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PRIVACY NOTICE FOR COUNSELLING
HELEN DECARDI-NELSON
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.
‘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 – ZA746712.
My postal address is: 36 Priest Close, Nettlebed, Henley on Thames, RG9 5AS. My phone number is 07958 263829 My email address is: helendecardinelson@gmail.com.
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/may include your phone number, email address, email message or text message. 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 four weeks. 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. Exceptions to confidentiality are allegations of child abuse, when a serious crime has been committed or threatened or if there is significant risk of harm to yourself or others. 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 on password protected devices and are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session, these are anonymised and kept separately from your identifying information e.g contract, email address or contact details. These notes are kept in a locked filing cabinet. For security reasons I do not retain text messages after therapy has ceased. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will transcribe this information into my written notes whilst maintaining anonymised details. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after therapy has ceased if it is not important. If necessary I will add relevant information from emails received to my notes and keep with other notes in locked cabinet, I will maintain anonymity by redacting names, email addresses or identifying information.
After counselling has ended Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for five years from the end of our contact with each other, and in the case of a child, five years from when they turn 18, 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
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.
Currently - I use Google Mail as my mail provider and use EE mobile company for telecommunications.
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 helendecardinelson@gmail.com.
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. I use encrypted devices which are only accessed by myself -a phone and laptop and a locked filing cabinet.
Visitors to my website
When potential clients visit my website I use a third party service, Google Analytics (link to Google Analytics privacy notice https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=en-GB&gl=uk) to collect standard internet log information and details about visitor behaviour patterns. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, or do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. If you fill in a form on our website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.
My website is organised through Wix.com. Wix may collect, store and process certain information, for example to allow my website to import e-mail contacts from third party services such as Gmail, or collect and manage contacts via my website. If you fill in a form on our website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me. Wix.com is a Processor for your site-visitors’ data. This means that Wix will only process your site-visitors’ data my behalf. Wix.com will not process your site-visitors’ data for their own benefit. For more information see https://www.wix.com/about/privacy
Like most websites I use cookies to help my website work more efficiently - find out about the use of cookies on my website https://support.wix.com/en/article/cookies-and-your-wix-site.