Privacy Policy
Introduction
Your privacy is particularly 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
- Your data protection rights
I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy. You can contact me via email at heidi@calmnecessities.co.uk
Data controller is the 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, (Heidi Taylor).
I am registered with the Information Commission's Office (ICO)
My email address is heidi@my-counselling.co.uk
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 if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, 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 that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you.)
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 email address and contact telephone number. 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 one month. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please 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 direct action is needed in order to safeguard and protect and ensure the health and welfare of both yourself and others. By exceptional circumstances, I mean a disclosure of current abuse, crimes committed at a specific place, time, etc. and where inaction could place yourself or another at risk, or where there are current child protection issues. I may also consider breaking confidentiality if I consider you, or the life of another to be imminently in danger, for example if you disclose plans to end your own life. I am legally required to break confidentiality if you refer to an act of terrorism, money laundering or drug dealing. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
Data Security
During our sessions we often make brief written notes detailing the themes of your counselling session. These are stored in a locked metal filing cabinet and are destroyed 5 years after your counselling sessions end unless agreed otherwise. Any information stored online is kept securely on a password protected computer. Your contact and appointment details are kept for 3 years after your counselling sessions end and are then destroyed unless agreed otherwise. Any emails, answerphone messages or other electronic communications are deleted within one month after receipt unless they form part of your notes or are needed for income tax purposes in which case they are kept for 5 years. Your telephone number is stored on a mobile phone under your anonymised case number until your sessions end at which point it is deleted. If we change telephones, then your details will be deleted from the old mobile phone and placed on the new one. If electronic reports are provided on your behalf, these are stored for 5 years and password protected. We store a note of your appointment in a diary either by first name or by your case number. This is kept for 2 years. At the end of these respective periods we will confidentially shred all paper copies and use a specialist software programme to delete any data stored on our computer. If I die or I become incapacitated then you will be informed within one week and your notes will be shredded within three months. A counsellor nominated by me and is an accredited member of British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and adheres to the guidelines as set out by the BACP, will be responsible for the shredding of these notes.
After counselling has ended
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 years from the end of our contract with each other and are then securely destroyed by means of shredding. If you want me to delete your information sooner, please let me know.
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, to limit how I use 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 ico.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 your 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 addressing it to: heidi@calmnecessities.co.uk
Making a complaint
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data, 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 oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Website Terms Of Use
for www.my-counselling.co.uk
Please read the following terms and conditions before using this website.
1. About these terms of use
These terms of use, together with the documents referred to in clause 2 below, form the terms and conditions that apply if you use our website www.my-counselling.co.uk (our site), either as a registered user or someone visiting the site.
Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site. We recommend that you print off a copy so you can refer to it in the future if necessary.
By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and agree to keep to them.
If you do not agree to these terms of use, you must not use our site.
2. Other documents that apply
These terms of use refer to the following documents, which also apply to your use of our site.
Our cookie policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.
Our privacy notice, which sets out how we process your personal information.
3. Information about us
Our site at www.my-counselling.co.uk is owned and operated by us, My Counselling, owned by Heidi Taylor.
4. Changes to these terms
We can change these terms of use at any time.
Please check these terms of use from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as these are binding on you.
5. Changes to our site
We can update our site, and may change the content, at any time. Any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it.
We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be complete or accurate.
6. Accessing our site
The information on our site is made available free of charge.
We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or will never be interrupted. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site without notice. We will not be liable to you if our site is ever unavailable for any reason.
You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site.
You are also responsible for making sure that everyone who gets access to our site through your internet connection knows about and will keep to these terms of use and documents listed in clause 2.
7. Intellectual property rights
We own or hold a licence for all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the content on it. The content is protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world.
You can print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page from our site for your personal use, and you can refer others within your organisation to any content on our site.
You must not change the printed or digital copies of any content you have printed off or downloaded, and must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or graphics separately from any accompanying text.
You must always acknowledge us (and any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site.
You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without first getting a licence from us or the organisation which gave us our licence to use that content.
If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in a way that breaks these terms of use, your right to use our site will end immediately and you must return or destroy (as specified by us) any copies you have made of the content.
8. Not relying on information
We provide the content on our site for general information only. It is not advice you should rely on. You must get professional or specialist advice before taking, or deliberately not taking, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Although we make reasonable efforts to keep the information on our site up to date, we do not guarantee that the content on our site is accurate, complete, or up to date.
9. Limit of our liability
Nothing in these terms of use removes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, fraudulent action or statements, or any other liability that cannot be removed or limited under English law.
To the extent allowed by law, we exclude all statements, promises, assurances guarantees and implied terms (including, but not limited to, those shown on websites and in marketing material, adverts, brochures, communications and so on) that may apply to our site or any content on it and are not set out in the contract.
We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, even if it could have been foreseen, arising in connection with you:
using, or not being able to use, our site; or
relying on any content on our site.
