Privacy Policy

Introduction

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:

  • 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
  • Whether I intend to transfer it to another country
  • Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling
  • Your data protection rights

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via my contact form.

‘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.

Professional Membership

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (registration ZB266261) and comply with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as a Data Controller.

I am also a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP, registration 390396) and I adhere to their code of ethics to ensure safe and ethical practice.

AI transparency statement

I believe in being open about the technologies I use and the role they play within my work. Artificial intelligence (AI) may occasionally be used to support administrative, educational, accessibility, communication, and resource-development activities. AI is used as a support tool and does not replace professional judgement, ethical decision-making, or human relationships.

I may use AI to:

  • Review and improve written content
  • Support the creation of educational resources and worksheets
  • Help organise information and ideas
  • Improve accessibility and readability
  • Support research and learning by helping summarise publicly available information
  • Assist with administrative and communication tasks

I do not use AI to:

  • Deliver therapy, counselling, or coaching
  • Diagnose mental health conditions
  • Make safeguarding decisions
  • Replace clinical or professional supervision
  • Make professional or clinical decisions on my behalf
  • Train AI models using client information
  • Upload identifiable client information into AI systems

Privacy, confidentiality, and human responsibility

I do not knowingly enter identifiable client information into AI systems. Where digital technologies are used, I take reasonable steps to protect privacy and confidentiality. However, as with all digital services, no online platform can be guaranteed to be entirely risk free.

All therapeutic interventions, professional decisions, safeguarding responsibilities, and ethical considerations remain my responsibility. AI may assist with certain tasks, but it does not replace human expertise, professional judgement, empathy, or the therapeutic relationship.

If you have any questions about how AI or other digital technologies are used within my service, please feel free to ask. I believe transparency creates trust, and I am committed to helping you make informed choices about the services you receive.

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 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).

How I use your information

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 full name, reason for therapy, any past experience of therapy, current relationships and job status. 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.

If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within twelve 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 if there is a risk to your safety or someone else. 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/or online using Google Cloud. I will also keep written notes of each session, securely in a locked filing cabinet and/or online using Google Cloud. Google has contractually committed to abide by the GDPR as described at https://cloud.google.com/privacy/gdpr.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than twelve months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will record this within your case files, which will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and/or on Google Cloud. Similarly, email correspondence will be deleted after twelve months if it is not important.

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 6 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed.

Third party recipients of personal data

I have contracted with Google to store documents securely for me. I have taken great care to ensure that the contract states what they will abide by the GDPR guidelines as a data processor. For more information, see: https://cloud.google.com/privacy/gdpr.

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 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 https://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 its, 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.

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 contact me via my contact form.

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via my contact form. 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 https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Data security

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. Client records are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet and/or online using Google Cloud.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, the only personal information I collect directly is what the visitor enters in the contact form. That data is transferred to me by email.

This website does not use analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies. Like most websites, hosting providers may process technical request information in order to deliver the site, but I do not use this to identify visitors.

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