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 full name, DOB, address, contact details, emergency contact and GP name and address 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 of your personal data is deleted within a month of making contact. 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. However, all counselling is subject to constraints of English Law and ethical practice. Confidentiality will only be broken if you were to disclose anything to do with terrorism or acts of terror or if you were to disclose matters involving a serious/life-threatening risk to harm to self or others.

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 service runs smoothly. These details are kept securely and are not shared with any third party.

I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept in a locked cabinet on-site where the sessions take place.

After counselling has ended.

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 2 years from the end of our contract 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.

Your rights

I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have the right to ask me to delete your information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have the 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 this and 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 leanneduthiecounselling@gmail.com.

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by emailing to the contact details 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 go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Data security

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.

Notes are stored in a locked cabinet on site. Encryption of smartphone and devices is done by using face recognition authentication and secure lock screen passwords.

Additional information for website owners and employers

When someone uses my website, I use a third-party service Wix to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow Wix to make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using personal information in this way when you visit my website.

Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently.

No use-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.