Barbara Richardson
Zen Shiatsu
Privacy Guidelines

The following is provided to explain your Therapist’s professional obligations with regard to your supplied information & the instances where explicit, specific consent may be requested. This information also appears on the Intake Form given to you at your first appointment. It is based on a pro-forma issued by The Shiatsu Therapy Association of Australia – STAA.
This form also contains a questionnaire requesting some information about you, your lifestyle and your medical history. I require this information for legal and insurance purposes. It also provides me with a medical context for your Shiatsu treatment.

Confidentiality

The Shiatsu Therapist will respect the confidentiality of the therapeutic relationship. They will not divulge any clinical or personal information about a client to anyone other than another therapist when transferring or consulting on a client. This will only be done with the client’s consent.

Exceptions to this are the use of case histories in teaching or the use of case histories for publication. This will only be done with the client’s full consent in writing on a dedicated document. With regards to both teaching &/or publication the client’s anonymity must be preserved.

Clients’ Rights and Access to Records

The client may have access to any and all of their specific information / documents on request. For their part, the Shiatsu Therapist will safeguard client information against unauthorized access, misuse &/or modification.

Patient records are kept confidential at all times and access restricted to the Shiatsu Therapist or assistant, except:

• where consent has been obtained from the patient or guardian thereof*, and then only to the extent of the agreed disclosure;
• in an emergency or other situation where the information may prevent possible injury or illness to the patient or other person;
• where required to do so by law.

Specific Consent Request

For group emails, such as seasonal e-Newsletters, this Therapist uses a 3^rd party Email Management Service, MAILCHIMP. I use this service exclusively for the distribution of these email campaigns and for tracking client engagement with those campaigns.
Client email addresses will not be made available to any other 3^rd party.

As part of your intake, the Therapist will specifically ask for your consent to receive emails distributed via this 3rd party.

Clients can unsubscribe at any time either via the link at the bottom of any e-Newsletter or by contacting the Therapist directly.
Mailchimp’s privacy policy can be found here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

Client Consent

Before their first session begins, I will ask all clients to confirm in writing* that they:

• have understood and responded to the questionnaire fully and accurately;
• have been informed that the confidentiality of the information they provide will be safeguarded subject to any legal requirements and consent as listed above;
• have seen and agreed to the Therapist’s current Schedule of Services & Rates;
• consent to receive Shiatsu treatment.

* If the client is under 16 years of age, the parent/guardian is required to sign the consent form on their behalf.