De-identifying a counselling file is the removal of personal identifiers from a counsellor’s notes. The Data Protection Act 2018 and the NHS Code of Confidentiality govern these records. anonym.plus does the work on your own device, fully offline.
When this applies
A supervisor wants to review casework without seeing who the clients are. Names of clients and their relatives must be hidden first.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the file in anonym.plus on your computer.
- Local OCR captures any scanned handwriting or print.
- It flags client and relative names, dates, and contacts.
- Review each match and keep clinical content.
- Replace each value with a label, or redact it.
- Save the result. The first copy stays on your machine.
What you need to provide
- The file (PDF, DOCX, TXT, or scan).
- An operator: Replace, Redact, or Mask.
- Optional: a key map for re-linking.
Patient data entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Client name | PERSON | Tara Nguyen → [CLIENT_1] |
| Relative | PERSON | son Eli → [FAMILY_1] |
| Visit date | DATE_TIME | Session 06/05/2026 → [DATE] |
| EMAIL_ADDRESS | tara.n@mail.co.uk → [EMAIL] | |
| Phone | PHONE_NUMBER | +44 7700 900162 → [PHONE] |
| NHS number | NHS_NUMBER | NHS 512 345 6789 → [NHS_NO] |
Compliance achieved
- Strips identifiers for DPA 2018 & NHS Code of Confidentiality.
- Local only, so no cloud processor contract is needed.
- Files are protected with AES-256-GCM.
- Also meets UK GDPR Art. 9 for special-category health records.
Anonymise counselling records offline — see plans & start free →
Limitations & cautions
The DPA 2018 still asks you to limit what you share to the minimum needed. The tool hides named identifiers. You decide who gets the clean copy and check that no stray hint remains.
Frequently asked questions
Does de-identification allow sharing for supervision?
Once a record is de-identified to the ICO standard, it is no longer personal information. You may then share it for supervision or study without further client authorisation.
Are relatives’ names removed?
Yes. A named child, parent, or partner is an identifier. The tool flags each so the client cannot be traced through family.
Does it run in the cloud?
No. The app works on your device. Nothing is sent to a server.