PRIVACY STATEMENT
Privacy and confidentiality form a big a part of psychotherapy and counselling and as such great care is also taken when it comes to handling and storing your personal information. Every information you provide to me during our work together, is kept confidential. All the information that I may keep is stored securely and no other person has access to it. All the electronic devises such as the laptop and phone I use as part of the counselling sessions, are password protected. Information stored in paper format, is filed in a securely locked and concealed cabinet. Only myself and my trusted person know where the key is.
Once our work together is completed, your information is held either, on an external hard drive, which is locked away in the filing cabinet, when our sessions have been online or on the phone, or when working face to face, then all the forms and contract used, are filed away in the locked filing cabinet. The information is held for 5 years, which is in line with the GDPR regulations and guidance. After 5 years, all of your information will be destroyed.
Data protection is regularly reviewed and compliant with GDPR. To find out more about GDPR and your rights please see ICO - For the public. I also adhere to the ethical guidance of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) on protecting your privacy and confidentiality.
I may collect and keep the following information
+ Your intake/assessment form
+ The therapy agreement
+ The GDPR consent form
+ Any additional forms or plans where applicable (i.e. risk assessment, referral notes)
In addition, I may also keep
+ Brief written notes of sessions, which are stored separately to your contact information; those notes are anonymised by using your unique client number
+ A record of your attended and cancelled appointments, which are anonymised using your unique client reference number
+ Emails received and sent until no longer useful to the work we are doing.
How is this information stored?
+ Phone numbers or your name are not stored on my dedicated work phone. This information is only kept on your client file on the password protected laptop and on the back up file which is kept on an external hard drive, locked in the filing cabinet.
+ Email addresses and correspondence is stored in my email account. These are protected by in-built software security systems and dedicated password.
+ Zoom keeps a record of your profile on my computer and is password encrypted. Feel free to take a look at Zoom's privacy statement if you would like further details on this.
+ Paper records are stored in a locked cabinet in my office. Contact information is kept separately from other written information which is anonymised. Documents generated on my computer are protected by in-built software security systems and password.
+ Bank details used for bacs payments will appear on my work bank account records with your unique client reference number and may be audited by HMRC.
+ Email/SMS information is deleted on a regular basis. Written information will be retained for up to 5 years in line with the professional guidance then securely disposed of.
Your information is only used by myself in order to provide you a therapy service. However, there might be cases where I may need to share some of your information with third parties. Those cases include if you are at risk of harming yourself or a member of the public and if you disclose information to me that relates to drug, money laundering and terrorism crime and acts. I also have a trusted person which may contact you in case I am unable to work. The trusted person has instructions of how to access the clients contacts files if needed.
I also would like to mention, that as part of the BACP framework, I am required to attend supervision on a regular basis. During supervision I only share anonymised information about our work.
If the unlikely case of a data breach (including both, digital and paper records) should happen, then this will reported to the ICO within 72 hours. In line with the ICO’s guidance, I will assess the risk of loss of confidentiality that may occurred to you and if necessary, I will make you aware of the breach and the implications for you.
If you would like more information about GDPR legislation, please visit ICO - Your Data Matters. if you have any worries or complains about how I handle and store your personal date, please email me so we can talk about your concerns. If you would like more information or if you would like to make a complaint, then please contact the Information Commissioner's Office directly or by calling 0303 123 1113.