Reviewed and updated 11th September 2024.

A copy of the most up to date version of this policy will be shared with you when you become a new client. The policy is reviewed and updated on my website regularly.

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 hello@time2talkcounselling.net. 

‘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,  reference number is C1383013.

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 name, contact details, history of counselling and mental health concerns, any medication you are prescribed, a brief reason for seeking my services.

·       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 after 7 days. 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 am lead to believe there is a significant risk of harm. 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 saved digitally on secure and encrypted cloud-based servers, and are not shared with any third party.

·       I will keep brief notes of our sessions, which are saved digitally on secure and encrypted cloud-based servers.  

·       To record consent and for continuity of care I keep records of communications at key stages. For example, initial agreement, date and time of sessions, or to record you have received a copy of this privacy policy. Any other correspondences, via message or email or example, are deleted after 7 days for security reasons.

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. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

 I take care to anonymise data at all times.

Third party recipients of personal data

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

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 www.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 it, 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 hello@time2talkcounselling.net.

 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 www.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. All the data I process is saved digitally on secure and encrypted cloud-based servers. The account is password protected and with two-factor authentication in place. The account and authenticating devices can only be accessed by me.

Use of cookies and website analytics

Visitors to my website:

·       When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Squarespace, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns for analytical purposes. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.

·       This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow Squarespace to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

·       I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

·       Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently - find out about our use of cookies. https://www.squarespace.com/cookie-policy

Breaches of data protection

In the event of any breach of my data protection policies, I will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours and will seek to rectify this immediately.

Raising concerns

Should you have any concerns, feedback or further questions about my data protection practices, you can raise these directly with me in the first instance at hello@time2talkcounselling.net. You always have the right to request further information, support or copies of your data, the Information Commissioner’s Office can support individuals to understand their data rights via www.ico.org.uk/for-the-public/