GDPR & PRIVACY POLICY

I am registered with the IOC and agree to abide by the Data Protection Act of 2018.  I will keep my clinical notes for five years from our final session, as recommended by my personal insurance.  These are anonymized.

 

Initial Communication

After you contact me to enquire about counselling I will retain your communications on my system.  If you decide not to proceed or I do not hear from you for two weeks following my reply to you, I will delete your all forms of contact that we have had.

 

Beginning and during the continuation of counselling

You will fill out three forms:

• An Agreement to Counselling – this will be printed and stored with your Client Record Form in a locked filing cabinet. They will then be deleted from my email.
• Client Record Form – personal details name, address, DoB, contact details, communication preferences, GP details, two next of kin names and contact details.
• Counselling Assessment Form – This helps me to understand what life is like for you and gives you a chance to tell me what you think it is important for me to know about you. The assessment sheet may form part of our initial sessions together as we build our counselling relationship.  You may want us to complete it together in our initial sessions.  This form will be printed and kept in a locked filing cabinet, in a separate section to your Client Record Form so that no link can be made between your Counselling Assessment Form and your personal details.

 

I will keep a client log on my computer – anonymized and with the date and session number of each counselling meeting we have with a brief, maximum two-sentence record of the key theme(s) of the meeting.  These are kept for five years after our counselling relationship comes to an end.

 

I will keep more detailed clinical notes on my computer.  Again, these are anonymized.  These are kept for five years after our counselling relationship comes to an end.

 

I may write handwritten process notes during our sessions – these may be notes I make in a session to act as a reminder for me, to better help me write up my clinical notes after a session. Again, these are anonymized, kept in a locked filing cabinet separate to your contact details and destroyed as soon as our counselling relationship comes to an end.

 

At the end of Counselling

• Destroyed immediately: Client Record Form, process notes, communication emails.
• After five years: Clinical Log, Clinical notes, Agreement to counselling, Client Assessment Form

 

Further information

 

Keeping your information safe and respecting your privacy is very important to me.

 

• I hold your name and the address, phone number and email address you have given me at the onset of our work so that we can communicate with each other when necessary, along with the Agreementand Client Record Form that you completed.  
• I store your email address on my MacBook email platform which is password protected.
• If we communicate by phone, your number will be stored on my mobile but will not be allocated a name.
• As soon as our counselling comes to an end, I will delete all email communication regarding arranging/rescheduling dates for counselling meetings.  Any email communication outside of these logistics and relating to the counselling process will be printed and retained with your clinical notes.   The email address will however be removed so that the content will be kept, but not your contact details
• Your Client Record Formwill be shredded as soon as counselling comes to an end.
• As payment is by bank transfer, then my bank will hold the details you give them.
• Any invoices sent to you regarding your counselling sessions will be retained for three years for tax purposes.
• I use Clinicalwillapp should I die or suffer long-term incapacitation unexpectedly. Through this platform my supervisor and one other counsellor (who also acts as my clinical trustee alongside my supervisor), will then be given your contact details and will work with you to transition to another therapist (should you so desire) safely, and with compassion.

 

Changes to privacy notice

This privacy notice may be updated from time to time, so please check occasionally for any update