Your Personal Information – Privacy Notice in accordance with GDPR:

Your name, telephone number and email address are stored electronically so that I can contact you with regards to arranging counselling sessions, or for exchange of other non-confidential information. I will not pass your information onto third parties, unless there is a serious concern that you or somebody else is at risk of harm which requires a confidentiality breach or legal obligation; and example would be in relation to safeguarding, child protection or terrorism. In any instance that this should arise, I would aim where possible to discuss this with you beforehand.

Record Keeping:

I use a secure encrypted cloud-based client records system called BacPac to store client notes and details. Client records are kept in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and BACP guidelines and are the property of the therapist.

I will keep basic client records for five years after therapy has ended. Any electronic communication including emails and text messages will be deleted.

You have a right to ask to see the information I hold about you, to ask me to change any information that is incorrect or to delete any information I hold about you, which I will do, except for any information that I have a legal obligation to keep. If you wish to complain about how I have kept your data, in the first instance please contact me. If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact the Information Commissioners Office, www.ico.org.uk.

Ethics and Boundaries:

In line with my professional commitment to protecting client confidentiality, I keep my online media presence separate from my clinical work and never refer to any clinical work on social media.

As part of my professional online presence, I have a page on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. It is my practice not to connect with, or to befriend clients on social media, or to respond to any tweets made on Twitter.

Google:

Google is now part of our everyday experience of online research. Whilst you may wish to find out about me online, I make it my practice not to Google my clients before we meet, or to seek any information without specific consent. If your Google search about me raises any queries, I would invite you to discuss these to me at the earliest opportunity.

Email:

As I do not presently use an encrypted email application, emails that we might exchange will be prone to viruses, or occasional human error. With this in mind, I recommend that emails are used only for non-confidential communication between us (e.g. for arranging appointments, or notifying a cancellation). Any therapeutic material should be kept within the counselling sessions.

Text messages:

Text messages are a helpful means of making contact quickly, to let me know for example, that you will be late for a session. Due to the lack of detail possible in a text message, I do not recommend that text messages are used to communicate more important information; in this event, please call me, or leave a voicemail message.

Online Counselling:

Some of my therapy practice is carried out using a video conferencing platform called Zoom, for online counselling sessions, When using the video conferencing platform, we will agree not to record these remote sessions.