Counselling Privacy Policy

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). 

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 include your name, email address and telephone number. If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 1 month.

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While you are accessing counselling. 

At the beginning of your first appointment I will ask you to complete a personal details form containing your name, date of birth, emergency contact information and also contact information for your GP. The form is stored in a locked cabinet in my home. 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.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken when I access supervision (counsellors are required to have regular supervision support so I may discuss our work with my supervisor. This would be done without identifying you and my supervisor is a counsellor who also abides by the BACP’s code of ethics regarding confidentiality.), if required by a court of law, or if you indicate significant risk of harm to yourself or another.. 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 a password protected drive and are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session, these are stored in a locked cabinet in my home. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 1 month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will transfer this to your written notes.. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 1 month if it is not important. 

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After counselling has ended. 

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 share a limited amount of personal data with third parties in order to provide therapy services to you (such as when referring to another practitioner) and to fulfil legal obligations in respect of tax and accounting purposes. 

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 its, 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 amy.chapman.counselling@gmail.com

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

I take the security of the data that I hold about you very seriously. 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. Any written records made during sessions are non-identifiable and your written personal information is stored securely in a locked cabinet in my home.

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