Privacy Agreement

I am registered with the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) as a Data Controller registration number 00015858200and I am GDPR compliant.  

This Privacy Agreement explains the information I hold about you, why I hold it, how I protect it and your legal rights regarding the data I hold.

I keep your personal details from your contact form (Name, Phone Number, Email Address) so that I can contact you to book the sessions.  I keep your personal details (Address, In Case of Emergency contact and GP Surgery contact) so that, with your permission, I can arrange support for you in a situation that may require intervention.  These details are stored securely and password protected on an external hard-drive.

I keep brief client notes to help me remember what we have discussed in previous sessions which have no identifiable information on them and are stored on a second password external hard-drive.

I keep brief notes for seven years (as a legal requirement from my professional indemnity insurance company) from completion of your counselling.  After this period, any records from our work together will be deleted from my system and all session notes deleted.

I recommend that you delete any emails, texts or call records between us after you have accessed them to help maintain your privacy.  I will delete our online correspondence at the end of our work together.  I recommend that you keep your device secure and delete correspondence from me when it is no longer needed.

I have a supervisor who is a more experienced counsellor (and registered to the ethical standards of the BACP) with whom I may discuss our sessions without using your full name or identifiable information.  The information I share with my supervisor is bound by a confidentiality agreement and will not be shared outside of supervision.  Supervision supports me as a counsellor to learn and improve how I work for the benefit of doing good for my clients.

Under the data protection act you have a legal right to request access to all the information I hold on you, and, you have a legal right to request I delete all the information I hold.  

If I do an assessment with a client, and then the client does not proceed with therapy at that time, I will delete all information at that point before the therapy formally begins with signing the contract.  

I request that you keep our sessions confidential by not recording or posting the content on social media.  The sessions take place within the context of the ongoing counselling and fragments of a session could be misconstrued. 

Outside of the counselling session I prefer not to be contacted via social media platforms.  I do not accept friend/follow requests from clients or former clients on social media platforms.   This is to protect the relationship of counsellor and client and respects the personal information I am privy to.