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Privacy Notice

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.

 

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:

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  • 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 tashalittle.therapy@gmail.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 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. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Registration reference: ZB961172).

My Lawful Basis For Holding And Using Your Personal Information

The GDPR (Article 6) 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 (Article 9) 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 bases 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), as well as the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

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 may include your name and email address. 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 3 months. 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 under the following circumstances listed below. If I feel it becomes necessary to break confidentiality, I will make every effort to try and speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

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  • Consent: With your consent, I may share your information with your GP, professional services, your emergency contact, or others whom you have agreed I should contact.

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  • Risk of Serious Harm: I may share your information with the relevant authorities if I have reason to believe that you or another person is at risk of serious harm.

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  • Legal and Ethical Obligations: I may share your information if required to do so by law or ethical obligation e.g. safeguarding issues regarding children, vulnerable adults, or animals, crimes regarding substantial financial gains or losses, and acts of terrorism.

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  • Supervision: To ensure that my practice is safe, ethical, and effective, and in accordance with BACP requirements, I attend regular supervision. I may share aspects of our work in individual/group supervision and peer groups which are bound by the same confidentiality rules as myself. Any information shared in these spaces will not include your name nor any identifiable details.

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  • Therapeutic Will: In the event of my death or incapacity, I have appointed a trusted colleague to take over the administration of my practice. They will gain access to your data in order to inform you of my circumstances, securely destroy personal data, and, where desired, support you in making alternate counselling arrangements.

 

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details, as well as brief session notes, are stored on encrypted devices secured by two-factor authentication.

After Counselling Has Ended

Once counselling has ended, your personal information and any session notes I have made will be kept securely for 1 year after our final session and are then securely destroyed.  If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

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It is my legal and insurance obligation to retain minimal information for a period of 6 years following our final session (e.g. financial records, meetings and correspondence, and brief summaries of necessary information). All data will be stored securely until this period lapses after which it will be destroyed.

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 Right of Access to Personal Data

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 data protection rights here.

 

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 tashalittle.therapy@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. The information I hold on you is stored digitally on encrypted devices which require two factor authentication to access. Anything stored physically is kept securely in a locked filing box to which only I have the key. 

Additional Information for 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.

 

I use Google Analytics so that I can continually improve my service to you, You can read Google's Privacy Policy here.

 

Like most websites, I use cookies to help the site work more efficiently. Non-essential cookies are only enabled after obtaining your explicit consent via a cookie consent banner, and cookie preferences can be changed at any time via the cookie icon in the corner of the page. 

 

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, Wix, before being sent to me.

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