Privacy Policy

Wendy Schembri – Clinical Family Therapist

I respect your privacy and am committed to protecting the personal and health information you provide to me.

This Privacy Policy explains how I collect, use, store and disclose personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and applicable Victorian health privacy requirements.

What information do I collect?

I may collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide therapy and manage your appointments and treatment.

This may include:

• your name and contact details
• date of birth and other identifying information
• information about your relationships, family and circumstances
• information about your mental and emotional wellbeing and other health information relevant to therapy
• information provided during therapy sessions
• information provided through intake forms, emails, telephone conversations or other communications
• information provided by other professionals or people involved in your care, where appropriate and with your consent
• appointment, billing and payment information
• information required to provide NDIS services where applicable.

Health information is considered sensitive information under Australian privacy law and is subject to additional privacy protections.

How do I collect your information?

Information may be collected directly from you when you:

• contact me by telephone or email
• make an appointment
• complete an online enquiry or intake form
• participate in therapy
• communicate with me about your treatment or appointments.

With your consent, information may also be collected from other people or organisations involved in your care, such as health professionals, schools or support services.

Where appropriate, information may be collected from another person when this is necessary to provide therapy, including information about family relationships or circumstances.

Why do I collect and use your information?

Your information is collected and used for purposes including:

• providing and planning therapy
• understanding your circumstances and therapeutic goals
• maintaining appropriate clinical records
• communicating with you about appointments and therapy
• communicating with other professionals or services involved in your care where appropriate and with your consent
• preparing reports or other professional correspondence when requested and appropriate
• managing fees, payments and administration
• providing NDIS services where applicable
• clinical supervision and professional consultation, where appropriate
• meeting legal, professional and regulatory obligations.

I only collect information that is reasonably necessary for these purposes.

Confidentiality and disclosure

Information you provide during therapy is treated as confidential.

Information will generally not be disclosed to another person without your consent, except where disclosure is permitted or required by law, including where necessary to address a serious risk to your or another person’s health or safety.

Information may also need to be disclosed in response to a court order, subpoena or other legal requirement.

Information may be discussed as part of clinical supervision or professional consultation. Where possible, identifying information will be minimised.

If you give consent for information to be shared with another health professional, school, support service or other relevant person, only information appropriate to the purpose of the communication will be shared.

Couples and family therapy

In couples and family therapy, privacy and confidentiality require particular consideration because more than one person is participating in the therapy.

In couples therapy, the relationship is the client. Partners are encouraged to bring relevant information, concerns and experiences into therapy and to be open with one another about what they discuss with me.

If information is shared with me privately during couples or family therapy, I cannot promise that it will remain confidential from other participants where the information is relevant to the therapeutic work.

I will discuss with you how privately shared information may need to be brought into the therapy. I will not agree to keep information secret where doing so would interfere with the therapeutic work or raise safety concerns.

How is your information stored and protected?

Your personal and health information is stored securely and reasonable steps are taken to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Zanda is my primary practice management system and is used for appointment management, client records, intake information, clinical documentation, billing and other practice administration.

NovoPsych is used where appropriate for psychological assessment and psychometric measures.

Gottman Connect may be used for relationship assessment where appropriate as part of couples therapy.

Prepare/Enrich may be used for relationship assessment and premarital counselling where appropriate.

Psychology Tools may be used to provide therapeutic resources to clients, including resources sent directly by email where appropriate.

These services have their own privacy and security arrangements and may process or store information in different jurisdictions. I take reasonable steps to use appropriate and secure systems and to protect client information when using these services.

Website and online services

When you use my website, some technical information may be collected automatically by website or hosting services. This may include information such as your IP address, browser type, device information and pages visited.

The website may use cookies or similar technologies for website functionality, security, analytics or other purposes.

If you submit information through an online form, that information may be collected and transmitted through the service used to operate the form.

Please avoid including detailed or highly sensitive health information in a general website enquiry form or ordinary email where it is not necessary.

Telehealth

Where therapy is provided by Telehealth, information may be transmitted through the secure online platform used for the appointment.

You are responsible for taking reasonable steps to participate from a private and secure location and to protect the privacy of your own device and internet connection.

Professional communication

With your consent, I may communicate with relevant health professionals, schools, support services or other people involved in your care where this is appropriate and helpful.

Professional correspondence, reports, telephone discussions, case consultation and liaison with other involved parties may incur a fee. Brief communication of up to 10 minutes is provided without additional charge, with longer communication charged at the applicable session rate.

Accessing or correcting your information

You may request access to personal information I hold about you and may ask for information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date to be corrected.

Requests for access or correction should be made by contacting me using the contact details on this website.

I will respond to requests in accordance with applicable privacy requirements. In some circumstances, access may be limited or refused where permitted by law.

How long is information retained?

Clinical records are retained securely for at least seven years from the date of the last entry in the record.

Where the client was a child when the service was provided, records are retained until the client reaches 25 years of age, in accordance with applicable Victorian requirements.

When information is no longer required to be retained, reasonable steps will be taken to securely destroy or de-identify it.

Privacy concerns or complaints

If you have a question or concern about how your personal information has been handled, I encourage you to contact me first so that I can discuss the matter with you and work towards resolving it.

You can contact me using the contact details provided on this website.

If you are not satisfied with the response or believe your privacy has not been handled appropriately, you may contact the relevant privacy or health complaints authority, including the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) or the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner, depending on the nature of the complaint.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes to my practice, technology, legal requirements or the way personal information is handled.

The current version will be made available on this website.

Last updated: September 2026