Privacy & Cookies Policy

Overview

This page explains what happens when you visit penuelcounseling.com — what we collect, what we never collect, and how you stay in control. It does not apply to anything you share in a therapy session or evaluation interview; that information is protected by HIPAA and therapist-client confidentiality, and is never touched by the analytics described here.

Nothing loads until you say so

The first time you visit, a banner asks whether you accept optional analytics cookies. Until you click Accept, zero tracking scripts run — no Google Analytics, no Microsoft Clarity, nothing. If you click Decline, that choice is saved in your browser and analytics stay off permanently on that device. You can change your mind at any time by clearing your browser's site data for penuelcounseling.com, which brings the banner back.

What we collect if you accept

With your consent, two services help us understand how the site is used:

• Google Analytics 4 — page views, approximate location (city-level, from IP), device/browser type, and which button or link you clicked (for example, "Book now" or "Message us on WhatsApp"). We use this to see which pages and languages are helping people find support.
• Microsoft Clarity — anonymized scroll and click patterns to see where a page is confusing or hard to use. Clarity runs in strict masking mode: every piece of text and every form field is blocked out before it's ever recorded, so no session recording can show what you typed or read.

We also verify our site with Google Search Console, which only confirms domain ownership to Google — it does not track visitors or set cookies.

What we never collect

• No names, emails, phone numbers, or anything typed into a form.
• No Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Pixel, ever. We made this decision deliberately: mental health and immigration status are sensitive information, and advertising pixels have a documented history of misusing exactly this kind of data.
• No advertising or remarketing signals of any kind. Even after you accept analytics, ad-related signals (ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization) stay set to "denied" in every case.
• No selling or sharing of data with third parties beyond the two services named above, each of which processes data under its own privacy policy.

Third-party services

Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity are operated by Google LLC and Microsoft Corporation respectively. You can read how each of them handles data in their own policies:Google Privacy Policy andMicrosoft Privacy Statement.

Your rights and choices

• You can decline analytics at any time — the site works identically either way.
• You can ask us what, if anything, is associated with your visit by contacting us below.
• If you're a current or former client, requests about your clinical records follow the separate HIPAA process described in your intake paperwork, not this page.

Changes to this policy

If how we use analytics changes, we'll update this page and the "Last updated" date above. Material changes will also reset the consent banner so you can make a fresh choice.

Questions

Reach out through our contact page if anything here is unclear.