Introduction

Your privacy is very 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, as amended.

This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your counselling 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;

• Your data protection rights;

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email: dawnlobley-therapy@hotmail.com.

‘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.

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office: ZB898499

My postal address is: 33 Main Street, Bunny, Nottingham

My phone number is: 07874050942

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 counselling 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 counselling or if you are in contact with me to consider counselling, 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 name and contact details.

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 14 days.

If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just 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 I have reason to believe that someone was at risk of serious harm to themselves or others; or under a legal requirement e.g. terrorism or drug money laundering; or via a court order for disclosure. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a password protected computer and files are encrypted and are not shared with any third party. I may keep brief written notes of each session, these are kept in a locked, filing cabinet. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 28 days. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 28 days if it is not important. If necessary, I will retain printed copies of text messages or emails in a locked filing cabinet, until 7 years after counselling has ended.

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 7 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

Third party recipients of personal data

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

If I die or become incapacitated, your contact details will be shared with my Clinical Will Executor who will be qualified psychotherapists.

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 its, 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 33 Main Street, Bunny, Nottingham NG11 6QU.

Complaints

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.

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). However, before doing so please make sure you have first made your complaint to me or asked me for clarification if there is something you do not understand. The ICO will expect you to have done this before reviewing your complaint. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure as set out above.