Dr Helen Machen-Pearce
Last updated: September 2026
This notice explains what personal information I collect about you, why I collect it, who I share it with, how long I keep it and what rights you have. It applies across everything I offer.
I may update this notice when my practices, service providers or legal obligations change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. Where a change materially affects people I am currently working with, I will bring it to their attention.
Dr Helen Machen-Pearce is the data controller for the information described in this notice, operating as a sole trader based in England.
• Email: YogaRogueUK@gmail.com
• Website: helenmachenpearce.com
Please use the email address above for any privacy question, request or concern. If you need a postal address, please ask and I will provide one.
This notice applies if you:
• make an enquiry or contact me through my website, by email or by message;
• work with me as an individual coaching client;
• attend a class, workshop or course in yoga, meditation, qigong, breathwork, art, Groove, embodiment, or nervous system education;
• subscribe to my writing, newsletter or mailing list;
• join my members area or take an online course; or
• buy or download a digital product, such as a workbook or recording.
Some sections below apply only to one of these. Where that is the case, it is stated.
If you enquire or contact me
Your name, email address or other contact details, and whatever you choose to tell me about what you are looking for.
If you are an individual coaching client
• your contact details, agreement responses and consent choices;
• appointment and attendance information;
• brief confidential coaching notes;
• emails and WhatsApp messages connected with our work;
• payment and transaction records, but not your full card details; and
• an optional emergency contact.
If you attend a class, workshop or course
• your name and email address, and the bookings you have made;
• attendance information;
• payment and transaction records, but not your full card details;
• anything you choose to send me by email or message about your participation.
If you subscribe to my writing or mailing list
Your email address, the sign-up you completed, your consent choices, and the record of whether you have opened emails or unsubscribed. My email list is run through SendFox, and my longer writing is published on Substack. Each of these holds your information under its own privacy policy and acts as a separate data controller.
If you join my members area, take an online course or buy a digital product
Your name and email address, your account details, your order and delivery records, your progress through any course you have joined, and payment and transaction records. My members area and online courses are hosted on OnlineCourseHost, which holds this information under its own privacy policy. I do not receive your full card details.
If you visit my website
My website is built and hosted using Grigora. It is a basic informational site. It does not use analytics or marketing cookies, and I do not track or profile visitors. Only cookies strictly necessary for the site to work may be set by the hosting provider.
Several pages link out to sign-up pages hosted by SendFox and to my members area on OnlineCourseHost. Once you follow those links you are on their sites, and their own privacy policies apply.
If you interact with me on social media
If you follow, comment or message me on a platform such as Instagram, I see the information that platform makes visible to me. The platform is responsible for its own handling of your data under its own privacy policy.
Classes, workshops and courses delivered online are routinely recorded, so that people who could not attend live, or who want to return to the material, can watch afterwards.
Recordings capture only me and the material I am teaching. Participants are not filmed. Where a session moves into discussion, questions or shared conversation, I pause the recording before that begins and restart it afterwards, so nothing you say or write becomes part of the recording.
You will be told at the start of a session that part of it is being recorded, and when the recording is paused and resumed. If anything identifying a participant were ever captured by accident, I would edit it out or delete the recording.
Recordings are downloaded and then uploaded to YouTube. Most are unlisted, which means they do not appear in search results and can be reached only by people I share the link with, normally those who booked that class, workshop or course. Some are public. Because only I appear in them, I keep recordings for as long as they remain useful rather than deleting them after a set period.
YouTube is operated by Google. If you watch a recording, YouTube may set cookies and collect information about your viewing under Google’s own privacy policy.
Individual coaching sessions are not recorded by me.
I do not ask for health, injury, medical or diagnostic information from people attending classes, workshops or courses, and I do not keep health records for participants. You are always free to adapt, pause, rest or leave a practice, and you do not need to explain why.
In individual coaching, you may choose to share sensitive personal information where it is relevant to our work. You do not have to. Where you do, I minimise what is written down and record sensitive detail only where it is necessary.
Information about physical or mental health, disability, neurodivergence and some other matters is special-category data under data protection law. Where you voluntarily share this and it is necessary to use it, I rely on your separate explicit consent. In a genuine emergency where consent cannot be obtained, another lawful condition may apply, such as protecting vital interests.
You may withdraw explicit consent for future processing at any time by emailing YogaRogueUK@gmail.com. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal, and I may still need to retain limited information where lawfully required, including for a legal claim or an immediate safety matter.
