How we handle your data
This policy explains what happens to your information when you use the mental health self-assessment on somatictherapypractice.com. We've kept it in plain language on purpose. If anything here is unclear, email us at sasha@somatictherapypractice.com.
Privacy Policy - Somatic Therapy Practice
Last updated: 24 July 2026
This policy explains what we do with your information when you use somatictherapypractice.com, book a session, contact us, or join our email list. We've written it in plain language on purpose. If anything is unclear, email sasha@somatictherapypractice.com.
1. Who we are
Somatic Therapy Practice is a platform that connects people with vetted integrative psychotherapists for online and in-person sessions. Somatic Therapy Practice is operated by A. Lukavchenko, registered in Portugal, with Funky Minds LLC (131 Continental Dr Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713, US) providing billing services. We are established in the European Union through our Portuguese activity, and A. Lukavchenko is the data controller for the information described in this policy.
For anything to do with your data, contact sasha@somatictherapypractice.com. We are the data controller for the information described in this policy.
2. What this policy does and does not cover
This policy covers information handled by us, the platform: your visits to the site, bookings, enquiries, form submissions, and email subscriptions.
It does not cover what happens inside your therapy sessions. Once you begin working with a therapist, the notes, clinical records, and content of your sessions are held by that therapist under their own professional confidentiality and record-keeping obligations. Your therapist will tell you how they handle that information.
The self-assessment tool has its own privacy policy (see above), because it works differently - your answers stay on your device.
3. What we collect
When you visit the site. Standard technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, and how you arrived. This is collected through our hosting and analytics providers (see section 8).
When you book a session. Your name, email address, phone number, the session type and time, and anything you choose to write in a booking note or intake field. Bookings are handled through our scheduling provider, NeetoCal.
When you contact us. Whatever you send us - by email, through a contact form, or via WhatsApp - including your name, contact details, and the content of your message.
When you join our email list. Your name and email address, and whether you opened or clicked our emails.
When you fill in a form. For example, a feedback form, a group-programme interest form, or a practitioner application. The information collected depends on the form and is shown at the point you fill it in.
When you apply to work with us as a practitioner. Your professional details, qualifications, experience, and anything else you send as part of an application.
Health-related information
Some of what you tell us relates to your mental or physical health - for example, what you write when booking, what you say in an enquiry, or the fact that you have booked therapy at all. This is "special category" data under GDPR and is given extra protection. We collect only what we need, and we treat it accordingly (see section 5).
Please don't send us detailed clinical or medical information through the website, WhatsApp, or email. Those channels aren't designed for it. Keep that for your session with your therapist, in a setting built for it.
4. Why we use your information
To arrange, confirm, and manage your sessions, including sending reminders and connecting you with a therapist.
To answer your questions and provide support choosing a therapist.
To take payment for sessions.
To send you our newsletter and related content, if you've asked for it.
To improve the site and understand how it's used.
To review practitioner applications.
To meet our legal, accounting, and record-keeping obligations.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions about you, and we do not sell it.
5. Our legal bases
Under GDPR we must have a lawful basis for each use:
Contract - to arrange and deliver a session you have booked, and to handle payment.
Consent - for marketing emails, and for non-essential cookies and analytics. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Legitimate interests - to run and improve the platform, respond to enquiries, and keep the service secure. We balance this against your rights and interests.
Legal obligation - for tax, accounting, and other records we are required to keep.
For health-related information, we additionally rely on:
Explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a) GDPR) where you actively choose to share it with us; and/or
Provision of health or social care (Article 9(2)(h) GDPR), where the processing is necessary to arrange your care and is handled under an obligation of professional secrecy.
6. Who we share it with
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
Your therapist. When you book, we share the details needed for them to hold the session with you - your name, contact details, session time, and anything you wrote in your booking. This is the core purpose of the platform.
Our service providers.
These companies process data on our behalf, under contract, only to run this service:
Provider What it does Where
Framer Hosts the website EU (Netherlands)
NeetoCal Scheduling and bookings US (Florida)
MailerLite Email marketing EU (Lithuania)
Tally Forms EU (Belgium)
Google Analytics Website analytics US
Railway / Vercel Hosting for the assessment tool and related services US
Stripe Processing payments US
WhatsApp / Meta If you contact us via WhatsApp US
Professional advisers and authorities. Our accountant or legal advisers where necessary, and public authorities where we are legally required to disclose.
