Privacy Policy

Victoria Crowther Counselling Privacy Policy

So that I may offer the highest standard of service possible, it is necessary for me to collect and store and on very rare occasion share information which includes personal data. Details of which are set out in this privacy policy. 

Contact details: 

Name: Victoria Crowther 

Phone Number: 07887738751

E-mail: victoria.e.crowther@gmail.com

Date: 23rd January 2022

Types of information collected:

· Your name, address, date of birth, contact number and email address

· Your GP’s name and/or GP Surgery name

· Dates of therapy

· Session payment records 

· Brief, anonymised session notes

· Biometric data

· Client evaluations

Personal information is only used for the following reasons:

· To communicate with you about matters relating to your therapy, such as scheduling and/or rescheduling appointments and to provide helpful information, where we have agreed to this. 

· Assisting with the provision of counselling ie to aid me keep track of my work with you. 

· For tax and accounting purposes.

· Service evaluation

· Referrals to appropriate agencies, where there is a safeguarding, legal or ethical obligation to do so. 

Information sharing:

Your personal information and use of my counselling service is confidential and will not be shared with other individuals or organisations, except where there is a safeguarding, legal or ethical obligation to do so.  This means for example, that if you indicate that you are at risk of serious harm from yourself or someone else, I may be ethically or legally obliged to make a disclosure to your GP or the police. However, I will always make every reasonable effort to discuss this with you first. Other situations where I have a legal duty of disclose include where you inform me of a current safeguarding risk to a child or vulnerable adult, information about serious and organised crime such as money laundering, about past or planned acts of terrorism or by a judge in a court of law. 

Additionally, if during a period of ongoing therapy, I am taken seriously ill or die, a professional executor will be passed your contact details only, so that they may inform you. 

Lawful bases for processing personal information:

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases I rely on for processing personal information are: 

(a) Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by send a written request to victoria.e.crowther@gmail.com 

(b) I have a contractual obligation.

(c) I have a legal obligation.

(d) I have a vital interest.

(f) I have a legitimate interest.

How your personal information is collected and stored:

The information collected is either provided directly by you or on occasion, by someone such as a friend or family member making an enquiry about my service on your behalf. Your information is kept confidentially and in accordance with UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is stored securely in a locked filing cabinet or electronically in password protected files which only I have access to. Brief, anonymised session notes are stored electronically, password protected and filed under a unique client code. 

Disposal of your information:

· Your name, address, date of birth, contact number, email address, GP name/surgery and dates of therapy will be kept for up to 6 years following the end of your therapy and then confidentially shredded or permanently deleted.

· Session notes are kept for a maximum of 3 years following the end of therapy and are then permanently deleted. 

Your data protection rights:

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask me for copies of your personal information. 

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask me to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask me to complete information you think is incomplete. 

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask me to erase your personal information in certain circumstances. 

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask me to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. 

Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, I have one month to respond to you.

Please contact me at victoria.e.crowther@gmail.com if you wish to make a request.

How to complain:

If you have any concerns about the use of your personal information, please email victoria.e.crowther@gmail.com to discuss. 

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how your data has been used.

The ICO’s address: 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk