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:
‘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 [ZB277406].
My postal address is: 4 Friesian Close, Swindon, SN5 5RA.
My phone number is: 07964 032193.
My email address is: shirley@shalomcounselling.co.uk.
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 that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
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, phone number and email contact detail as well as any information you choose to add when explaining your reasons for seeking counselling. Alternatively, 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 three months. 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 in certain specific circumstances as follows:
I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet and are not shared with any third party. I will keep brief factual notes of each session. These are kept on a password protected document on a password protected device and only identified with client codes and not names. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more 3 months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will transfer this to your notes before deleting the text. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 3 months if it is not important.
In the event of serious illness or death, my supervisor would be given access to your first name and phone number in order to contact you and discuss next steps for your counselling..
After counselling has ended. Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 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..
I don’t currently share personal data with any third parties.
Currently the suppliers I work with are Webhealer https://www.webhealer.net/ who host my website (which includes an enquiry form) and provide my email services. Any data WebHealer store is encrypted "at rest" and this encrypted data is stored in the UK, on UK servers. WebHealer staff cannot decrypt or access this whatsoever.
I advertise my services on Counselling Directory https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/ who allow potential clients to contact me through their website. Please see their privacy notices for further information about how they handle your data. Privacy Notice - Counselling Directory (counselling-directory.org.uk)
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 shirley@shalomcounselling.co.uk . 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.
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 use password protected devices and keep written data in a locked filing cabinet.
When someone visits my website, my web hosting service https://www.webhealer.net/ collects 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. My website details are listed with Google Business who also provide me with anonymous visitor analytics.
Webhealer provide the content management system for my website. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.
This policy was updated on 17.9.2024