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Privacy and Terms of Use

 

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 caroline@asteridge.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 am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office [Insert registration number].

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 may include:

  • Name, gender and date of birth, to identify you

  • Contact details such as email, address and contact phone number – so I can contact you to make arrangements to work together

  • Emergency contact details, in case of a medical emergency.

  • GP contact details – consent would normally be sort to contact GPs but if I thought there was a risk of serious harm to yourself or others, I may need to contact directly.

  • Assessment notes – Details about you physical and psychological wellbeing including any medications or diagnosis you have been given or health support you have.  Background history and current levels of social support.  Previous experiences of counselling and aspirations for our work together.

  • Payment details – if paying by BACs – held by my bank.

 

If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within one month. 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 if I believe you may do harm to yourself or another person. 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 run smoothly. These details are kept securely in a password encrypted document / locked cabinet and are not shared with any third party.

 

I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept in a locked cabinet.

 

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than one week. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will screenshot the information and keep it securely locked away with my notes.

 

Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after one month if it is not important. If necessary I will retain important emails by hard copy and lock them away.

 

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 are then securely destroyed. This is stipulated by my Insurer, Holistic.

 

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 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 caroline@asteridge.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 every effort to make sure it is kept secure.  I use locked filing cabinets and encrypted password protected documents to store paperwork and notes.  

Use of this website

 

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Last updated: July 2022

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