Who we are
The Healing Company is the name shared by two separate healthcare practices that work from the same rooms:
- Dr Steven Smilkstein, Chiropractor (practice number 0410136)
- Cayla Urdang, Biokineticist (practice number 1227327)
Each practice is responsible for the personal information of its own patients and of the people who send it an enquiry. In this policy, “we” means the two practices, each for its own part. Where something applies to only one of them, we say so.
Each practice has its own Information Officer, the person the law makes responsible for looking after personal information. Dr Steven Smilkstein is the Information Officer for his practice, and Cayla Urdang is the Information Officer for hers. Both are registered with the Information Regulator.
What this policy covers
This policy covers this website and the enquiries you send through it. It follows the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, usually called POPIA.
It does not describe how a practice keeps your clinical records once you are a patient. Those records are kept by the practice that treats you, under the rules of its own profession, and that practice will explain them to you if you ask.
What we collect
When you send an enquiry
- Your name and surname
- Your contact number and email address
- Your medical aid, the plan you are on and your medical aid number, only if you choose to give them
- Whether you would like to see the Chiropractor, the Biokineticist, or are not sure
- Whatever you write in your message
We do not ask for your ID number or your date of birth.
When you visit the site
We count visits, and which pages and buttons are used, with a service called Vercel Analytics. It does not use cookies and it does not tell us who you are.
The enquiry form is protected against spam by Google reCAPTCHA. It looks at how the form is being used, to tell a person from a computer program, and sends that information to Google. The site also checks how many enquiries arrive from one internet address in a short time, so that the form cannot be flooded. It does not keep that address.
The map on the About page comes from Google Maps. When that page loads, Google receives your device's internet address and may place its own cookies on your device. What Google does with the information it receives is covered by Google's own privacy policy, which opens in a new tab.
What we use it for
- To reply to you and arrange an appointment
- To pass your enquiry to the right practice
- To keep the website working and free of spam
- To see which pages people find useful, so that we can improve the site
We do not use your details to send you marketing, and we never sell them or pass them to advertisers.
Who sees it
Your enquiry goes to the practice you choose. If you choose “Not sure”, it goes to both practices, so that whichever one is right for you can reply.
Apart from that, the two practices do not pass your information to each other unless you say they may. That includes when one of them suggests that you see the other.
A few companies help us run the website, and handle information on our behalf:
- Vercel, which hosts the website and provides the visitor counts
- Resend, which delivers your enquiry to the practice as an email
- Google, which provides the spam protection on the form and the map
They may use the information only to provide that service. Some of them process information on computers outside South Africa.
We will also hand over information where the law requires us to.
Where it is kept, and for how long
The website does not store your enquiry. It is sent to the practice as an email and is not kept in any database on the site. The connection between your device and the site is encrypted.
The email is kept in the practice's own mailbox. If you become a patient, your details become part of your patient record at that practice. If you do not, the enquiry is kept for no more than five years and then deleted.
Each practice is responsible for keeping its own mailbox and records secure.
Information about your health
Anything you tell us about your health is what POPIA calls special personal information, and we treat it with extra care.
You do not have to describe your condition in detail in an enquiry. A line or two is enough for us to point you the right way, and you can tell us the rest in person.
Children
If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to send the enquiry for you. If a parent or guardian sends an enquiry about a child, we use the child's information only to reply and to arrange an appointment.
Your rights
You may ask the practice that holds your information:
- What it holds about you, and for a copy of it
- To correct anything that is wrong or out of date
- To delete it, where the law allows. Clinical records have to be kept for set periods
- To stop using it for a particular purpose
Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time. To do any of these things, contact the Information Officer of the practice concerned, using the details at the end of this policy.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how your information has been handled, please tell us first and we will try to put it right. You may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa, whose contact details are on its website, inforegulator.org.za.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will publish the new version on this page and change its date. This version is dated 7 October 2026.
How to reach us
- Dr Steven Smilkstein, Information Officer for his practice (practice number 0410136): admin@victorychiro.co.za
- Cayla Urdang, Information Officer for her practice (practice number 1227327): caylaurdang@gmail.com
- General enquiries: 082 578 2415
- First floor, East Wing, Medi Response Building, 5 Willow Brook Street, Birnam