I am committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of my patients.

I comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations.

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Personal data I hold about you:

Identity Data

• Title, First Name, Last Name

Contact Data

• Mailing Address, Email addresses, Telephone numbers, Skype address.

• GP details for counselling and psychotherapy clients where relevant.

• Telephone, email and skype details are held on my personal password protected computer and smartphone.

Session data

• I hold brief handwritten notes to provide cues and reminders of session detail.

• These notes are stored in a secure, locked, fire retardant cabinet.

• These notes are retained for the period specified by my professional bodies and my professional indemnity insurers.

• As soon as the retaining period has lapsed, all notes are destroyed.

I use your personal data for the purpose of contacting you:

• To arrange/rearrange any session

• To submit an invoice

• To provide any information that I might have agreed to supply you with

• To provide any updated information regarding my services

Disclosure:

• I do not share any of your details with any other party. The only exception to this is under the terms of my clinical will, which I am ethically required to have in place, for the care and protection of my clients in the event of my sudden death or incapacity. Under those circumstances only, the executors of my will can access the contact data I hold, in order to inform all of my clients, and to ensure that all records pertaining to my practice are subsequently destroyed. My executor will not read any clinical records.

• My own supervisor does not have access to any identifying information relating to you

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Information  I collect:

When you use this website

• Cookies

WebHealer hosts this site, and they make minimal use of cookies, which do not identify you as an individual. This site does not require cookies in order to function properly. Refer to the 'Website Cookies' link at the bottom of this page.

When you make enquiries

• If you email or telephone me I will ask you to provide your name and information about your enquiry. I may also ask for alternate methods of contacting you. I will only use this information to respond to your enquiry.

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Email

I store personal data in email.
Telephone
I store personal information on my mobile telephone in the form of text messages and automated call logs. I don’t audio-record calls, and I don’t keep voicemail messages left on my phone.
Contacts
I store personal information using Apple’s iCloud contacts functionality.

At our initial meetings
If you meet me for a clinical assessment, before agreeing to treat you I will discuss my psychotherapeutic working methods and my terms of service.

This discussion includes, but is not limited to, my working practice, session duration, session rates, electronic billing and payment, holidays and missed sessions, potential therapy start-date and the personal data necessary for my delivery of psychotherapeutic services and for maintaining your safety and wellbeing. It may take us between one and seven clinical-assessment sessions to establish if there is a potential therapeutic alliance with your wellbeing and therapeutic need as a central factor.

In addition to discussing my use of your personal data, I may need to discuss my use of your ‘special category’ data such as your General Practitioner (GP) or other healthcare professional’s details, your medication and associated medical information, as well as third-party assessments (eg psychiatric, social- or key-worker) where relevant. If you and I agree to work together, I will not intend to contact with your healthcare professionals on a regular basis, but under some circumstances it may be helpful for me to contact them to arrange better-coordinated care. (I would usually discuss this with you beforehand.)

If we both agree to these terms, they create a verbal contract between us. Without your personal and ‘special category’ data I am unable to fulfil my obligations under the terms of our contract.

Children
Although I do not work with young children, I do work with late adolescents (aged 17 and above). Under these circumstances my contractual relationship is with my young patient’s parents or guardians, and this agreement includes permission for me to process their adolescent’s personal and ‘special category’ data.