Adv Dip Couns MNCPS (Accred), Dip Sup, DC Hyp (MNRAH), Lic ASK Counselling, Psychotherapy & Hypnotherapy for individuals and couples
in Farnham on the Surrey & Hampshire Border

Your privacy is important 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.

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

• Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example: full name, date of birth, contact address, telephone numbers (eg landline, mobile), email address, current medications, allergies, details of mental health history)
• GP details (for example, name and contact details)
• NOK details (for example, name and contact details)

Alternatively, your GP or other health professional or agency 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 destroyed after 6 months. If you would like me to destroy this information sooner, just let me know.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if I believe you are at risk of harming either yourself or another or if I am required by a court of law.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling service run smoothly. These details are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet and are not shared with any third party.

I will keep hand-written notes of each session, these are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 6 weeks after the conclusion of the counselling work. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will copy (hand-written notes) into your case notes. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 6 weeks after the conclusion of the counselling work, if it is not important. If necessary, I will print off any emails and add them to your case notes.

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.

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks, for example my Clinical Supervisor. 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.

Current third parties are:
1. Clinical Supervisor (Jenny)– client first name, case detail to provide monitoring, regulatory and professional/personal development support and guidance. We have a confidentiality contract between us.

2. ICO – data protection guidance as and when required.

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:

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. I hold hand-written case notes, transcribe any important text messages from my mobile to your paper notes and print off any important emails. All case notes are held securely in a locked filing cabinet.

No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form (eg contact form) on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.