In an emergency. In rare situations where there is a serious and immediate risk to your life or someone else's, information may be shared with emergency or health services. This follows the same principles your therapist works under.
7. International transfers
We are established in the European Union, through our registered activity in Portugal. Some of our service providers, and [Funky Minds LLC / our US entity], are based in the United States, so some information is transferred there. Of the providers listed in section 6, NeetoCal, Google Analytics, Railway/Vercel, Stripe and WhatsApp/Meta are in the United States. Framer, MailerLite and Tally are in the EU.
Where your data goes outside the EU/EEA, it is protected by an appropriate safeguard under GDPR, such as an adequacy decision, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or Standard Contractual Clauses.
8. Cookies and analytics
We use cookies and similar technologies to make the site work and to understand how it's used.
Essential cookies keep the site functioning. These don't require consent.
Analytics - we use Google Analytics to see how people find and use the site. It sets cookies and collects usage data. This runs only with your consent, which you can give or decline through our cookie banner and change at any time.
Declining analytics does not affect your ability to use the site or book a session.
9. How long we keep it
Booking and client records - for as long as needed to provide the service, and then for the period we are legally required to keep financial and professional records (10 years). Because these obligations are legal requirements, we cannot delete these records on request while the period lasts.
Email subscribers - until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete your data.
Enquiries and messages - 14 months after the conversation ends.
Practitioner applications - 14 months after the decision, if unsuccessful. For successful applicants, for the duration of our working relationship.
Analytics data - 14 months, as set in Google Analytics.
10. How we protect it
We use providers that offer encryption in transit, access controls, and secure infrastructure, and we limit access to your information to those who need it. No system is completely secure, but we take this seriously - particularly given how sensitive the subject matter is.
11. Your rights
You have the right to:
access the information we hold about you;
correct it if it's wrong;
delete it, subject to records we're legally required to keep;
withdraw consent at any time, including unsubscribing from any email;
object to or restrict processing;
receive a copy of your data in a portable format.
To exercise any of these, email sasha@somatictherapypractice.com. We'll respond within one month.
If your request concerns notes your therapist holds about your sessions, contact your therapist directly - those records are theirs.
12. Children and young people
Some therapists on our platform work with children and adolescents. So while most of what we do is for adults, we do handle information about under-18s, and this section explains how.
The self-assessment tool is for adults only. It asks your age before anything else, and if you are under 18 it does not proceed. The screening questionnaires it uses are only validated for adults, so applying them to a young person would produce a meaningless result. Nobody under 18 can complete it, and we collect no information from anyone who answers "no" to the age question - that screen simply shows support options and a way to reach a therapist who works with young people.
Booking sessions for a child or adolescent. A booking for someone under 18 must be made by a parent or legal guardian, not by the young person themselves. When you book on behalf of a child, we collect your details as the booking adult, and the child's name, age, and anything you tell us that is relevant to arranging their care.
How consent works
Who gives it. Consent must come from a person with parental responsibility for the child. Where more than one person holds parental responsibility - for example separated or divorced parents, we rely on confirmation from the booking parent that they are authorised to consent.
We ask you to confirm it. By making the booking, the adult confirms that they hold parental responsibility and consent to the child receiving therapy and to their information being handled as described in this policy.
When a young person can consent for themselves. Older adolescents may be able to consent to their own care, depending on their age and maturity and on local law.
The young person's own agreement matters too. Even where a parent consents, our therapists will explain what therapy involves to the young person in a way they can understand and seek their agreement to take part. Therapy does not work when it is imposed.
Withdrawing it. Consent can be withdrawn at any time by contacting the therapist or us.
What parents can and cannot see. Young people need a degree of privacy for therapy to work. Your therapist will explain, at the start, what will and will not be shared with you as a parent - typically that general progress is shared, that detailed session content is not, and that safety concerns always are. That boundary is set by the therapist under their professional obligations, not by us as a platform.
Marketing. We do not knowingly send marketing emails to anyone under 18, and we do not sign children up to our email list. Any subscription made in connection with a child's care is held in the parent or guardian's name.
If we learn we hold a child's information without proper consent, we will delete it. If you believe this has happened, email sasha@somatictherapypractice.com and we will act promptly.
13. Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please contact us first at sasha@somatictherapypractice.com.
You also have the right to complain to the Portuguese data-protection authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD) - www.cnpd.pt. If you're in the UK, you may instead contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
14. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. Where a change is significant, we'll tell subscribers directly.
15. Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: sasha@somatictherapypractice.com.
