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. 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:
I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email:
pathwayscounsellingsw@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 am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under Ref: C1411759.
My postal address is: 40 Liskeard Road, Callington, Cornwall, Pl17 7JE. My phone number is: 07724285173.
My email address is: pathwayscounsellingsw@gmail.com
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 consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).
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 will include name, email address and telephone number. 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 1 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 and passed to an appropriate person/authority if it becomes apparent: a, that you or another are at risk of harm or b, hearing information regarding a serious crime. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this. I also have monthly supervision sessions where I discuss my therapeutic work with a supervisor, which, helps me work ethically and safely with my client, however, during the session my client details are kept anonymous unless, there is a risk of harm to them or another.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a computer and are not shared with any third party.
I will make brief notes of each session, these will be transferred onto a secure computer file and the paper notes shredded immediately.
For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than one month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message, I will copy the information to the client’s secure computer file and delete the original text message. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after one month if it is not important. If necessary, I will save the email to the client’s secure computer file.
After counselling has ended.
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for seven 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.
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 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:
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 pathwayscounsellingsw@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. I will make brief paper notes and transfer information to a client’s file that is kept on an encrypted device after which paper notes are shredded.
Visitors to my website
When someone visits my website, I use a third-party service,
We use 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 Logical Creative Marketing (LCM) so that I can continually improve my service to you. You can read LCM’s privacy notice here https://www.lcm.co.uk/privacy
I use BLAM content management system through LCM as its agent, as the content management system for our website - find out about LCM
https://www.lcm.co.uk/privacy and data protection.
Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently - find out about our use of cookies. https://www.lcm.co.uk/privacy For reference see bacp.co.uk/notices/cookies.
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 before being sent to me.
Callington, Cornwall, PL17 7JE
The exact address will be given to you privately when you book a face-to-face session.
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