DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY NOTICE
DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY NOTICE
PRIVACY NOTICE
I take your privacy very seriously indeed, and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure, and will only be used for the purpose for which it was entrusted to me – namely, to enable me to give you the best service possible. Confidentiality is central to my work, and I am bound by the BACP Code of Ethics.
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.
I am happy to chat through any questions you may have.
When you come to see me I will make a note of your address, telephone number and email address. I will use your email address to send you recordings and to make contact with you for other reasons. I may send you texts, or phone you, and I may send a letter to your address. Such communications will be made solely for the purpose of your therapy, and no details will ever be made available to a third party.
I shall make personal notes at each of our sessions, but these will be identifiable by first name only, and will not be attached to your contact details. These notes are carefully stored in a locked drawer.
I do not keep notes about you on my computer. However, your hypnotherapy recordings (identified by first name alone) are all stored on my computer. If I have to send a letter concerning you, or to you, that also is stored on my computer. In the case of a letter, this may be identified by your first name and surname, and the letter will in all probability, contain your address. However, my computer is password protected and is never used by anyone other than myself.
When you are coming to me for counselling everything you tell me is confidential. That confidentiality could only ever be broken if I have serious reason to believe that someone is in danger, and even then I would always try to discuss this fully with you first.
If you send me a text or email containing sensitive information I will delete this after transferring relevant details to my hand-written notes, which are not linked to your contact details or surname (see above)
I never share your information with any third party, unless with your specific consent – for instance I may write to your doctor, if you are happy about this. You will be able to see the letter, on request. If I take your material to my supervisor for advice, I will still protect your confidentiality, and will not disclose your real name or contact details.
You have a right to ask me to delete any information I hold about you, to limit how I use this, to stop processing it, and/or to give you any information about this that you wish. However, my notes are often legible only to me. When your therapy is complete I will destroy the notes I hold after a period of time. If you have come to me for a specific reason. E.g. to stop smoking, and have come for a very limited number of sessions (e.g. 1 or 2 sessions) then I may destroy your notes after a year. If your therapy has been more extensive then I may retain your notes for longer – this helps if you decide to resume therapy in the future. However long I retain notes, the confidentiality remains just as rigorous.
You can read about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.
If you have any complaints about how I handle your data, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.