Introduction

Who we are

Our website address is: https://rosedalecounselling.co.uk.

Your privacy is my top priority. I am committed to being a good custodian
of your personal information, handling it responsibly and securely, in
accordance with industry standards and safeguards.
I follow two guiding principles:

• Transparency – I work hard to be transparent about the personal
  information I collect and process.
• Simplicity – I use easy to understand language to describe my privacy
  practices to help you make an informed choice.

About Me

As a counsellor I am registered with the Information Commissioners
Office ZA534646. I am the data controller for Rosedale Counselling.
This statement show how and why I collect, store and process your
personal data including your details under GDPR.

Your Personal Data

What data do I keep and why do I store it?

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Upon meeting I take your details in a handwritten format, which will be your name, contact details, email address, home address, date of birth, emergency contact and GP details.

In addition I keep a hard copy of the counselling contract which sets out the boundaries of our working together.

The information is stored as confidential data in locked storage.

If you decide to enter into counselling I will make session notes to monitor and reflect upon the work under the contract. This is in line with my professional indemnity insurance. This information is anonymous, using initials and date of contact as identifiers. In this way no other person will be able to connect these details alone to your personal identify. I keep these notes on a password protected document which is kept separately from the hard copy contact details.

Sharing of Data

I use your data only to provide a service to you my client, and I don’t sell your data or use it for marketing purposes.

There are limited reasons why I may be required to share your data.

1. Legitimate interest reasons may require me to break confidentiality, due to safeguarding issues or risk of harm to self or others.
2. Legitimate reasons I may be obliged to share information in your notes if I was issued with a court order. These obligations are consistent with current UK law on confidentiality.
3. You may give me your consent to share your data for example with your GP other other medical professionals.

For how long is data retained

Data is retained for 7 years after your final session in line with requirements of my professional insurance.

Other data sources

Email: when we communicate by email I am given access to an e signature in the form of an ip address. This information is kept for 7 years. Please be aware when sending information by email it may not be completely secure (not all emails systems are encrypted). Please be mindful of the personal information you send by email.

Website contact form: information from the contact form on the website is not stored and I retain the information in line with confidentiality. If no counselling relationship ensues I will delete the information as confidential waste.

The website host employs Google Analytics to monitor the behaviour of websites visitors but does not identify individuals. It provides information on website usage such as the number of website visits, bounce rate etc. Google’s ability to share information collected about your visit to the website is restricted by Google Analytics Terms of Use and Google’s Privacy Policy.

http://policies.google.com/privacy

Data may be received from online directories such as Counselling Directory and Psychology Today. This is retained by me in line with previous protocol.

Your rights under GDPR

Your right to be informed about the collection, storage and usage of your personal data, as contained in the above privacy information. The latter must be provided to you at the same time as I collect your personal data.

If your data comes to me via a referral I must provide you with the privacy information no later than one month after referral. 

Right to access you can request to see the information I hold on you

Right of rectification: if your data is incomplete or incorrect you may ask this to be rectified.

Right to erasure: or the right to be forgotten. This is not applicable where there are lawful reasons/legal obligations/legitimate interest takes place.

Right to restrict processing: this is not applicable where there are lawful reasons/legal obligations/legitimate interest takes place.

Right to data portability: to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services. This rule mainly exists for data held by big service providers e.g. utility providers. If you wish to take a copy of your case notes to another therapist or mental health professional these may be provided on a password protected document.

Right to object to data processing: such as direct marketing or market research. This is not applicable where there are lawful reasons/legal obligations/legitimate interest takes place.

Right related to automated decisions: automated processing of personal data to evaluate to evaluate certain things about an individual, including profiling.

The ICO says these are not absolute rights.

Should you have any concerns about how I have used your personal data please feel free to contact me in the first instance, if you feel able to do so.