Privacy Policy

Psychology and Wellness Centre (PAWC)
Last updated: 13 September 2026

Why we have this policy

Reaching out to a psychologist or therapist takes trust. This policy explains, in plain language, what personal information the Psychology and Wellness Centre collects when you contact us, book an appointment, visit our website or message us on WhatsApp — and why we need it, who sees it, and how we look after it.

We’ve written it to meet the requirements of South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). If anything is unclear, we’d rather you asked — our contact details are at the end.

Who we are

The Psychology and Wellness Centre (“PAWC”, “we”, “us”) is at 21 Shepherd Avenue, Bryanston, Johannesburg. We are the “responsible party” under POPIA for the information described in this policy.

Our Information Officer, who handles all privacy questions and requests, is:

Colleen Austin-Williams, Practice Manager
011 463 1211 · legal@pawc.co.za

How PAWC and your practitioner work together

PAWC is home to a team of psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, a dietitian and other health professionals. Each of them is an independent practitioner registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), and each is personally bound by professional confidentiality for everything you discuss in your sessions.

PAWC’s role is the practical side. We help you find the right practitioner, manage bookings and reception, look after accounts and submit medical aid claims.

That means there are two kinds of records:

• Your clinical record — session notes, assessment results and reports. Your practitioner keeps this, and it stays confidential to them.
• Your practice record — your contact details, bookings, account and medical aid claims. PAWC keeps this.

This policy is about the practice record. Your practitioner will explain how they look after your clinical record, and the limits of confidentiality, at your first session.

What we collect

When you get in touch (website form, phone, email or WhatsApp): your name, phone number, email address, and what you tell us about the help you’re looking for. A sentence or two is all we need to point you to the right person — you never have to share more than you’re comfortable with.

When you book: appointment dates and times, which practitioner you’re seeing, whether the session is in person or online, and — for a child — the parent or guardian’s details.

For your account and medical aid: your medical aid scheme, plan and membership number, the main member’s name and ID number, and the fee for each session. Medical aids require a diagnostic (ICD-10) code and a procedure code on every claim. Your practitioner chooses these, and we simply pass them on as part of the claim. If you pay yourself, we keep a record of the payment, but we never store card numbers — card payments go straight through our payment provider.

When you visit our website: the usual technical information — your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit — collected through cookies (see “Cookies and our website” below).

Where it comes from: almost always from you, or from a parent or guardian booking for a child. Occasionally from someone you’ve asked to refer you — a doctor, a school or, for medico-legal assessments, an attorney — or from your medical aid when we check a claim.

Why we use it

• To answer your enquiry and match you with a suitable practitioner.
• To manage your appointments — confirmations, reminders and rescheduling.
• To run your account and submit claims to your medical aid.
• To meet the record-keeping duties that apply to a health practice (HPCSA and medical scheme rules) and to any business (tax law).
• To keep our website and systems secure, and to understand how people find us so we can spend our advertising budget sensibly.

POPIA lets us use your information where it’s needed to provide the service you’ve asked for, where the law requires it, where we have a fair and legitimate reason that doesn’t override your rights, or where you’ve consented.

Some of what you share with us is about your health, which POPIA treats as “special personal information” and protects more strictly. We handle it as a health practice bound by confidentiality, for your care and the administration of your account, and with your consent — or a parent or guardian’s for a child — which you give when you book. You can withdraw that consent at any time (see “Your rights”).

WhatsApp

We use the WhatsApp Business Platform to answer questions and to send appointment confirmations and reminders. A few things worth knowing:

• We’ll only message you about your bookings and things you’ve asked us. We won’t send marketing on WhatsApp unless you’ve told us you’d like it, and you can stop at any time by replying STOP or letting us know.
• Messages between you and us are encrypted in transit. Meta, which runs WhatsApp, hosts the business messaging service for us under its own terms and privacy policy (whatsapp.com/legal).
• Messages about your bookings become part of your practice record.
• WhatsApp isn’t the place for the details you’d share in a session, and it isn’t monitored around the clock. In an emergency, please call 112 or go to your nearest emergency room. SADAG’s 24-hour mental health helpline is 0800 456 789.

