Introduction

Your privacy is very important to me. I undertake to keep your personal information safe and secure and to use it solely for the purpose for which it was supplied. I abide by 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 until the conclusion of your therapy and thereafter.

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy. You can contact me by emailing rachael@rachaeltherapy.com.

‘Data controller’ is the official term used to describe a person/organisation that collects, 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. My registration number is ZB595941.

My postal address is: Unit 8, The Claremont Centre, 15-45 Durham Street, Glasgow, G41 1BS. My phone number is: 07444 26 54 53. My email address is: rachael@rachaeltherapy.com

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.

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.

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.

The GDPR also requires that I appropriately look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for my processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling/psychotherapy) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between you and me).

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 the information you provide by email, text, telephone or message. Typically this may include name, phone number, email address and reasons for contacting me. 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 28 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

While you are accessing counselling

Everything you discuss with me is treated in the strictest confidence. That confidentiality may be broken only in exceptional legal and ethical circumstances, for example if I am compelled to provide information by a court order or criminal investigation or I have evidence that there is a risk to your safety or to the safety of others. In such a case my first step would be to discuss the matter with you, if possible, and, if appropriate, I would aim to support you to make any necessary disclosure yourself.

All counsellors have a professional obligation to engage in regular clinical supervision. This does not mean that anyone will ever be in the room with us during our sessions. Rather, supervision means that my therapeutic practice is periodically reviewed by a senior practitioner to ensure that I am adhering to the highest professional standards. This process may involve my discussing our sessions but only ever in an anonymised form.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are stored securely in the therapy room, which I alone use, and are not shared with any third party.

I may keep written notes of each session, which are stored securely in the same manner.

I do not retain text or email messages for more than 12 months after the end of our contract. If there is relevant information contained in a text or email message I may copy this into my files, the handling of which are outlined above.

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended, for legal reasons, your records will be kept for seven 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.

Third party recipients of personal data

There may be occasions when I am required to share data with third parties, for example where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. This includes my email host, Google Workspace, whose privacy policy can be found here. In such cases the client confidentiality undertakings outlined above also apply.

Your rights

I try to be as open as possible in 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 here.

If I do hold information about you I will

• give you a description of the data and where it came from;

• tell you why I am holding it, for how long I will store it, 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 put it in an email to rachael@rachaeltherapy.com or write to me at the postal address above.

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me in the same manner. I welcome suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.

If you wish 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. More information here.

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, as detailed in the Accessing Counselling section above.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Squarespace, to collect 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. I use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

I do not make, and do not allow Squarespace to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

I also use Squarespace as the content management system for my website, and to help me improve my service to you. You can read the Squarespace privacy notice here.

Like most websites mine uses cookies to help it work more efficiently. Find out about our use of cookies.

No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party if you are browsing my website. If you fill in a form on the site, that data will be only temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me by email.