Thinking Aside
A little distance. A lot of clarity.
Privacy and Cookie Policy
Last updated: 11th August, 2026
This policy explains how Thinking Aside collects, uses and looks after your personal information when you visit thinkingaside.co.uk, get in touch, or work with me as a client. It also explains how cookies are used on the website and what choices you have.
I want this to be readable rather than a wall of legal small print, so I have written it in plain English. If anything is unclear or you would like more detail on any part of it, please get in touch using the contact details at the end
1. Who I am
Thinking Aside is the trading name of Liz McConnell, trading as a sole trader. For the purposes of UK data protection law, I am the data controller for any personal information I collect through this website and in the course of my work.
Contact details: Liz McConnell, Thinking Aside.
Address: 18 Osprey View, Langold, S81 9FW, Nottinghamshire
Email: liz@thinkingaside.co.uk. Website: thinkingaside.co.uk.
I am a Quest-trained Cognitive Hypnotherapist registered with the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) and bound by their code of ethics and confidentiality requirements, which sit alongside the legal obligations described in this policy.
2. The information I collect
Depending on how you interact with Thinking Aside, I may collect the following types of personal information:
If you visit the website
● Technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type and approximate location.
● Information about how you use the site, including the pages you visit and the links you click.
● Information collected through cookies and similar technologies, as described in Section 9 below.
If you get in touch
● Your name and contact details (email address, and a telephone number if you choose to share one).
● The content of your enquiry, including anything you choose to tell me about your situation or what you are looking for.
If you book a session or work with me as a client
● Your name, contact details and any address details needed for invoicing.
● Booking information processed through Paperbell, including session dates, times and any pre-session questionnaire responses you complete.
● Payment information processed through Stripe (I do not see or store your full card details myself).
● Session notes I make during or shortly after our work together. These are kept securely and treated with the confidentiality required by NCH professional standards.
● Information about your health, wellbeing, thoughts, feelings and personal circumstances that you choose to share during sessions. This counts as special category data under UK GDPR and is given extra protection (see Section 4 below).
3. How I collect your information
Most of the information I hold about you comes directly from you, for example when you fill in a contact form, book a session through Paperbell, or share information during a session.
Some information is collected automatically when you visit the website, through cookies and basic site analytics. Section 9 explains this in more detail.
Occasionally, I may receive information about you from a third party, such as another professional who has referred you to Thinking Aside with your knowledge.
4. How and why I use your information
Under UK data protection law, I need a lawful basis for using your personal information. The lawful basis depends on what I am doing with the information.
To provide my services to you
Lawful basis: performance of a contract (or steps taken at your request before entering into a contract).
This covers things like responding to your initial enquiry, arranging and running sessions, taking payment, keeping the records I need to keep as a practitioner, and staying in touch about your work with me.
To handle information about your health and wellbeing
Lawful basis: your explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)) for special category data, alongside the contract basis above for the underlying service.
Hypnotherapy work involves discussing things that count as health information in legal terms. By booking and attending sessions, you are giving me explicit consent to record and use the information you share for the purpose of supporting that work. You can withdraw that consent at any time, although doing so part way through a course of work may affect what I can offer you.
To run and improve the website
Lawful basis: legitimate interests (running a small therapeutic practice and understanding how the website is used), and your consent where cookies require it.
To meet my legal and professional obligations
Lawful basis: legal obligation, and legitimate interests in meeting my professional standards.
This includes keeping financial records for tax purposes, complying with NCH requirements, holding records for insurance and complaints purposes, and responding to lawful requests from regulators or authorities.
5. Who I share your information with
I do not sell your personal information. I share it only with the people and providers I genuinely need to in order to run Thinking Aside properly. These include:
● Paperbell — my booking and client management platform, used for session scheduling, intake forms, invoicing and email communication with clients.
● Stripe — my payment processor. Stripe sees the payment information needed to take a card payment; I only see confirmation that a payment has been made.
● Zoom — used for online sessions. Zoom processes the audio and video of our session in order to make the call happen, in line with their own privacy notice.
● Squarespace — my website host, which processes basic site analytics and keeps the site running.
● Email providers — which process information needed to deliver emails.
● My clinical supervisor — in line with NCH requirements, I discuss my work in supervision. Where supervision involves talking about specific clients, I anonymise the discussion so that you cannot be identified.
● Professional advisors — such as my accountant or insurer, where genuinely needed.
● Authorities and regulators — if I am legally required to share information, for example in response to a court order or a serious safeguarding concern.
All my service providers are required to handle your information securely and in line with data protection law.
6. Where your information is held
Some of the providers I use (including Paperbell, Stripe and Zoom) are based outside the UK or store data in countries outside the UK. Where this is the case, those transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards under UK GDPR, such as the UK-US Data Bridge, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or standard contractual clauses approved for international transfers.
7. How long I keep your information
I keep your personal information for only as long as I need to for the purposes I collected it, and to meet my legal and professional obligations. As a general guide:
● Client records and session notes — kept for seven years from the end of our work together, in line with NCH and insurance recommendations. For clients under 18, records are kept until they reach 25.
● Booking and payment records — kept for at least six years to meet HMRC requirements for financial record-keeping.
● Enquiries that do not lead to a booking — kept for up to 12 months and then deleted.
● Website analytics data — kept for the period set out in Section 9.
8. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. In short, you have the right to:
● Ask for a copy of the personal information I hold about you.
● Ask me to correct anything that is inaccurate or incomplete.
● Ask me to delete information, where there is no good reason for me to keep it (this is not absolute, especially for clinical and financial records I am required to retain).
● Ask me to restrict how I use your information in certain circumstances.
● Object to me using your information for things based on legitimate interests.
● Ask for your information in a portable format, where the processing is based on consent or contract.
● Withdraw consent at any time, where I am relying on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, please email liz@thinkingaside.co.uk. I will respond within one month.
If you are not happy with how I have handled your information, I would always like the chance to put things right first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
9. Cookies
A cookie is a small piece of information stored on your device when you visit a website. Cookies record how you move around a site so that, when you come back, it can present things based on what you did last time. They can also help with analytics and security.
This website does not currently use Google Analytics or any advertising cookies. It does use Squarespace's own basic built-in analytics, which helps me understand visitor numbers and which pages are useful, and essential cookies needed for the site to function properly.
If you book a session or use the contact form, third-party services including Paperbell, Stripe and Zoom may also set their own cookies as part of providing those services, in line with their own privacy notices.
You can accept or decline non-essential cookies using the banner shown when you first visit the site, and change your choice at any time using the Cookie Preferences link, usually found in the site's footer.
You can also control cookies through your web browser settings, though blocking essential cookies may mean some parts of the site don't work properly.
10. Children
Thinking Aside services are aimed at adults. I do not knowingly collect personal information about children under 18 through the website. If you are a parent or guardian and believe I may have collected information about your child without appropriate consent, please get in touch and I will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
I may update this policy from time to time. When I do, I will change the 'last updated' date at the top of the page and, where the changes are significant, let you know directly if I have your contact details.
12. Getting in touch
If you have any questions about this policy or how your personal information is handled, please contact:
Liz McConnell, Thinking Aside
Email: liz@thinkingaside.co.uk
Address: 18 Osprey View, Langold, S81 9FW, Nottinghamshire
Website: thinkingaside.co.uk