GENERAL PRIVACY NOTICE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION RULES 2018

As part of our therapy, I will be in possession of personal data relating to you. This will include for example your
contact details, and also notes that I make after our sessions. Your privacy in relation both to this material and our
discussions is very important to me and as such I will abide by the current data protection legislation. I am also
registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

MY LAWFUL BASIS FOR HOLDING AND USING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

This legislation requires me to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. This will depend at what stage
of the process we are at:

• If you are in contact with me considering having therapy I will process your personal data only for the purposes of
  responding to your enquiry and ultimately meeting my contract.
• Once you are in therapy I will process your personal data on the grounds of consent, and because it is necessary
  for the performance of our contract.
• Once therapy has ended I will use legitimate interest as the basis for holding your information.
• Some information you share with me due to its sensitive nature may fall under ‘special category data’. The lawful
  basis for me processing this data is that it is necessary for provision of health treatment (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 my psychotherapy services I will collect information to help me satisfy
your enquiry. This might include your contact details, and some very limited details about the nature of your enquiry.
Alternatively, I might receive information about you from a referral such as your GP, an employee assistance
programme, or a relative or partner. If either of us decide not to proceed with a therapeutic relationship I will ensure
that all of your personal data is deleted within 28 days.

WHILE YOU ARE RECEIVING PSYCHOTHERAPY

Our discussions remain confidential subject to some limited exceptions that I have discussed with you as part of
our contract. I will keep a record of your personal contact details to facilitate the smooth running of our sessions.
Your name, telephone number and email address will be saved as a contact (but without identifying you as a client) in
my mobile devices. I am required by my professional indemnity insurance and the ethical code under which I work to
keep a record of our work together. This record will include your history as self-reported, and a brief note from our
sessions to ensure that I am able to reflect on and evidence the work we have done together.

Any digital data will be on my password protected laptop and the documents will be individually
password protected. I do not retain text messages for more than 7 days. Likewise, any email correspondence
will be similarly deleted unless it contains information that is clinically important for me to retain in which case it
will be stored appropriately as above.

AFTER PSYCHOTHERAPY HAS ENDED

After our psychotherapy relationship has ended your records will be kept for a period of 7 years as required by my
professional indemnity insurance. After that time, they will be securely destroyed. I do also retain digital contact
details up to this period (not identifiable as clients) as I find clients very often do return to therapy and this
facilitates the resumption of the relationship. However, these details are also deleted after 7 years.

SHARING YOUR DATA

I will only use your data for the purpose for which it was collected, and it will not be shared, unless falling within a
reason to breach confidentiality as detailed in our contract. The sort of sharing that would take place with your
consent might include:

• Sharing information with another health professional
• Writing a report requested by you
• Obtaining further sessions from your Employee Assistance provider

 

YOUR RIGHTS

• You have a right to request access to your records at any time, and I will respond to this request
  within 30 days.
• You have a right to ask for data to be erased at any time, although in the case of session notes I have a
  right to maintain these to meet my ethical and professional obligations.
• You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold.
• You have a right to ask me to limit how I use your personal data or to stop processing it
• You have a right to make a complaint regarding my handling of your data, but I would ask that we discuss
  that to see if the matter can be resolved. If you want to make a formal complaint you can contact the
  Information Commissioner’s Office.