PRIVACY POLICY

The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC

Effective Date: September 5, 2026
Last Updated: September 7, 2026

The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC respects the privacy of people who visit its public website, contact the Practice, request information, or use public-facing online features. This Website Privacy Policy explains the categories of information that may be collected through the public website, how the information may be used or disclosed, and available choices.

Public Website Information vs. Clinical Health Information

This Policy primarily addresses information collected through the public website. If you become a client, information relating to counseling, diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, payment, supervision, and clinical records may be protected by additional Texas and federal law and by professional confidentiality rules.

Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 181 broadly regulates protected health information in Texas, and Chapter 611 separately protects confidential mental-health communications and records. Those protections are addressed further in the Practice’s Notice of Privacy Practices and Texas Health-Information Privacy Notice.

Information You May Provide

Depending on how you use the Site, you may voluntarily provide information such as:

  • name;

  • email address and telephone number;

  • preferred method of contact;

  • basic service interest, such as individual adult, minor, couples, or group services;

  • general availability or scheduling preferences;

  • a brief nonclinical inquiry;

  • accessibility-related requests; and

  • other information you voluntarily choose to submit.

Do not submit detailed clinical histories, diagnoses, symptoms, medications, trauma histories, medical records, Social Security numbers, payment-card numbers, or other highly sensitive health information through an ordinary public contact form unless the Practice specifically directs you to a secure system designed for that information.

Information Collected Automatically

The website platform, hosting provider, security tools, or other authorized service providers may automatically receive limited technical information necessary to operate or secure the Site, such as IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring page, date and time of access, pages viewed, basic event or security logs, and cookies or similar technologies.

The Practice seeks to minimize collection of information that is unnecessary for website operation and does not intend at launch to use identifiable clinical information for targeted advertising or cross-site behavioral profiling.

How Information May Be Used

The Practice may use public website information to:

  • respond to inquiries and communicate about requested services;

  • determine whether the Practice may be an appropriate potential provider;

  • facilitate scheduling or direct a prospective client to the secure practice-management system;

  • operate, maintain, secure, and troubleshoot the Site;

  • prevent fraud, misuse, or cybersecurity threats;

  • improve accessibility, functionality, and user experience;

  • comply with legal, regulatory, licensing, ethical, and recordkeeping obligations;

  • protect clients, users, the Practice, or others where permitted or required by law; and

  • carry out another purpose disclosed at collection or authorized by the individual.

Public Contact Form

The Practice intends its Squarespace contact form to collect only basic inquiry information. The form is not designed as a clinical intake form or emergency communication channel. Prospective clients should be directed to Sessions Health or another designated secure system for intake, consent, scheduling, and sensitive clinical information.

Because information entered into an ordinary website form may be processed by the website platform and associated service providers, users should limit submissions to the minimum information needed for the Practice to respond.

Cookies, Analytics, Pixels, and Tracking Technologies

Squarespace and related hosting or security services may use cookies or similar technologies for core functionality, security, fraud prevention, performance, or analytics. The Practice may use a consent banner or available platform settings to manage nonessential cookies where appropriate.

At launch, the Practice does not intend to place advertising pixels, cross-site behavioral advertising trackers, session-replay tools, or similar technologies on secure client portals, intake forms, scheduling pathways containing health information, telehealth pages, authenticated client pages, or other areas where doing so could disclose protected health information without lawful authority.

A cookie banner or acceptance of this Privacy Policy is not a substitute for a legally required authorization to disclose protected health information.

Current Technology and Service Providers

As of the Effective Date, the Practice expects to use the following categories of third-party services:

  • Squarespace — public website hosting and public website functionality;

  • Sessions Health — practice management, scheduling, records, and related secure client functions;

  • Stripe through Sessions Health — payment processing;

  • Psychology Today — professional directory and virtual-session functionality; and

  • email, telecommunications, information-technology, security, accounting, legal, or other operational vendors as reasonably necessary.

Vendors may process information only as appropriate to the function they perform and subject to applicable legal and contractual requirements. If the Practice later becomes a HIPAA covered entity, vendors that create, receive, maintain, or transmit protected health information on its behalf will be handled as business associates when federal law requires.

Payments

The Practice is private-pay as of the Effective Date. Payment information may be processed through Stripe within Sessions Health or another designated processor. The Practice does not intend to collect or store complete payment-card numbers through its public website. Payment processors maintain their own security and privacy obligations.

No Sale of Mental-Health Information

The Practice does not sell client health information or mental-health treatment information. It does not disclose confidential counseling information to third parties for their independent targeted advertising or marketing purposes unless a disclosure is specifically authorized and lawful. The Practice does not use a business model based on selling client health data.

