Privacy policy

This policy explains how Martin Gladman (ABN 51 586 862 879; “we”, “us”) collects, uses, stores and shares your personal information, including health information. It covers counselling and social work services in Melbourne, Woodend, online and by phone, and this website.

We handle your information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).

Last updated 14 November 2026.

Our services are for adults aged 18 and over. To provide counselling and social work services, we may collect:

• your name, date of birth, gender, address and contact details
• emergency contact details and how you heard about us
• health and social history, information you share in sessions, session notes and assessment results
• referral and Medicare details, such as a Mental Health Care Plan or GP referral, and private health insurance details
• payment details, and bank account details if you ask for Medicare rebates to be paid to you

Most information comes directly from you: when you book online, complete our consent and intake forms, attend sessions, or contact us by phone, text or email.

With your consent, we may also receive information from your GP, referring doctor or other health professionals involved in your care.

You can make a general enquiry without giving your name. To provide counselling, process Medicare claims or take payment, we need your details. If you choose not to provide them, we may not be able to offer you a service.

We use your information to:

• assess your needs and provide counselling, clinical sexology and social work services
• run the practice, including bookings, reminders and records
• bill you, and process claims with Medicare, private health insurers or compensation schemes
• communicate with your doctor or other health professionals, to support your care
• meet our legal and professional obligations

Your information stays confidential. We only share it:

• with your GP, referring doctor or other health professionals involved in your care, with your consent (for example, reports required under a Mental Health Care Plan)
• with Medicare (Services Australia), to process claims. We may confirm your Medicare number through PRODA, the government’s secure provider system
• with a private health insurer, insurer, compensation agency or employer, only where you make a claim and it is needed for that claim
• with service providers who help us run the practice, such as Halaxy (practice management, bookings and payments) and Zoom (video sessions), who must keep it confidential
• when the law requires or allows it, such as a court order or subpoena, or to lessen or prevent a serious threat to someone’s life, health or safety

Like all social workers, Martin takes part in regular clinical supervision to support the quality of your care. Your situation may be discussed in supervision, but never in a way that identifies you.

We do not sell or trade your information, and we do not disclose it to anyone overseas.

Your records are kept in Halaxy, a secure practice management system. Halaxy stores data in Australia on Amazon Web Services. Access is limited to Martin and the people who help run the practice.

Card details are held by Halaxy’s secure payment system. We do not store full card numbers ourselves.

Video sessions use Zoom, which encrypts sessions. Please join from a private space. No online service can be guaranteed completely secure, and email is not fully secure, so please avoid sending sensitive details by email.

If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

Victorian law requires health records to be kept for at least 7 years after your last session. After that, they are securely destroyed.

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it. Contact us at [email protected] and we will respond within 30 days. There is no charge to make a request.

In limited situations the law allows us to refuse access, for example where it would pose a serious threat to someone’s safety. If that happens, we will explain why.

This website does not use advertising or tracking cookies.

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand how many people visit and which pages they use. It does not use cookies, does not track you across other websites, and does not identify you personally.

Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes technical information such as your IP address to deliver and protect the site. Some pages include services from other companies: videos from Vimeo, the booking form from Halaxy and fonts from Google. These services may collect technical information or set their own cookies under their own privacy policies.

The password-protected client booking page sets one cookie to remember that you have signed in.

If you email us, we use your details only to reply and, if you become a client, to provide your service. We will not add you to a mailing list.

If you have a question or concern about your privacy, please contact us first at [email protected] or on 0405 337 611. We will look into it and respond to you.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or at oaic.gov.au, or the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner on 1300 582 113 or at hcc.vic.gov.au.

See our complaints page for other options.

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated.