Privacy Policy

Barends Psychology Practice s.p.

Last updated: September 23, 2026

Barends Psychology Practice s.p. is committed to protecting your privacy and processing personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), applicable Slovenian data-protection legislation, and other applicable legal requirements.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we process it, how long we retain it, who may process it on our behalf, and the rights you have in relation to your personal data.

1. Data Controller

Barends Psychology Practice s.p.
Vaše 16
1215 Medvode
Slovenia

Email:
info@barendspsychology.com

Barends Psychology Practice s.p. is the data controller responsible for personal data processed through this website, in connection with psychological services, and through assessments operated by Barends Psychology Practice, including the Barends Burnout Inventory (BBI).

2. What Personal Data We Collect

The personal data we collect depends on how you interact with Barends Psychology Practice.

Website, inquiries, and appointments

We may collect information such as:

Name
Email address
Telephone number
Country of residence
Information you provide through contact forms or email
Information necessary for scheduling appointments
Information relating to inquiries about our services

Psychological services

Where you receive psychological, counseling, consultation, or related professional services, we may process information such as:

Contact and identification information
Information necessary for scheduling and administering services
Information you voluntarily provide during psychological sessions or consultations
Information relevant to psychological assessment or treatment
Professional notes and records where appropriate
Billing and invoicing information

Information processed in connection with psychological services may include data concerning health or psychological functioning and may therefore constitute special-category personal data under the GDPR.

Barends Burnout Inventory (BBI)

If you complete the Barends Burnout Inventory (BBI), we may process:

Your name and email address where these are provided for assessment administration or delivery of results
Your responses to BBI questionnaire items
Your responses to work-related context questions
Scores and response patterns calculated from your assessment
The version of the questionnaire, scoring method, and interpretation framework used
Assessment completion information, including completion status and timing
The order in which assessment questions were presented
Your public BBI Results ID
Information connecting repeat assessments if you choose to link them
Your research-consent status, where applicable
Pseudonymous research identifiers where you consent to research participation

BBI assessment information may reveal information relating to psychological functioning or well-being. We therefore handle BBI information with safeguards appropriate to potentially sensitive personal data.

3. Why We Process Your Data

We process personal data only where there is an appropriate purpose and legal basis for doing so.

Depending on your interaction with us, personal data may be processed for purposes including:

Responding to inquiries
Scheduling and administering appointments
Providing psychological counseling, consultation, and related professional services
Maintaining appropriate professional records
Issuing invoices and maintaining accounting records
Complying with tax, legal, and professional obligations
Operating, maintaining, and securing our website and online services
Providing assessments and assessment results
Delivering BBI results where requested
Maintaining the integrity and security of the BBI assessment system
Managing linked repeat BBI assessments where requested by the participant
Conducting BBI research and instrument development where the participant has separately consented to this use

BBI research and instrument development

The Barends Burnout Inventory is currently under development and evaluation.

If you explicitly choose to participate in BBI research, your assessment data may be used to evaluate how the questionnaire performs and to develop future versions of the instrument.

This may include examining:

How individual questionnaire items perform
How responses to different items relate to one another
The reliability and structure of the questionnaire
Relationships between the areas measured by the BBI
Relationships between BBI responses and work-related context variables
Questionnaire completion patterns
The order in which questions were presented
Changes across linked assessments completed at different times

Participation in BBI research is optional. You can complete the BBI and receive your results without agreeing to research use of your assessment data.

Additional information is provided in the BBI Research & Privacy Information presented in connection with the assessment.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

The legal basis we rely upon depends on the purpose and circumstances of the processing.

Contract

We may process personal data where processing is necessary to provide a service you have requested or to take steps at your request before providing that service.

This may include psychological services, consultations, appointments, paid services, or other services provided by Barends Psychology Practice.

Legal obligation

We process personal data where this is necessary to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, tax, record-keeping, and other applicable legal requirements.

Legitimate interests

Where appropriate, we may process personal data on the basis of legitimate interests, including:

Operating and securing our website and information systems
Preventing misuse, fraud, or unauthorized access
Responding to ordinary inquiries
Maintaining the technical integrity of our services

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether those interests are overridden by your rights and interests.

Consent

We rely on consent where consent is the appropriate legal basis, including for certain cookies, optional communications, and optional participation in BBI research.

Where BBI research involves the processing of information treated as special-category data concerning health, we rely on the participant’s explicit consent for that research processing.

BBI research consent is requested separately from acceptance of website terms or use of the assessment. The research-consent option is voluntary and is not required to complete the BBI or receive your results.

Where psychological or health-related information is processed in connection with professional services, the applicable legal basis and any applicable special-category condition depend on the nature of the service and the legal and professional context in which it is provided.

5. Confidentiality of Psychological Services

Information shared during psychological services is treated as confidential and handled in accordance with applicable law, professional obligations, ethical standards, and appropriate privacy safeguards.

Confidentiality is not absolute. Information may be disclosed where disclosure is required or permitted by applicable law, including where a competent authority lawfully requires disclosure.

In circumstances involving a serious and immediate safety concern, information may also need to be used or disclosed where applicable legal and professional obligations justify or require such action.

Where professional consultation or supervision is used, information is limited and protected as appropriate.

6. BBI Research Data and Pseudonymization

If you explicitly consent to BBI research participation, research data are separated from direct identity and delivery information as part of the research-data architecture.

Research datasets are designed not to contain your name, email address, or public BBI Results ID. Instead, randomly generated research identifiers are used.

If you complete the BBI more than once and choose to link your assessments, a pseudonymous research participant identifier may be used to connect eligible assessments over time.

A protected connection to the operational assessment is retained so that assessment history and research consent can be managed. For this reason, these research data are pseudonymized rather than anonymous and remain personal data for as long as that connection can be made.

Access to research information is restricted, and identity and delivery information are separated from research exports.

7. Withdrawing BBI Research Consent

You can withdraw your consent to BBI research at any time.

Where available, you can use the Withdraw research consent function associated with your BBI results. You may also contact us at:
info@barendspsychology.com.

After withdrawal has been recorded, the affected assessment will no longer be included in newly generated research datasets that rely on your research consent.

Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out on the basis of your consent before it was withdrawn.

Withdrawing research consent does not automatically delete your participant-facing BBI assessment or results and does not affect your access to those results.

Requests for deletion, access, restriction, or other data-protection rights are handled separately in accordance with applicable law.

If information has already been incorporated into genuinely anonymous aggregate results that can no longer be connected to you, those anonymous results cannot subsequently be removed as your personal data.

8. How Long We Retain Personal Data

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or for as long as required by applicable legal or professional obligations.

Inquiries and contact information

Information submitted through contact forms, email, or other inquiries is retained for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to the inquiry and manage any resulting relationship, subject to applicable legal requirements.

Professional client records

Records connected with psychological services are retained in accordance with applicable legal, ethical, professional, and record-keeping requirements.

Accounting and invoicing information

Accounting and invoicing records are retained for the period required by applicable Slovenian accounting and tax legislation.

BBI operational data

BBI assessment records and results are retained for as long as reasonably necessary to provide and administer the assessment, maintain access to results, manage linked assessments where requested, protect the integrity of the assessment system, and comply with applicable legal obligations.

BBI research data

BBI research data are retained for the duration of the BBI instrument-development and validation program and for the period reasonably necessary thereafter to verify, document, and defend the resulting research and instrument-development work.

Retention is reviewed periodically. Personal data that are no longer necessary are deleted or irreversibly anonymized unless longer retention is required by law.

9. Service Providers, Recipients, and Data Processing

We may use third-party service providers where necessary to operate Barends Psychology Practice and provide our services.

These may include providers of:

Website hosting and technical infrastructure
Email and communication services
Appointment scheduling
Video conferencing
Accounting and invoicing services
Website analytics and security services
Assessment hosting, database, and technical infrastructure
Data storage and backup services

Where a service provider processes personal data on our behalf, we require appropriate data-protection arrangements where required by law.

Service providers receive personal data only to the extent reasonably necessary for the service they provide.

Where personal data are transferred outside the European Economic Area, we use an appropriate transfer mechanism or other safeguard where required by the GDPR.

Information about specific providers or applicable transfer safeguards can be requested by contacting:
info@barendspsychology.com.

10. Cookies and Analytics

This website uses cookies and similar technologies for purposes such as website functionality, security, preferences, and analytics.

Where consent is required, non-essential cookies are used only in accordance with the choices made through our consent-management system.

Detailed information about the cookies and technologies currently used on this website, their purposes, and available consent controls can be found in our Cookie Policy and cookie consent settings.

11. Your Data-Protection Rights

Subject to the conditions and exceptions provided by applicable data-protection law, you may have the right to:

Access your personal data
Request correction of inaccurate personal data
Request erasure of personal data
Request restriction of processing
Object to certain processing
Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
Receive certain personal data in a portable format where the right to data portability applies
Lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority

Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the consent was withdrawn.

These rights are not absolute. In some circumstances, applicable law may permit or require us to retain information or continue particular processing.

To exercise a data-protection right, contact:
info@barendspsychology.com.

12. Complaints to the Supervisory Authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent data-protection supervisory authority.

For Barends Psychology Practice, established in Slovenia, the supervisory authority is:

Information Commissioner of the Republic of Slovenia
(Informacijski pooblaščenec)
Dunajska cesta 22
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

You may also have the right to contact another competent supervisory authority where applicable under the GDPR.

13. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorized access, accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, disclosure, destruction, or misuse.

Security measures are selected according to the nature of the information and the risks associated with its processing.

No internet transmission or information system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take reasonable measures to protect the personal data under our control.

14. Barends Burnout Inventory Is Not a Diagnostic Instrument

The Barends Burnout Inventory is currently under development and evaluation.

BBI results describe the work-related experiences reported by the participant. They should not be interpreted as a medical or psychological diagnosis and are not a substitute for professional medical or psychological assessment.

Participation in BBI research does not constitute psychological treatment or create a therapeutic relationship with Barends Psychology Practice.

15. Changes to the BBI

Research conducted using the current research version of the BBI may be used to develop later versions of the instrument.

Research findings may lead to questionnaire items being retained, revised, or removed, or to changes in the structure, scoring, or interpretation of a future version.

Historical responses and results will not be silently rewritten to make them appear as though they were generated using a later version of the BBI.

16. Children

Our psychological services and assessments may have different age requirements depending on the service.

The BBI research assessment is intended for adults unless we expressly state otherwise and implement the additional safeguards required for participation by minors.

17. Terms and Conditions

Use of Barends Psychology Practice services is also subject to our applicable terms and conditions.

The General Terms and Conditions apply to the general services provided by Barends Psychology Practice.
The BBI Terms and Conditions contain additional provisions specifically governing use of the Barends Burnout Inventory.

18. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, the processing of your personal data, BBI research participation, or the exercise of your data-protection rights, please contact:

Barends Psychology Practice s.p.
Vaše 16
1215 Medvode
Slovenia

Email:
info@barendspsychology.com

19. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in legislation, professional requirements, our services, the BBI research program, or the way our website and systems operate.

The current version and its last-updated date will be made available on this page.