DATA PRIVACY POLICY
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:
• 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 privacy policy and you can contact me via [email protected]
‘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 ZB833478.
MY LAWFUL BASIS FOR HOLDING AND USING YOUR 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 coaching or therapy sessions with me and they have now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
If you are currently having coaching or therapy sessions or if you are in contact with me to consider what I offer, 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 psychological therapy 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 coaching or therapy I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include some basic contact information and brief details about the problem.
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 working with me.
Your email address or phone number will be used to provide you with written confirmation of your appointment times and any correspondence about session content if you have given consent for this. Any email correspondence will be deleted after one month if it is not important. If necessary I will transfer important information into my electronic clinical record and delete the email.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help our sessions to run smoothly. These details are kept securely in password protected folders and document on my laptop, which is also securely protected.
I use Microsoft Forms to collect your name, address, date of birth, contact information and also contact information for your GP. This will be transferred to your secure clinical record and deleted. Please be aware that I will not routinely contact your GP to inform your GP of your attendance as your attendance is confidential. To fulfil my duty of care towards you while also maintaining your confidentiality 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 what is said in our sessions will be kept confidential. I am bound by the standards and ethics for both the HCPC and the BABCP professional bodies with which I am registered. Confidentiality will only be broken if there are legal or ethical obligations to disclose, for example, if you disclose abuse/neglect of a child or vulnerable adult, or say something else that implies serious harm to yourself or others, or if a court of law requires me to disclose information.
In the event that confidentiality must be broken I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
Clinical Psychologists 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 psychotherapist who also abides by the BABCP’s code of ethics regarding confidentiality.
I keep brief notes of our sessions for the purpose of assisting our work together. The notes help me to keep track of the issues that we are working on and they are for my use only. The notes do not include any personal details that could be used to identify you and they are stored securely in a locked filing cabinet that only I have access to. Your coaching or therapy notes are stored separately to your personal details form.
After sessions with me have ended.
There are reasons why healthcare professionals are required to keep records after therapy has ended. For example, in the case of financial transactions personal information must be retained for as long as legally required in respect of tax or accounting purposes. Retaining your coaching or therapy notes ensures that I can continue to offer you an efficient service if you make contact after therapy has ended. Your notes do not include any personal details that could be used to identify you and continue to be stored securely electronically for seven years after therapy has ended. This time frame adheres with current industry guidelines and those of my insurance. Seven years after therapy has ended your notes will be confidentially destroyed.
Your personal details form and any paper notes are confidentially destroyed on ending your sessions. Please note that I need to keep a record of your name, date of birth and your client reference number for seven years after sessions end. Your client reference number corresponds with a client reference number on your therapy notes and therefore enables me to identify your therapy notes if necessary.
If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.
Third party recipients of personal data
I share a limited amount of personal data with third parties in order to provide services to you and to fulfil legal obligations in respect of tax and accounting purposes. For example, my accountant is permitted access to my invoices and if you contact me to book an appointment I may give your name to reception at the location where your appointment is due to take place in order to book your appointment at that location. Where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out tasks I have carefully selected which organisations I work with to ensure that they have GDPR compliant systems and policies of their own. I state that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.
If your appointments are paid for or arranged via a third party, for example, your employer the only information shared with the third party is your dates of attendance and non-attendance for invoicing and payment purposes. Details about what is discussed in your appointments will remain confidential and can only be shared if you give me your written consent to do so.
I use Calendly online scheduling site to help clients book an introductory chat with me more easily. I delete all invitee data on a monthly basis. https://calendly.com/legal/privacy-notice
I use Funnel Sketchers online business marketing platform to manage my email lists and create educational content. https://funnelsketchers.com/privacy-policy/
If you sign up for my newsletter and other associated updates and resources I will collect and store your email address for this purpose. Your email will not be shared with any third parties for marketing purposes. You will be able to unsubscribe from receiving these emails at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email, or managing your email preferences to indicate that you no longer wish to receive these emails.
Data security
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 email correspondence will be deleted within one month if it is not necessary to keep it. If it is necessary to retain the information I will transfer it into your secure electronic record.
Website visitors
By accessing the website, you are consenting to the information collection and use practices described in this privacy notice.
The website uses cookies and Google Analytics. Almost all websites use cookies which are small files that get put on your computer by websites as you surf them. These cookies can store lots of information which can have privacy implications. Google Analytics is a service provided by Google that gathers anonymous data on how people are using websites and then provides visitor statistics, details of page views etc. This service is used by many website owners as the data helps website owners to improve their websites.
Some page elements are embedded from trusted third parties in order to provide you with Interactive Maps. This makes the website more helpful to you as a site visitor however most of these come with their own cookies. This applies to Google Maps. I do not control these cookies so I cannot guarantee what they do. In many cases the cookies are used to generate identical information to Google Analytics and indeed use Google Analytics, so opting-out of Google Analytics will also opt you out of these cookies too. You can opt out of Google analytics and other Google services here – http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and https://www.google.com/dashboard/.
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 [email protected]
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by emailing 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.
Last updated: May 2025