If you are a business user, please note that we will not be liable for:
loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
business interruption;
loss of anticipated savings;
loss of business opportunity, goodwill, or reputation; or
any indirect or consequential loss or damage.
You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, hacking or other technologically harmful event or material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs or other material due to you using our site, downloading content from it, or following any links to other websites.
We are not responsible for the content of any websites linked to our site. We do not approve or endorse any linked websites and will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from you using them.
10. Viruses
We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from viruses.
You are responsible for making sure your information technology and so on allow you to get access to our site. You should use your own virus-protection software.
You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, Trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not try to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server our site is stored on or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site with a denial-of-service (DoS) attack (an attack intended to make a system, service or network unusable by flooding it with traffic or information). Breaking this clause is a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We would report the matter to the relevant law-enforcement authorities and give them your name and contact details.
If you break this clause you will immediately lose your right to use our site.
You may link to our site in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.
You must not establish a link to our site without our permission (which we can withdraw without giving you notice). You can ask for permission by sending an email to heidi@my-counselling.co.uk
Any link you make to our site must not suggest that you are associated with us, or that you are approved or endorsed by us, if that is not the case. You will only be considered to be associated with us, or approved or endorsed by us, if we have specifically told you so in writing.
Our site must not be framed (that is, displayed as part of another web page or browser window) on any other site.
If you want to use content on our site other than that set out above, contact heidi@my-counselling.co.uk.
12. Third-party links and resources on our site
a. If our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are for your information only.
b. We have no control over the contents of linked sites or resources.
13. Governing law
These terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You agree that any legal dispute between you and us will only be settled in the courts of England.
14. Subscribers
When you subscribe to our site you are confirming that you accept our terms and agree to keep to them. This does not limit your obligation to keep to these terms of use or to any document referred to in clause 2.
15. Contact us
To contact us please email heidi@my-counselling.co.uk
Acceptable use policy
This acceptable use policy sets out how you may use our website. It applies to everyone who visits or uses our site, including subscribers (counsellor or psychotherapists registered on our site).
By using our site you accept, and agree to keep to, this acceptable use policy, which applies alongside our website terms of use.
Prohibited uses
You must not use our site in the following ways.
In any way that breaks any relevant local, national or international law or regulation that applies.
In any way that is (or is intended to be) unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent effect.
In any way that harms, or could harm, minors (people under 18).
To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or reuse any material which does not meet our content standards.
To send, or help in sending, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material (spam).
To knowingly send or upload any data or material that contains viruses, Trojans, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or computer code designed to damage the usability or functions of any computer software or hardware.
Also, you must not do the following.
Reproduce, copy or resell any part of our site, if this does not keep to our website terms of use.
Interfere with, damage or disrupt:
any part of our site;
any equipment or network our site is stored on;
any software used to provide our site; or
any equipment, network or software owned or used by any third party;
unless you have all the permission you need.
Content standards
These content standards apply to any material you contribute to our site (contributions), and to any interactive services associated with it. You must meet the following standards. The standards apply to all of, and each part of, any contribution.
Contributions must:
be accurate (where they state facts);
be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and
keep to all relevant laws that apply in the UK and in any country the contribution was created in or posted from.
Contributions must not do the following.
Contain any material which damages a person's reputation.
Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
Promote sexually explicit material.
Promote violence.
Promote discrimination based on race, sex or gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexuality or age.
Break, limit or undermine any other person's copyright, database right or trademark.
Be likely to deceive any person.
Fail to meet any legal duty you owe to a third party, such as a duty under a contract or an obligation to keep anything confidential.
Promote any illegal activity.
Be threatening or abusive, invade another's privacy, annoy or inconvenience anyone, or cause needless anxiety.
Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.
Be used to impersonate any person, misrepresent your identity or misrepresent an association with any person.
Give the impression that they come from us, if this is not the case.
Support, promote or help with any unlawful act, such as computer misuse or breaking, limiting or undermining a copyright.
Suspension and termination
If we decide that your use of our site does not keep to this acceptable use policy, we may take whatever action we consider appropriate.
If you do not keep to this acceptable use policy, you will have broken our website terms of use, which may result in us doing any or all of the following.
Temporarily or permanently withdrawing your right to use our site, without giving you notice.
Temporarily or permanently removing any material or contribution you have posted or uploaded to our site, without giving you notice.
Give you a warning.
Recover all our costs (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) that have arisen as a result of you breaking the website terms of use.
Take legal action against you.
Give law-enforcement authorities any information they reasonably need.
Take any other action we think is necessary.
We will not be liable for any action we take in response to you not keeping to this acceptable use policy, and we may take any lawful action we consider appropriate.
Changes to this acceptable use policy
We may change this acceptable use policy at any time. You should read this page from time to time to check for any changes we make, as they are legally binding on you. Some parts of this acceptable use policy may also be overruled or replaced by conditions or notices published elsewhere on our site.