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 provided. 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
- Your data protection rights
Should you have any questions about my data protection policy, please feel free to contact me. My phone number is: 07341 814612 and my email is: lisajsmith@protonmail.com
‘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 (registration number ICO:00014561109).
Privacy Notice
My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information
I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (registration number ICO:00014561109).
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 (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).
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 contact details, an outline of your presenting issues and your availability dates for counselling.
Alternatively, another counsellor 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 14 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 concerned that the client is at serious risk of harm, or somebody else is at serious risk of harm. I would then be obliged to report this to the client’s clinical supervisor and/or the relevant authority (including the ambulance service where there is imminent serious risk of harm);
(b) I am required to give evidence in a court of law, for example, the Family Court or the Magistrates Court. This happens rarely but this might arise in the case of a small number of clients. I am under a legal obligation to make the necessary and appropriate disclosure; and
(c) I am concerned that an act of terrorism, money laundering or drug trafficking has taken place or might take place, and such disclosures will be passed to the relevant authority without delay.
I will always try to speak to the client about the need to break confidentiality 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 in a mobile phone and on a laptop and are not shared with any third party.
I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept securely on a laptop.
After counselling has ended
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 7 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.Third party recipients of personal data.
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 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 lisa
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 I use encrypted devices to hold this information.
Visitors to my website
When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. 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 Google Analytics 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.
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 temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.
Cookies
Cookies are small files placed on devices.
Like most websites, my website uses cookies to help the site work more efficiently and to track activity on my website and to store certain information.
I use cookies for:
- Essential operations: making my website work properly.
- Performance & Analytics: monitoring how people use my site so I can improve it.
- Preferences: remembering choices and settings.
Users of my website can set their browser to refuse all or some cookies. If users disable or refuse cookies, be aware that some parts of the site may become inaccessible or not function properly.