PRIVACY POLICY

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, telephone number and email address. 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 one month. 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 in the following circumstances:

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1. As a professional therapist, I regularly discuss my casework with a supervisor / consultation team (who also uphold the principles of confidentiality). All therapists are in regular supervision and it helps us to offer as high a level of safety and quality of care as possible.

2. I will make brief session notes following each session. My session notes do not have your name on. They are kept in a locked cabinet and will not be shared with anyone (except my supervisor) without your permission, unless I am compelled to do so by a court of law.

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3. I will not contact your GP or anyone else without your permission or knowledge, unless I believe you present or are at serious risk (for example, if you are intentionally suicidal).

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4. If you reveal to me that someone else is at risk, particularly a child, I will encourage and support you to take necessary action (for example, to inform social services).  If you are unable or unwilling to do so, I need to reserve the right to break confidentiality and contact the relevant agency myself. 

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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 in a locked filing cabinet to which only I have access and are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept in a locked filing cabinet to which only I have access. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than one month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will transfer it to my electronic records to which only I have access. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted if it is not important. 

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 years, if you are 18 or over, 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.

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 it 

• 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 tulsicounselling@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 writing or emailing to the contact details given 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. I keep written records in a locked filing cabinet to which only I have access.  I keep any electronic records on a personal computer which is password-protected to which only I have the password.