Privacy Policy

Introduction

The Society for Complementary Therapies ("SFCT," "we," "us," or "our") is a recognised public charitable institution based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, operating a Mental Health and Healing Centre and this website (the "Site"). This Privacy Policy explains what information the Site collects, how we use it, and the choices available to you when you visit or interact with it.

This Policy applies to this website only. It does not describe the practices of any third-party website or service you may reach through a link from this Site.

Information We May Collect

We collect information in two ways: information you choose to provide to us directly, and a small amount of technical information collected automatically as part of how the Site functions. We do not collect payment card details, government identification numbers, or health/diagnosis information through any form on this Site.

Information You Provide to Us

This Site has a single enquiry form, used across our Therapies, Counselling, Certifications, and Contact pages, through which you may ask us a question or request information about our services. When you submit this form, we collect:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your phone number, if you choose to provide it (optional)
• The message you write to us
• The general category of your enquiry (for example, Therapy, Counselling, Certification, Training, Partnership, or General), and, where relevant, which specific SFCT service your enquiry concerns

You must tick a consent checkbox before this form can be submitted. We record the date and time you gave this consent as part of your enquiry, for enquiries submitted from 15 September 2026 onward. Enquiries submitted before that date do not have this timestamp recorded, as it was not tracked at the time.

Submitting this form does not automatically send an email to SFCT. Your enquiry is received and stored securely for our staff to review and respond to directly; it is not forwarded to, or visible to, any individual practitioner, and SFCT decides internally who responds to your enquiry. Authorised SFCT administrators can permanently delete an enquiry record from our internal system if needed.

If SFCT has made a WhatsApp number available, you may optionally be shown a link after a successful enquiry that opens WhatsApp with a message pre-filled using the information you just submitted. This is entirely your choice, and the message is not sent unless and until you press Send yourself inside WhatsApp. If you use this option, your message is then handled by WhatsApp, a service operated by Meta, under Meta's own privacy terms.

If you contact us by phone, by email, or in person, we may keep a record of that communication in the same way any organisation would.

Information Collected Automatically

Like most websites, this Site uses a small number of cookies that are necessary for it to function correctly and securely:

• A session cookie, which allows the Site to recognise you as you move between pages during a single visit, for example so that a security check works correctly and so we can show you a confirmation message after you successfully submit the enquiry form. This cookie expires automatically after a period of inactivity.
• A security cookie, a standard web-security mechanism that helps prevent forms on this Site from being submitted by malicious third-party websites on your behalf.

Both cookies are strictly necessary for the Site to work and are not used for advertising, marketing, analytics, or tracking you across other websites.

As part of how our web server and these necessary cookies work, a record of your visit, including your device's IP address and browser type, is stored for the duration of your session. This is standard infrastructure behaviour common to most websites, not a separate tracking feature, and it is not linked to your name or enquiry unless you separately submit the enquiry form during that same visit.

This Site uses Google Analytics (GA4), a web analytics service provided by Google, to help us understand how visitors use the Site and to improve the Site and its content. Google Analytics sets its own cookies in your browser to do this; it is separate from the two strictly-necessary cookies described above. Data collected through Google Analytics is processed by Google under Google's own privacy policy. See "Cookies and Similar Technologies" and "Third-Party Services and External Links" below for further detail.

How We Use Information

We use the information described above only to:

• Respond to enquiries you submit to us
• Operate and maintain the security of the Site, including the cookies described above, and standard rate-limiting and spam-prevention measures that help stop automated abuse of our enquiry form
• Keep an internal administrative record of enquiries we receive, so our staff can track and respond to them appropriately
• Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations where applicable
• Understand how visitors use the Site and improve the Site, its content, and user experience through Google Analytics (GA4)

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising or marketing purposes.

Counselling and Sensitive Information

Some of the services described on this Site relate to counselling and mental health support. SFCT does not provide emergency crisis intervention or suicide intervention through this website. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please contact a qualified emergency service directly rather than using the enquiry form on this Site, which is not monitored in real time and is not an emergency contact channel.

Our enquiry form includes a free-text message field. We ask that you avoid including sensitive personal information, such as health details, in that field beyond what is necessary to describe your general enquiry. Any detailed discussion of your circumstances is best handled directly with our staff once we are in contact with you. We do not deliberately collect medical or mental-health information through this Site; any such detail included voluntarily in a message is treated with the same care as the rest of your enquiry.

Testimonials and Published Content

From time to time, this Site publishes written and video testimonials from individuals who have given SFCT their permission to share their experience publicly. We do not collect testimonials automatically through this website, and there is no public form for submitting one; testimonials are added by SFCT only after the individual concerned has given their consent. Reviews you may leave for SFCT on Google are a separate matter, governed by Google's own terms, and are not reproduced on this Site as SFCT testimonials unless separately and explicitly agreed with you.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

This Site uses the two strictly-necessary cookies described above (a session cookie and a security cookie), and also uses Google Analytics (GA4), which sets its own cookies in your browser to help us understand how visitors use the Site. We do not currently operate a cookie-consent banner.

Third-Party Services and External Links

This Site links to, or embeds content from, a small number of third-party services:

• YouTube. Some pages include embedded YouTube videos. Playing an embedded video may allow Google/YouTube to collect information about that interaction under their own privacy policy.
• WhatsApp. An optional link may allow you to continue your enquiry with us over WhatsApp. Following that link takes you to a service operated by Meta, outside SFCT's control.
• Instagram. We provide a link to our official Instagram profile. Following it takes you to Instagram, a service operated by Meta.
• Google Reviews. We may provide a link inviting you to read or leave a review of SFCT on Google. Following it takes you to Google, outside SFCT's control.
• Google Analytics. This Site uses Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use the Site. Google Analytics is operated by Google under Google's own privacy policy.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third-party services. We recommend reviewing their own privacy policies before using them.

Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We do not share the information you submit through our enquiry form with any external marketing company, data broker, or advertising network.

We may disclose information where required to do so by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of SFCT, our staff, or the public.

Data Retention

We retain personal information you provide to us only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law. SFCT has not yet adopted a specific retention period for enquiry records; this section will be updated once one is adopted.

Data Security

We take reasonable technical measures to help protect the personal information submitted to us, including secure, encrypted transmission of data between your browser and our servers, and standard protections against common web-security threats. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your Rights and Choices

Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, or request deletion of personal information we hold about you, or to withdraw consent you have previously given. If you would like to make such a request, please contact us using the details below.

We do not currently have an automated or self-service mechanism for handling such requests; a visitor cannot submit or manage a deletion request through this Site directly. Requests are received manually, for example by email, and handled case-by-case by our staff. Authorised administrators are able to permanently delete a specific enquiry record on request.

Children's Information

This Site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children through it. Some of our services, such as counselling for children and teenagers, are described on this Site for the benefit of parents, guardians, and other adults, who may use our general enquiry form on a child's behalf.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or would like to exercise any of the rights described above, please contact us:

Society for Complementary Therapies Mental Health and Healing Center (prior appointment required) Adarsh Palm Retreat Tower-4, Bougainvillea Bellandur, Outer Ring Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560103

Phone: +91 98713 47559 Email: info@sfct.in