Privacy Policy
Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and only used for the purpose it was given to me, in line with current GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) legislation.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact until after your therapy has ended.
If you have any questions about my data protection policy, please contact me and I will be happy to talk with you.
As the person who controls your data, I am registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) and my registration number is ZB612229. The ICO is the statutory body that oversees data protection in law in the UK.
How I use your information
If you are in contact with me to consider having therapy with me, or are currently in therapy with me, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
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 the details you enter in to the contact form on my website, the information you give me in an email or during a telephone conversation or the information you leave me on an answer phone recording. Alternatively, your GP or health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. Please see below for the exact details I may collect during our initial contact.
If you decide not to proceed with therapy with me, I will ensure your personal data is deleted within one month. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please let me know.
While you are having counselling with me
While you are having counselling with me, I may gather information and keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. The lawful basis for me holding your information is to fulfil our contract together, to contact you about practical matters such as appointments and to work therapeutically with you. I may also hold details of your GP and a personal contact in the event of an emergency.
The information I collect about you will be, your name, age, date of birth, address, who you reside with, occupation, contact number, email address, previous history of emotional support, health issues and medication, current emotional challenges.
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. My email is password protected and your contact details are stored in a password protected phone where you are referred to by first name only. Your personal details are held securely in a locked filing cabinet.
I may keep brief anonymised notes on the factual points of our sessions to help with my work. Any notes I take are kept separately from your contact details and are held securely in a locked filing cabinet.
I keep a paper diary where you are referred to by first name only. This diary is kept separately from your other data.
In accordance with requirements from my professional body, I attend regular supervision with a qualified supervisor. My supervisor is governed by the same confidentiality rules as me and I will only refer to you by your first name during our work.
After counselling has ended
I will securely dispose of all records pertaining to you seven years after counselling has ended. If you plan to return for further therapy, it may be appropriate to keep your information and this will be agreed between us.
Third parties
I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks in order to fulfil legal or professional requirements, eg my bank, HMRC or my insurer. All my suppliers are GDPR compliant.
I use reg123 as the content management system for my website. My website may contain links to other websites for your information only. I have no control of these websites and I'm not responsible for their protection and privacy. If you provide information to these websites, please be aware of their data protection and privacy policies.
Your rights
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 www.ico.org.uk.
You may also ask me at any time to correct any factual errors. To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to katie@kgreencounselling.co.uk.
If you have a complaint about how I handle your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact me by using the email address 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. For more information visit www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
