PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

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. 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, including: 

• Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for 

• Whether you have to provide it to me 

• How long I store it for 

• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information 

• Whether I intend to transfer it to another country,

           • Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

           • Your data protection rights. 

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email at support@kellywoodcounselling.co.uk.

‘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.

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 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).

How I use your information

Initial contact. When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name, address, phone number, email address, GP details and any relevant medical information deemed useful to our work together. 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 48 hours. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

While you are accessing counselling rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if I feel that there is a risk of harm to you or others. Examples of this can be found in the terms and conditions of our contract. 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 counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely electronically, password protected and are not shared with any third party. 

I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept electronically and password protected. 

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 1 month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will make a note of this on my electronic written notes. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 1 month if it is not important. If necessary I will make a note of this information in my electronic written notes.  

After counselling has ended. Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. This is in line with my insurance policy. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

Third party recipients of personal data

The information I collect from you will not be shared with third parties unless there is an immediate risk that you will take your own life or endanger others. I will make my best endeavour to discuss this with you first.  I am also required by law to breach confidentiality if you disclose information about acts of terrorism and proceeds of drug / arms and people trafficking.

I attend regular clinical supervision where I may discuss our work together.  Your identity will never be disclosed during these discussions.  My supervisor is also a member of the BACP and bound by the same Code of Ethics.

I have a clinical will that is kept by my Supervisor so that if there is ever a time that I am unable to make our appointment and I am unable to contact you myself due to severe illness or death, they are able to notify you. Your first name and preferred method of contact details is all that will be shared with them. If you do not wish this to be shared with them, please let me know. 

Your rights

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: 

• give you a description of it and where it came from;

 • tell you why I am holding its, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made  this decision; 

• tell you who it could be disclosed to; 

• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form. 

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 support@kellywoodcounselling.co.uk.

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. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.

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.

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.