Privacy Policy

In 2018, new rules on data protection were enforced under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This regulation seeks to bring more transparency to people about how any data/information that is held on them is used and kept.

To be compliant with these regulations, I am setting out below how I use and look after your data and ask you to give your consent to this by signing a therapeutic agreement with me should we begin to work together. I confirm that I am a registered data controller with the Information Commission Service (ICO).

Whilst we are working together, I will keep a note of your contact details, including details for an emergency contact. These details are password protected if held electronically, locked in a secure cupboard if handwritten, and are held separately to any written records I keep from our sessions together. These details will be stored securely whilst we are working together so that I can rearrange and remember my appointments with you and contact you should I need to. When we finish working together or it becomes apparent you do not require my services, I will erase your contact details and any emails you have sent from my records, including initial enquiries sent via this website, unless you request otherwise.

I keep brief written notes on our sessions. Any notes I do keep are to help me remember what you have said and to support me to work effectively with you, including regularly assessing suitability to receive therapeutic services from myself. These details are kept anonymously and will be destroyed 7 years after we have finished working together. I am not able to meet ethical, legal or insurance requirements without keeping contact details or client notes.

Any recordings are additionally stored securely and deleted as soon as they are no longer needed.

You may put a request in writing to see your data and will be responded to within 28 days. Please ensure that you provide accurate and current details, alerting me to any change in the same. Equally, you may request for your data to be destroyed at any time. Such requests will be considered in accordance with GDPR and your particular situation. In some circumstances, I may have legitimate reasons to override your request as I have a legal basis for taking your personal information.

Your data will never be shared with third parties for marketing or promotional purposes.

Please note that any fees paid via online banking will contain your name in my business bank account, and if audited by HMRC, I would be required to provide these bank statements. In such instances, no other personal information will be provided to them about you.

If you are not agreeable to me collecting your relevant personal data for the above-mentioned reasons, I am unable to provide you with therapeutic services.

The data that I keep on you is confidential. The exceptions and limitations to confidentiality are as follows:

(a)      I may discuss our work in my own supervision. This is to ensure that I am working in the best way possible with you. My supervisor is also bound by the laws and principles of confidentiality and identifying details about you are not disclosed

(b)     If I believe that you are at risk to yourself and/or others, then I may need to provide information to any relevant agencies to seek support and protection for you and/or others

(c)      If a court orders disclosure of information or in specific issues relating to The Children Act, The Drug Trafficking Act or The Prevention of Terrorism Act, I may be obliged to break confidentiality

(d)     In a case of emergency, I may need to contact your next of kin and this may necessitate disclosing who I am and our professional relationship

(e)      I am obligated to contact relevant authorities without delay should you disclose anything of a previously unreported criminal nature

If possible, I will always endeavour to inform you if I feel there is a situation where I feel I may need to break confidentiality.