I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. (ICO Ref: ZB848244). I will discuss confidentiality with you at our first session to ensure that you feel comfortable with my policies.
Your privacy is very important to me and you can be reassured 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) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from an initial point of contact through to after your counselling has ended.
‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is Fiona Christiansen. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ZB848244).
I am happy to answer any questions you have about this, and you can contact me by telephone or email as follows: My phone number is: 07400 755890. My email address is: fiona.c.counsellor@gmail.com
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 personal data.
When you make an enquiry regarding counselling, I will use legitimate interest as the lawful basis for holding your personal information.
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 in a locked filing cabinet.
My website does not collect analytics or use cookies. No user-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 before being sent to me. I will download and print the form and securely store it.
I will keep a record of your personal details which includes your name, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth, GP surgery and next of kin details, and any relevant background and medical information. I will keep this record of your personal details to help the counselling service run smoothly. Information is not shared with a third party without your prior consent unless I am required to do so by law, or if I have serious safeguarding concerns around you or others. If possible, I will always try to speak to you about this first.
I will keep brief anonymised written notes of each counselling session. These are a summary record of the work undertaken during the session and stored securely in a locked filing cabinet.
The GDPR also makes sure that I look after 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 the provision of counselling.
For online counselling I will use Google Meet which supports compliance with GDPR.
Once counselling has ended, I will then retain any counselling records for six years from the ending of our contract together. After this time these records will be securely destroyed.
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 correct or update your personal information or stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you. For any requests for information or action regarding personal data held, please contact me by email or telephone.
More information is available at: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters
If you have any concerns about how I handle your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact me. I welcome all feedback and suggestions for improving my procedures.
The ICO is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to: https://ico.org.uk