Your privacy is important to me and I endeavor to keep your personal information safe and secure and used only 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.
I review this privacy notice regularly to ensure it continues to comply with the latest regulations and best practice. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 18 January 2023.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact to after your counselling sessions have 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
- Your data protection rights.
‘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, with registration number – ZA754170. I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via jen@aspacefor.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 signed up to my mailing list, I use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding your email address.
If you are currently having counselling or if you are in contact with me to consider counselling, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
If you have had counselling with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
How I use your information
Mailing list
If you indicate interest in my mailing list, I will collect your email address to do this. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of the email or emailing me directly with your request.
Initial contact for counselling
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, phone number and your enquiry.
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.
I respect your privacy and will not follow you on any social media platform. Any social media network invitations or messages from potential clients will be accepted during the initial request to communicate. Once connected, the correspondence will move to email and I will remove you from my network.
If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within one year. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.
While you are accessing counselling
Everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if I am concerned that you are at risk of harm to yourself or others. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
I keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling service run smoothly. These details are kept securely on my laptop and Sync.com (a secure cloud storage) and are not shared with any third party.
I keep brief electronic notes of each session in a password-protected file. These support our counselling work by maintaining focus and continuity through sessions. As a registered counsellor with the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy), I have monthly supervision to support best practice and discuss client work on an anonymous and confidential basis.
I prefer to use emails to arrange appointments and invoicing. Phone numbers are kept on a mobile phone that is only used by me and is password protected. Any text messages are deleted after a month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message, I will transfer this to client notes.
Any email correspondence will be deleted after a year if it is not important. If necessary I will copy any important information onto client notes.
After counselling has ended
Following professional indemnity insurance requirements, a record of our work together will be kept for five years from the end of our contact with each other, and then securely destroyed. Please note that by law, for accounting and tax purposes, I have to keep financial records for six years after the financial year ends.
Third party recipients of personal data
I will not share your information with any third parties unless:
- you have consented to this (for example to pass on your details to a third-party for their services)
- it is as part of my duty to protect a child, a vulnerable adult, yourself or the public
- I am are required to do so by any court or law or any relevant regulatory authority (e.g. with regards to terrorism, money laundering).
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 can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.
You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you within 30 days 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 it, 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.
To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please email me at jen@aspacefor.com.
If you have any complaints about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via email. I 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 seriously. All data is stored electronically on a password-protected Sync drive which offers zero-knowledge privacy (i.e. Sync cannot see what files I store). There is no third party access to this data. Your client notes and financial records with me can only be accessed through password-protected files on my password-protected laptop or password-protected Sync.
Visitors to my website
When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, 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 to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. You can find the Google Analytics privacy notice here.
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