Please avoid sending detailed sensitive information by email or message where it can reasonably wait until we speak.
• To respond to an enquiry and decide whether what I offer is suitable — contract, or legitimate interests.
• To enter into and perform an agreement with you, take bookings, arrange and deliver sessions, communicate with you and provide digital products — contract.
• To keep brief professional records, support continuity, manage safety and obtain confidential professional supervision — legitimate interests.
• To process payments, keep financial records and meet tax and other legal obligations — contract, and legal obligation.
• To establish, exercise or defend legal claims, respond to complaints, and protect the security and integrity of my work — legitimate interests, and legal obligation.
• To send you writing, news or marketing — consent, which you may withdraw at any time.
Where I rely on legitimate interests, I have considered whether those interests are overridden by your rights, and I use only what is proportionate.
I do not sell your information. I share only what is necessary, with:
• my professional supervisor, where individual coaching work is discussed, with your identity protected wherever possible;
• service providers that support my website, forms, email, calendars, booking, video sessions, messaging, publishing, course hosting and payments, including Grigora, Google and Google Workspace, YouTube, SendFox, Substack, OnlineCourseHost, TidyCal, Zoom, WhatsApp, PayPal and Stripe;
• other participants in a class, workshop or course, who will see the display name you choose and anything you say or write in a shared session;
• professional advisers, insurers, regulators, courts or public authorities, where necessary or legally required; and
• emergency services, safeguarding bodies or a coaching client’s optional emergency contact, where there is a serious and immediate safety concern, a safeguarding responsibility or a legal requirement.
Payment providers handle the information needed to process your transaction. I do not receive your full card details.
Some service providers process information outside the UK, including in the United States. Where this happens, transfers are made using a lawful mechanism and appropriate safeguards where required, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual protections. Each provider’s own privacy notice gives further detail about where and how it processes data.
• Brief confidential coaching notes: seven years after our work ends, in line with professional and insurance requirements.
• Agreements, consents, bookings, invoices and other financial or administrative records: seven years.
• Class, workshop and course attendance lists: normally deleted within twelve months.
• Routine emails and WhatsApp messages: normally deleted within three months after our work ends. Anything genuinely needed for continuity or safety is summarised minimally in the coaching notes.
• Enquiries that do not lead to working together: normally deleted within twelve months.
• Members area and online course accounts: while your account is active, and for twelve months afterwards, subject to the financial-record period above.
• Recordings of classes, workshops and courses, in which only I appear: kept indefinitely, as they contain no personal information about participants.
• Mailing list and marketing records: until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent, with a minimal suppression record kept where needed to respect your choice.
• Records connected with a complaint, safeguarding matter or legal claim: for as long as reasonably necessary in the circumstances.
At the end of the relevant period, information is securely deleted unless a longer period is required by law or is necessary for a legal claim.
Coaching notes and other records are stored on my password-protected computer and backed up on an encrypted external drive. I take reasonable steps to limit access and to protect information from loss, misuse or unauthorised disclosure.
Identifiable client information and coaching notes are never entered into a generative AI service.
No method of electronic communication is completely risk-free. Please use email and messaging thoughtfully, and avoid sending detailed sensitive information where it is not necessary.
Booking a session, buying a product or becoming a coaching client does not automatically add you to a newsletter or marketing list. Marketing requires a separate, optional opt-in, and you may unsubscribe at any time.
I will not use your feedback, testimonial or experience of working with me publicly without separate written consent. That consent will make clear whether your name, first name or no identifying details may be used. You may withdraw consent for future use, although I may not be able to retrieve material that has already been lawfully printed or distributed.
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:
• ask for a copy of your personal information;
• ask for inaccurate information to be corrected;
• ask for information to be deleted, or its use restricted;
• object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests;
• receive certain information in a portable format; and
• withdraw consent at any time where consent is the basis used.
These rights are not absolute and may depend on the reason the information is held. To exercise a right, email YogaRogueUK@gmail.com. I may need to verify your identity before responding, and I will reply within one month.
Please contact me first at YogaRogueUK@gmail.com if you have a privacy concern, so that I can try to resolve it.
You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. If you live outside the UK, you may also have the right to contact your local data-protection authority.
I may update this notice when my practices, service providers or legal obligations change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. Where a change materially affects people I am currently working with, I will bring it to their attention.
© 2026 Helen Machen-Pearce