Email, Text, and Electronic Communications

Ordinary email and SMS/text messaging may not provide the same privacy protections as a secure client portal. The Practice may use reasonable safeguards and limit sensitive content in ordinary electronic communications. Once a counseling relationship is established, clients should follow the Practice’s informed-consent and communication policies and use secure systems when reasonably available.

Texas Health-Information Privacy

Texas law provides heightened protection for health and mental-health information. Under Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 611, communications between a patient and a mental-health professional and records of the patient’s identity, diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment created or maintained by the professional are confidential except as specifically permitted or required by law.

Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 181 imposes additional requirements concerning protected health information, including restrictions on sale and certain electronic disclosures. The Practice will apply the law that provides the greater applicable protection when different privacy rules overlap.

Texas Electronic Disclosure Notice

NOTICE: The Practice creates, receives, stores, and may transmit protected health information electronically as part of providing and administering counseling services. Texas law may require a separate authorization before certain electronic disclosures of protected health information. A separate authorization is generally not required for electronic disclosures made for treatment, payment, or health-care operations to another covered entity, or when disclosure is otherwise authorized or required by state or federal law. This website notice is intended to provide general notice of electronic disclosure as permitted by Texas Health & Safety Code § 181.154(a).

When Information May Be Disclosed

Information may be disclosed only as permitted or required by applicable law, including, depending on the information and circumstances:

  • at the individual’s direction or with legally sufficient authorization;

  • for treatment, payment, supervision, or lawful health-care operations;

  • to service providers performing authorized functions;

  • to comply with mandatory reporting or other legal duties;

  • to address qualifying threats to health or safety where disclosure is legally permitted;

  • in response to legally sufficient court orders, subpoenas, regulatory process, or governmental requirements, subject to applicable privileges and heightened mental-health protections;

  • for professional licensing, supervision, quality, legal, accounting, security, or risk-management functions as lawfully permitted; or

  • as otherwise specifically permitted or required by Texas or federal law.

Minors

The public Site is not intended as an unsupervised service directed to children under 13. Counseling of minors may involve special rules concerning consent, parental or conservatorship authority, confidentiality, and record access. The Practice may require legal documents establishing authority and will apply the law and court orders governing the specific situation.

Couples Counseling

Couples counseling can involve information about more than one person. The Practice will address the nature of the record, confidentiality expectations, authorizations, and disclosure practices in separate clinical informed consent. A request by one participant for access to or disclosure of information concerning another participant may require additional legal and ethical analysis.

Social Media

The Practice may maintain professional social-media accounts. Information posted publicly or sent through a third-party social network may be visible to the platform or others and should not be used for confidential clinical communications. The Practice seeks to maintain separate professional boundaries and will not publicly confirm a person’s client status without lawful authority.

Texas Consumer Data Privacy

Certain health records and protected health information are exempt from the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act. Other personal data collected through the public Site may be subject to that Act if its applicability thresholds are met. To the extent applicable, the Practice will honor consumer rights and processing restrictions required by Texas law. The Practice does not sell sensitive health data.

Data Security

The Practice uses reasonable administrative, physical, and technical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of information handled. Measures may include access controls, strong passwords, multifactor authentication, encrypted or secure platforms, backups, security updates, limited vendor access, privacy training when required, and incident-response procedures. No internet transmission or electronic system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Retention

Public website inquiry information is retained only as reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, legitimate business needs, security, and applicable law. Clinical records are governed by separate professional and legal record-retention duties and are not subject to ordinary website deletion practices.

Your Choices and Requests

Depending on the information involved and applicable law, you may request access, correction, or deletion of certain nonclinical information, unsubscribe from nonessential promotional communications, manage optional cookies through available browser or Site settings, or exercise health-information rights described in the Notice of Privacy Practices and Texas Health-Information Privacy Notice. The Practice may retain information where law, professional rules, security needs, or legitimate recordkeeping duties require retention.

Third-Party Websites

The Site may link to websites or services the Practice does not control. Those third parties may have independent privacy practices. Users should review their policies before providing information.

Changes to This Policy

The Practice may update this Privacy Policy when its technology, vendors, services, or legal obligations change. The current version will identify its effective or revision date. Material changes involving protected health information will also be addressed through the Practice’s health-information privacy notice or other procedures required by law.

Privacy Contact

Privacy Officer
The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC
5900 Balcones Drive, Suite 20971, Austin, TX 78731
469-332-5703
connect@thebendwithin.com