Children and teenagers

Many of the people we help are children and teenagers. A parent or legal guardian books on a child’s behalf and gives consent for us to collect and use the child’s information. We collect only what’s needed for the child’s care and for medical aid claims.

Assessment reports go to the parent or guardian, and are only shared with a school or other professional with the parent or guardian’s written permission. As children get older, their practitioner will involve them in decisions about their own care, in line with the Children’s Act and HPCSA guidance.

Who we share it with

We never sell your information, and we don’t share it for anyone else’s marketing. We share it only with:

• Your practitioner, so they can prepare for and provide your sessions.
• Your medical aid, and the claims service we use to submit claims, so that claims can be processed.
• Service providers who help us run the practice — our practice management and booking system, email and website hosting, WhatsApp (Meta), Google (reCAPTCHA, analytics and advertising measurement), our marketing agency Wild Pursuit for website and advertising analytics, and, for online sessions, the video platform your practitioner uses. Each works under a contract that limits them to doing their job for us and keeping your information confidential.
• People you ask us to share with — a school, a doctor, an attorney or another practitioner — with your written consent. For medico-legal or Road Accident Fund assessments, the report goes to the instructing attorney or fund, as agreed with you when the assessment is arranged.
• Where the law requires it — for example a court order, or a legal duty to protect someone from serious harm. These situations are rare, and your practitioner will explain the limits of confidentiality at your first session.

Some of these providers (WhatsApp, Google, our email host) store information on servers outside South Africa. POPIA allows this where the provider commits to protecting your information to a standard similar to POPIA’s, which these providers do.

How long we keep it

• Enquiries that don’t lead to a booking: deleted after 12 months.
• Booking, account and claim records: at least five years, as tax law requires, and generally for as long as your clinical record.
• Clinical records: your practitioner keeps these for the period the HPCSA requires — at least six years after your last visit or, for a child, until their 21st birthday.

When we no longer need information, we delete or destroy it securely.

Keeping it safe

Your information is stored in secured, password-protected systems, and only the staff who need it to do their jobs can see it. Paper files are kept in locked storage. Everyone who works at PAWC signs a confidentiality undertaking, and our practitioners are bound by the HPCSA’s rules on confidentiality.

If we ever became aware that your information had been exposed, we would tell you and notify the Information Regulator, as the law requires.

Cookies and our website

Our website (pawc.co.za) uses a few cookies and similar tools:

• Essential cookies that make the site work.
• Google Analytics and Google Ads measurement, so we can see which pages and adverts bring people to us. These tell us that someone visited or sent a form — not what the form said.
• Google reCAPTCHA, which protects our contact forms from spam. It’s subject to Google’s privacy policy and terms of service.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and the site will still work.

Your rights

You’re in control of your information. You can:

• Ask what we hold about you — we’ll usually respond within 30 days.
• Ask us to correct anything that’s wrong or out of date.
• Ask us to delete information we no longer need. Some records have to be kept by law or HPCSA rules; if that applies, we’ll explain.
• Object to a use you’re not comfortable with, or withdraw your consent. This won’t affect anything already done, though it may mean we can’t provide some services.
• Opt out of marketing at any time.
• Complain to the Information Regulator if you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your information: inforegulator.org.za · 010 023 5200 · enquiries@inforegulator.org.za.

To exercise any of these, contact our Information Officer (details below). We may ask you to confirm your identity first, so that we don’t hand your information to the wrong person. Our PAIA manual is available on request.

Changes to this policy

We’ll update this policy when the way we work changes. The date at the top tells you when it was last updated, and if a change is significant we’ll let you know on our website or by message.

Contact us

Psychology and Wellness Centre
21 Shepherd Avenue, Bryanston, Johannesburg
011 463 1211 · WhatsApp +27689237505 · legal@pawc.co.za
pawc.co.za

Information Officer: Colleen Austin-Williams, Practice Manager