Privacy policy

Your clinical records, session notes, diagnoses, and anything you share with your therapist in the course of treatment are protected health information. They are governed by federal law (HIPAA) and Maryland law and by our Notice of Privacy Practices, which you receive when you start therapy. That notice, not this page, describes how clinical information is used, disclosed, and protected.

Virtual sessions take place on a secure video platform built for healthcare, not on this website.

Email, phone, and contact requests. When you email or call us, we receive your name, your contact details, and whatever you choose to tell us. We use it to answer you and, if you decide to work with us, to set up care.

Booking a consultation. Free 15-minute consultations are scheduled through Calendly. When you book, Calendly collects your name, email address, phone number (if you provide it), the time you choose, and any note you add, and shares that booking with us. Calendly processes that information under its own privacy policy.

Email and text messages travel over networks we do not control and are not a secure channel. Please keep them to scheduling and general questions, and do not include detailed health information. If you would rather share something sensitive, ask us and we will arrange a secure way to do it.

Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how people use this site: which pages are visited, roughly where visitors are located (derived from IP address), what kind of device and browser they use, how they arrived here, and how they move through the site. Google Analytics sets cookies and uses similar identifiers to tell visits apart. We use this information only in aggregate, to see which pages are useful and to improve the site. We do not use it to identify you, we do not run advertising, and we do not combine it with any clinical information. Google processes this data under its own privacy policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recording your visits by installing Google's browser opt-out add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser.

Google Search Console. We use Google Search Console to see how this site appears in Google Search: which searches lead people here, how often the site is shown, and which pages Google can index. Search Console reports aggregate data from Google's own search results. It does not collect information from visitors to this site and does not identify individual people.

Hosting and security logs. This site is hosted by WP Engine and served through Cloudflare. Like most web hosts, they keep server logs that include IP addresses, the pages requested, timestamps, and browser details. These logs are used to keep the site running, secure, and fast, and they are retained under those providers' own policies.

This site itself does not set cookies to track you. Google Analytics sets cookies as described above. You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings; the site will still work without them.

• To respond to your questions and requests and to schedule consultations and sessions.
• To operate, secure, maintain, and improve this website.
• To understand, in aggregate, how people find and use the site.
• To meet legal, regulatory, and professional obligations.

We do not sell personal information, we do not share it with third parties for their marketing, and we do not add you to a marketing list because you contacted us.

We share information only with the service providers that make the site and the practice run: Google (Analytics and Search Console), Calendly (scheduling), our web host and content delivery network (WP Engine and Cloudflare), and our email provider. Each acts on our behalf and under its own privacy commitments. We may also disclose information when the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or to protect our legal rights.

We keep emails and contact requests for as long as we need them to respond to you and to keep a record of our correspondence, and we delete them when they are no longer needed. Google Analytics data is kept for the retention period set in our Google Analytics account, after which Google deletes it. Records of your care, once you become a client, are kept for the periods required by Maryland law and are described in the Notice of Privacy Practices.

You can ask us what website contact information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, and we will honor those requests unless the law requires us to keep it. You can opt out of Google Analytics with Google's browser add-on or by blocking cookies. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under state privacy laws; to exercise any of them, email info@sevenlightscounseling.com. Requests about clinical records are handled under the Notice of Privacy Practices.

This website is for adults. The practice works with young adults in their 20s and 30s and does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has sent us information through this site, contact us and we will delete it.

This site links to other websites, such as Calendly, Google Maps, and social media. Their privacy practices are their own, and this policy does not cover them.

We may update this policy as the site or the law changes. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last revised. This version is effective as of September 21, 2026.

Questions about this policy or about your information can be sent to info@sevenlightscounseling.com, or by mail to Seven Lights Counseling, 7700 Old Georgetown Rd Ste 675, Bethesda, MD 20814.