Confidentiality and Privacy Policy

What Is Confidential in Therapy?

In our work together, you have a right to privacy from any outside entities, and I have the responsibility to protect your confidential information. The law protects the relationship between a client and a psychotherapist, and information cannot be disclosed without written permission.

Exceptions include:

• Suspected child abuse or dependent adult or elder abuse, which I am required by law to report to the appropriate authorities immediately.
• If a client is threatening serious bodily harm to another person/s, I must notify the police and inform the intended victim.
• If a client intends to harm himself or herself, I will make every effort to enlist their cooperation in ensuring their safety. If they do not cooperate, I will take further measures without their permission that are provided to me by law in order to ensure their safety.

All information provided via forms on this site is confidential and protected by a secure connection and encryption. However, please keep the information you share via my website to the minimum needed to set up an appointment, so that we can discuss any private issues in person.

Privacy Policy

Last updated July 24, 2024

Thank you for choosing to be part of our community at Tina Kopko (“Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. If you have any questions or concerns about our notice or our practices with regard to your personal information, please contact us at tina@tinakopko.com.

When you visit our website, www.tinakopko.com, and use our services, you trust us with your personal information. We take your privacy very seriously. In this privacy notice, we seek to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it and what rights you have in relation to it. We hope you take some time to read through it carefully, as it is important. If there are any terms in this privacy notice that you do not agree with, please discontinue use of our sites and our services.

This privacy notice applies to all information collected through our website (such as www.tinakopko.com), and/or any related services, sales, marketing or events (we refer to them collectively in this privacy notice as the “Services“).

Please read this privacy notice carefully, as it will help you make informed decisions about sharing your personal information with us.

1. What information do we collect?

Information automatically collected

In short: Some information — such as IP address and/or browser and device characteristics—is collected automatically when you visit our site.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use or navigate the Services through the use of cookies. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) and is configured to not collect granular data (like IP addresses). This collection of data is in compliance with HIPAA requirements.

2. How do we use your information?

In short: We process your information for purposes based on legitimate business interests, the fulfillment of our contract with you, compliance with our legal obligations and/or your consent.

We use personal information collected via our Services for a variety of business purposes described below. We process your personal information for these purposes in reliance on our legitimate business interests, in order to enter into or perform a contract with you, with your consent and/or for compliance with our legal obligations. We indicate the specific processing grounds we rely on next to each purpose listed below.

We use the information we collect or receive:

• To send you marketing and promotional communications. If you provide opt-in to join our email marketing list, you are providing consent to receive these communications, which are managed through a third-party provider. The data collected for this communication does not contain any protected health information and is in compliance with HIPAA regulations. This data is not sold or made available for use to any third-party providers for their own marketing efforts.
• To send administrative information to you. We may use your personal information (such as email address, name, appointment dates and times, fee amounts) to communicate with you about a service you have expressed interest in. We will also alert you to upcoming group dates as they become available (if you’ve expressed interest), and any relevant terms, conditions and policies that affect the services you have contracted me to provide.
• To Request Feedback. I typically send out a feedback survey about your experience learning the Grief Recovery Method with me. That feedback goes directly to The Grief Recovery Institute, and they do not send you unsolicited communications. See www.griefrecoverymethod.com/privacy-policy for more information on how they use your information.
• To enforce our terms, conditions and policies for Business Purposes, Legal Reasons and Contractual fulfillments.
• To respond to legal requests and prevent harm. If we receive a subpoena or other legal request, we will need to inspect the data we hold to determine how to respond.
• To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We will use your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the use of our Services.

3. Will your information be shared with anyone?

In short: We only share information with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services, to protect your rights or to fulfill business obligations.

We may process or share data based on the following legal basis:

• Consent: We may process your data if you have given us specific consent to use your personal information in a specific purpose (like a testimonial).
• Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order or legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena (including in response to public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).
• Vital Interests: We may disclose your information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding potential violations of our policies, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person and illegal activities or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.

More specifically, we may need to process your data or share your personal information in the following situations: 

• Vendors, Consultants and Other Third-Party Service Providers. We may share your data with third-party vendors, service providers, contractors or agents who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Examples include: payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, customer service and marketing efforts. We may allow selected third parties to use tracking technology on the Services, which will enable them to collect data about how you interact with the Services over time. This information may be used to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content and better understand online activity. Unless described in this Policy, we do not share, sell, rent or trade any of your information with third parties for their promotional purposes.
• Third-Party Advertisers. We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Services. These companies may use information about your visits to our website(s) and other websites that are contained in web cookies and other tracking technologies in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

4. Do we use cookies or other tracking technologies?

In short: We use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. We do not collect granular user data that can reveal your identity.

Learn more about website cookies.

5. How long does the website keep your information?

In short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

• Website form data is automatically deleted after one year.
• Cookie data is anonymized and does not contain any personally identifiable data.

6. How do we keep your information safe?

In short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process:

• No form data or personal information is provided to third parties.
• Collected form data is stored on HIPAA compliant hosting with encrypted data transfer.
• All cookie data is anonymized to eliminate personally identifiable information.

7. Do we collect information from minors?

In short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at tina@tinakopko.com.

8. What are your privacy rights?

Cookies and similar technologies: Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies.

9. Controls for do-not-track features

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.

10. Do California residents have specific privacy rights?

In short: Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

11. Do we make updates to this policy?

In short: Yes, we will update this policy as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Revised” date, and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

12. How can you contact us about this policy?

If you have questions or comments about this policy, you may email us at tina@tinakopko.com or by post to:

Tina Kopko, MFT, CGRS
PO Box 3399
Oakland, CA 94609

How can you review update, or delete the data we collect from you?

Based on the laws of some countries, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information or delete it in some circumstances. To request to review, update or delete your personal information, please contact tina@tinakopko.com, and we will respond to your request within 30 days.