PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

In order to carry out my work, I hold some information about my clients.  I am committed to protecting this data and I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and adhere to the 2018 GDPR legislation.

Your privacy is very important to me, and I wish to reassure you that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended.

‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/ organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me.

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

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:

·      If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use ‘legitimate interest’ as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.

·      If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is ‘necessary for the performance of our contract’.

·      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 ‘consent’, initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future.

Initial contact

When you contact me with an enquiry about my psychotherapy services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your contact details. 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.

While you are accessing psychotherapy.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken in unusual circumstances, such as needing to contact someone on your behalf, or your GP, if you are taken ill during a session. Likewise, if I believe that you or another person is at risk of serious harm it may be appropriate to contact your GP. However, I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the sessions run smoothly. These details are kept securely and are not shared with any third party.

I will keep brief and anonymous written notes of each session, these are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet.

For security reasons our email and text contact will be limited to practical messages regarding appointment times and/or cancellations.   

After psychotherapy has ended.

Once our sessions have ended, any notes will be kept for as long as required by law, or as required under any contract. If there is no legal requirement, I will retain information about you only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected - our work together.

Security of Your Personal Data

I will take appropriate technical and organisational measures in line with applicable data protection laws to protect your personal data.

Your rights

I fully support the ethos of GPDR, which is designed to keep the ownership of personal data within the control of the individual.  This means you have rights in relations to your personal data, including the right to request access, and to request erasure of your personal data.

To request information about personal information I may hold about you, please do so in writing to me and I will respond within 1 month of your request.

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data, please do so in writing to me.

If you wish to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information, you can contact the ICO.

Data security

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. If there is a data breach affecting the confidentiality or privacy of your personal data, I will report this to the ICO and notify you within 72 hours of the breach.  

Updates to this Data Privacy Statement

I may update this Data Privacy Statement as and when necessary by law, and you will be advised of any amendments.  It was last updated in May 2025.