So that you receive the best service possible I need to hold your personal contact details and records of your therapy sessions. The purpose of this privacy notice is to inform you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after therapy has ended. 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.
What is my lawful basis for holding your information?
In order to comply with GDPR, I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on which stage I am processing your data there will be a different lawful basis. 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 contact me to consider therapy or are currently in therapy with me then I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract. I must 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 therapy sessions) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
How I use your information
I will never use your personal data for any purposes other than the administration of the therapy service that I am providing to you i.e. to arrange, cancel and rearrange appointments. I will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary.
Initial contact:
When you contact me to arrange an appointment, I will collect your name so I can book and appointment and a contact method such as an e-mail address or a phone number information to help me to process your enquiry. This will include your name so that I can book the appointment into my diary and also a contact method, for example an email address or phone number, so I can contact you if it is necessary to rearrange an appointment due to unforeseen circumstances. If you do not want to be contacted under any circumstances you do not need to provide a contact method. It could be that your employer or another organisation may send me your details when making a referral or a relative may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf.
Your email address, address or phone number will be used to provide you with written confirmation of your appointment times, invoices and receipt of payment, if you have given consent for this. Your email address, address and telephone number will be used to email you information that is relevant to your therapy, if you have given consent for this.
At the start of your first appointment I will ask you to complete a personal details form containing your name, address, date of birth, contact information and also contact information for your GP. The form is then password protected can only be accessed by me. To fulfil my duty of care towards you while also maintaining your confidentiality I will only contact your GP if it is necessary and should these circumstances arise, I would discuss this with you wherever possible before contacting your GP.
I am a Member of the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and I abide by their professional code of ethics. Confidentiality will only be broken if there are legal or ethical obligations to disclose, for example, if you disclose abuse/neglect of a child or vulnerable adult, or say something else that implies serious harm to yourself or others, or if a court of law requires me to disclose information.
In the event that confidentiality must be broken I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding or legal issues that prevent this.
Counsellors are required to have regular supervision support so I may discuss our work with my supervisor. This would be done without identifying you. My supervisor is also a counsellor who is bound by BACP’S code of ethics.
I keep brief notes of our therapy sessions for the purpose of assisting our work together. The notes do not include any personal details that could be used to identify you and they are password protected and only I have access to them. Your therapy notes are stored separately to your personal details form.
There are a number of reasons which will require me to keep records after our therapy sessions have ended. In terms of financial transactions personal information must be retained for as long as legally required in respect of tax or accounting purposes. I will also retain your therapy notes so I can offer an efficient service should you make contact after therapy has ended. Your therapy notes do not contain any personal details which could be used to identify you and will be stored securely for seven years after therapy has ended. This time frame is in keeping with current industry guidelines. Your notes will be confidentially destroyed seven years after therapy has ended.
Please note that I need to keep a record of your name, date of birth and your client reference number for seven years after therapy ends. Your client reference number corresponds with a client reference number on your therapy notes and therefore enables me to identify your therapy notes if necessary.
Third party recipients of personal data
I share a limited amount of personal data with third parties in order to provide therapy services to you and to fulfil legal obligations in respect of tax and accounting purposes.
If your appointments are paid for or arranged via a third party, for example, your employer the only information shared with the third party is your dates of attendance and non-attendance for invoicing and payment purposes. Details about what is discussed in your appointments will remain confidential and can only be shared if you give me your written consent to do so.
Data security
My email account is password protected and mobile phones and laptops used to respond to your emails are password protected and have anti-virus software.
Website visitors
By accessing the website, you are consenting to the information collection and use practices described in this privacy notice.
The website uses cookies. Cookies can store lots of information which can have privacy implications. I do not control these cookies so I cannot guarantee what they do. Please follow the attached link regarding how WordPress owner use cookies https://automattic.com/cookies/
Your rights
Under the Data Protection Act (2018) guidelines your rights are as follows. You can request access to the personal information that I store and process about you. You can ask me to correct the information or that I delete your personal information. You can ask me to restrict the processing of your personal information or to object to the processing of it altogether in some circumstances. If you would like to make a request relating to any of the rights above, please send a request in writing by emailing jennylawrence.therapy@gmail.com In certain cases I may not be able to comply with your request for example if I am compelled to retain records by court of law. I also may need to charge if the request is excessive.
Queries
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or the way in which I handle your personal information you can contact me via email at jennylawrence.therapy@gmail.com
Complaints
If you have a complaint about how I handle your personal data please contact me by email at jennylawrence.therapy@gmail.com If you feel this has not been resolved you can contact the ICO. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
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