Privacy Notice

 

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is concerned with the personal information about you that I collect, store, and share. This page details my GDPR policy.

 

​Personal Data I will collect

  • Name

  • Gender (or preferred identity)

  • Age

  • Date of Birth

  • Relationships & Children

  • Occupation

  • Address

  • Telephone/SMS number (plus permission to send SMS & leave voice message)

  • Email address

  • Counselling History

  • Medical conditions relevant to counselling

  • Prescribed medication relevant to counselling

  • Difficulties

  • Session summary 

This client information is used as contact and emergency contact information while you are in counselling.

 

How I will store your information

  • I keep names, addresses and contact details of my therapy clients in a lockable filing cabinet in my office.

  • I use a paper diary for my appointments, once we begin working together I will use initials only.

  • Names and contact details are kept separate from any case notes I make.

  • The notes that I keep are for my purpose only and are of a technical nature. Any information that is used in supervision is done in a way as to conceal the client’s identity.

  • ​Email/SMS: your email address and correspondence will be stored in my email account (currently G Mail for G Suite) by nature of you contacting me. Your telephone number may be stored in my SMS should we exchange messages this way. Electronic correspondence will also be held by the corresponding app (Gmail, Phone’s SMS). All correspondence stored there will be deleted regularly and on our work ending together.

  • Website: none of your personal information is stored on my website.

  • As soon as a client has an ending session I delete their contact details from phone/laptop. All emails will be deleted and trash emptied.

  • Paper records holding personal data will be shredded.

  

Document Held

Paper

  • Contract

  • GDPR Agreement

How I may process/share your information

Supervision

I will not share your personal information with anyone else, unless there is a duty to disclose in order to comply with any legal obligation (terrorism alerts, money laundering).

The only other person involved in your case will be my supervisor who is held by the same privacy, data protection and confidentiality clauses as described here and in my contract.

The supervision process is to maintain the quality and efficiency of my practise. I will refer to you by only your first name and I may mention vague, non-identifying details about you when it’s helpful to develop our work together.

 

Therapeutic Will

In the event of my death or incapacity your details, should you still be in therapy with me, will be shared with my therapeutic executor so that you can be notified.

 

Emergencies

If your health is in jeopardy I may share your contact information with an emergency healthcare service (e.g. Mental Health Crisis Team).

If I have become aware of your intent to cause harm to another person/organisation (e.g. terrorism), or commit a serious crime, the law may require that I inform an authority without seeking your permission.

 

Erasing Your information

When we have finished working together, I will erase electronic copies of your contact information & correspondence within one month. 

I will hold onto your clinical information (assessment, summary notes) for up to six years past the end of our working together. This is so that I have a reference of our work in situations such as you returning to counselling in the future, and is a requirement of my insurer in case a claim is made. After this time has passed, I will shred the information kept on paper and delete entirely information held electronically.

​

You Rights

You have the following rights…

  • To be informed what information I hold (i.e. this document)

  • To see the information I hold about you (free of charge for the initial request)

  • To rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal information

  • To withdraw consent to me using your personal information

  • To request your personal information be erased (though I can decline whilst the information is needed for me to practice lawfully & competently)

 

NB: A printed copy of this statement will be given to you when we first meet for counselling. If we agree to continue working together, we will both sign the printed copy of this statement to indicate our agreement.