Privacy and General Data Protection Registration (GDPR)

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GDPR is concerned with the personal information about you that I collect, store and share. Below shows my policy:

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• Full name

• Age

• Date of Birth

• Marital status and next of kin

• Children

• Occupation

• Address

• Telephone home and mobile

• Email address

• Counselling History

• Medical conditions relevant to counselling

• Medication

• Goals for counselling

• Session summary

 

How I will store your information

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• Written notes, which I write after each session a very brief overview as a reminder for our next session, kept separately from you personal details and no names mentioned

• Email/SMS your email address and correspondence will be stored in my Gmail account by nature of you contacting me. Your telephone number may be stored in my phone and will generally make contact this way. 

• Website: none of your personal information is stored on my website, other than to momentarily collect & send it to my Gmail account for the purposes of our initial contact.

 

How I may share your information:

As part of my ethical framework I attend monthly supervision to discuss my workings with some of my clients that I think may benefit them. I will ensure that you are not personally known to my supervisor and I will only divulge your first name and Date of Birth if necessary.

Following your consent ( which may be given by you in our introductory session) I may offer your contact information to a health professional, such as Doctor, Crisis team or other Mental Health professional If I am concerned about your safety or the safety of someone else you have divulged to me. If I have become aware of your intent to cause harm to another person/organisation (e.g. terrorism), the law may require that I inform an authority without seeking your permission. In such a situation, the law may require that I share your personal information without your knowledge (known as: whistle-blowing).

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Deleting your information:

I will delete all electronic copies of our information and correspondence within 2 months. I will store your written session notes for up to 7 years after our last session of working together. This is if I need to refer to our time of working together if you decide to return to complete another piece of work together. After which time I will destroy all notes by shredding.

 

Your rights as a counselling client:

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• To be informed what information I hold 

• To see the information I hold about you 

• To rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal information.

• To withdraw consent to me using your personal information.

• To request your personal information be erased (though I can decline whilst the information is needed for me to practice lawfully & competently).