Privacy notice
Herefordshire Counselling takes your right to privacy and confidentiality very seriously. Your personal information will be kept safe, secure and used only for the purpose it was shared. Herefordshire Counselling adheres 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 Herefordshire Counselling will do with your personal information from initial point of contact to beyond your therapeutic involvement with us. Please take time to read this and ensure you are happy with the contents as it forms part of your working agreement with Herefordshire Counselling and its associates.
Herefordshire Counselling's lawful basis for holding and using your personal information;
The GDPR states that Herefordshire Counselling must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which Herefordshire Counselling is processing your data. If you have had therapy with Herefordshire Counselling and it has now ended, we will use legitimate interest as our lawful basis for holding and using your personal information. If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with Herefordshire Counselling to consider therapy, we will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
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The GDPR ensures that we look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to us appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for Herefordshire Counselling processing any special categories of personal information is consent initially. Herefordshire Counselling 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).
Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send Herefordshire Counselling your details when making a referral. If you decide not to proceed we will ensure all your personal data is deleted immediately. While you are accessing counselling, rest assured that everything you discuss with your therapist is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if you have the intention to harm yourself, someone else or if any criminal activity is disclosed. We will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
How Herefordshire Counselling uses your information:
How it might look at Initial contact: When you contact Herefordshire Counselling with an enquiry about counselling services, we will collect information to help satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name, phone number and email address. If you decide not to proceed Herefordshire Counselling will ensure all your personal data is deleted immediately.
While you are accessing counselling: When accessing counselling, our sessions remain confidential. Confidentiality will only be broken if you have the intention to harm yourself, someone else or if any criminal activity is disclosed. We will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.​
Herefordshire Counselling will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a finger print locked and password secured electronic device which only Herefordshire Counselling has access to, additionally your name will be coded so as not to be identifiable.​
For security reasons, Herefordshire Counselling does not retain text messages. If there is relevant information contained in a text message we will delete it instantly. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted instantly if it is not important. Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 years, from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want Herefordshire Counselling to delete your information sooner than this, please communicate this.
​Your rights:​ You have a right to ask Herefordshire Counselling to delete your personal information, to limit how we 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 Herefordshire Counselling holds 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.
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Where Herefordshire Counselling does hold information about you we will;
• give you a description of it and where it came from
• tell you why we are holding it, tell you how long we will store your data and how we 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 Herefordshire Counselling at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information we hold about you.
To make a request for any personal information we may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to herefordshirecounselling@gmail.com
If you wish to complain about how we handle your personal data please do not hesitate to put it in writing and email herefordshirecounselling@gmail.com. We would welcome any suggestions for improving or data protection procedures.
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If you want to make a formal complaint about the way we have processed your personal information you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how I have used your data. My ICO reference is ZB742196. 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
