (POPIA s69). - To use your assessment answers to choose which of those emails you receive: only with a separate consent of its own, see section 6. - To send reminders by WhatsApp: only if you switch WhatsApp reminders on. - Website analytics: only with your consent on the cookie banner, see section 8.
5. Your Health Information
Your assessment answers and session notes are special personal information under POPIA. We process them only with your explicit consent, and only to provide your care. Only Roxanne Bouwer opens them: our systems allow no other account to. They are stored encrypted, and they are never sold or shared with anyone outside the practice, except where the law requires it or there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else. The person who maintains our systems can technically reach stored data in the course of that work, under a duty of confidentiality. They do not work with your information, and clinical records are opened only by Roxanne Bouwer. You may withdraw your health consent at any time by contacting the practice. From then on you can no longer add or change your own assessment answers; what was recorded before stays part of your record for the period in section 12.
6. Using Your Assessment Answers to Choose Our Emails
Separately from your care, you may choose to let us use your assessment answers to choose which news and offers we email you, so that you hear about the courses most relevant to you. This is optional, it is asked once in your portal, and it is recorded together with the exact words you were shown. Your answers are only matched inside our own system, and they never leave it for this purpose. You can change your choice at any time in your portal under Settings → Preferences. Saying no changes nothing about your sessions or care. We ask only adults who receive our news and offers and whose health consent is in place; we never ask about a child.
7. Our Emails, and How We Know They Arrived
Most of our emails contain a small image, and their links to our own website pass through our own address first. Together these tell us whether an email was opened and which link was clicked, recorded against that email in our system. We use this to see whether important emails reach you and which news is read. For news and offers only, we may pause sending to someone who has not opened one for a long time; mail about your bookings, account and payments is never paused that way. Emails that set up or recover your account and security alerts are not tracked. Your email program can block images, which stops the open being recorded.
8. Cookies and Analytics
Cookies we always set, because the site cannot work without them: your sign-in session; an inactivity timer that signs you out after a period without use; and your region and currency. Your shopping cart and your cookie choice are kept in your own browser. Google Analytics: only if you choose Accept on the cookie banner, Google Analytics cookies are set to show us how visitors find and use the public website. They are never set in your client portal, and never on pages that carry a private link. You can change your choice at any time from the cookie icon at the bottom of the page; declining removes the cookies already set. Our website host, Vercel, measures how fast pages load, without cookies. Some course videos are played from YouTube or Vimeo, which may set their own cookies when you play them.
9. Who Helps Us, and Where Your Information Is Kept
We do not sell your personal information. These providers process it on our behalf, only for the purpose stated, and may not use it for anything else: - Supabase: our database, sign-in and file storage, which hold your record. Ireland (European Union). - Vercel: hosts the website and portal. South Africa (Cape Town). - Resend: sends our emails, and keeps its own record of each one sent. Ireland (European Union). - Microsoft 365: our calendar and Teams meetings. The calendar entry and invitation carry only your name, email address and session time. South Africa. - Paystack: takes card payments, with your email address and the amount. Paystack is also responsible for its own processing, under its own privacy policy. - Meta (WhatsApp): sends WhatsApp reminders, if you switched them on, to your phone number. - Bunny.net: stores and streams course videos and worksheets. It sees your IP address when you play or download them. Outside South Africa. - ManyChat: answers messages sent to our Instagram account, and holds the name and email address you give it there. - Google: website analytics, only with your consent (section 8). Paystack, Meta, ManyChat and Google may process information in the countries where they operate, including the United States.
10. Information Sent Outside South Africa
Some of these providers keep information on servers outside South Africa. We send it only to providers bound by an agreement that protects it to a standard substantially similar to POPIA, as POPIA s72 requires, or where the transfer is necessary for our agreement with you.
11. Children
A client under 18 is added by a parent or guardian, who consents to their health information on their behalf. Their records are kept until seven years after their last session, or until their 21st birthday if that is later. We never ask a child for the consent in section 6.
12. How Long We Keep It
- Session notes, assessment answers and bookings: seven years after your last session, or until a child's 21st birthday if that is later. - Invoices and payment records: seven years, longer than the five tax law requires. - Proof of a document accepted or a consent given, the audit trail of changes to your record, and our logs of emails, WhatsApp messages and calendar updates: seven years. - If seven years pass with no session, booking, purchase, payment or sign-in, we erase your record, keeping only what the law still requires. You can ask us to erase your information sooner (section 13). Records the law requires us to keep, such as invoices, are kept for their period and then removed.
13. Your Rights
Under POPIA you may ask us: for a copy of the information we hold about you; to correct anything that is wrong; to erase it, except what the law requires us to keep; and to stop using it for news and offers. You may withdraw any consent you gave, object to processing based on our legitimate interest, and complain to the Information Regulator. Some choices are yours to change directly in your portal under Settings → Preferences. To use any of these rights, email hello@life-therapy.co.za. We reply within 30 days.
14. Security
Information travels encrypted between your browser and our systems. Your phone number, address, emergency contact, assessment answers and session notes are also encrypted in our database. Admin accounts are protected by two-step sign-in, and you can see only your own records. No system is completely secure; if a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as POPIA s22 requires.
15. Changes to This Notice
When this notice changes, the new version is published here with its date, and earlier versions are kept.
16. The Information Regulator
If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please tell us first. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za Enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za Website: inforegulator.org.za
17. Contact
Life Therapy (Pty) Ltd The Colosseum, Foyer 3, 1st Floor, Century Way, Century City, Cape Town 7441, Western Cape Email: hello@life-therapy.co.za Phone: +27 71 017 0353