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 GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:
The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include basic information such as name, DOB, telephone number, occupation. I ask for emergency contact details in the instance that you may become unwell within a session. I will also ask for other information such as current and past mental health history and GP details. This may be in case of risk and referral back to your GP which would be discussed with you first. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf.
If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 1 month. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.
Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if there is an immediate risk of harm to you or others. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this. I am also required by law to breach confidentiality if you disclose information about acts of terrorism, money laundering and drug, arms or people trafficking.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely, electronically password protected in the cloud, they are not saved to my laptop and are not shared with any third party.
I will keep anonymous written notes of each session, these are kept electronically password protected in the cloud. For security reasons I do not retain text messages. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted within a week if it is not important.
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for seven years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.
I have appointed a 'Clinical Executor' in the unfortunate event I would not be able to work. In such cases I have carefully selected which partner I work with. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.
I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.
If I do hold information about you I will:
You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you. To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to .
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously, and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure.
No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be emailed directly to me.