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, and
• Your data protection rights

I am happy to talk through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via kirstyisabelcounselling@outlook.com

'Data controller' is a 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.

I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (Registration Number: ZA743920)

My email address is: kirstyisabelcounselling@outlook.com

My telephone number is: 07384 500995

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 are considering therapy with me, 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 consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).

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 your name, telephone number and email address. 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 three 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 I believe you are at risk of hurting yourself or others. 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 service run smoothly. These details are kept securely on an encrypted device and a locked filing cabinet. They are not shared with anyone else. I will keep written notes of each session which are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than the timeframe of our counselling arrangement. Your name is not stored on my mobile telephone to maintain confidentiality and if there is relevant information contained in a text message, the device will be securely stored in a locked filing cabinet when not in use. Likewise, any email correspondence is stored on an encrypted device and will be deleted after three months if it is not important. If necessary, this will be secured stored in a locked filing cabinet when not in use.

After counselling has ended - Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for three months 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. By law I am required to keep a brief log of client hours for seven years. This is completely unidentifiable and is kept in a secured locked cabinet.

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, 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 ice.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 it, tell you how long I will store our 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 put the request in writing to kirstyisabelcounselling@outlook.com

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. 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 overseas data protection law in the UK. For more information go to https://www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Data security

I take the security of the data I hold about your very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. I provide adequate safety using encrypted devices and securely locked filing cabinets.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Webhealer, 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 do not make, and do not allow Webhealer to make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

I use Google Analytics so that I can continually improve my service to you. You can read Google Analytics privacy notice here https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

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